Bio

Hugo Dumas is a Finalist of the Redress Design Award 2024. He is studying for his bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design, Pattern Making and Styling at ECAMOD, France.

“I stand for the discovery of new techniques, technology, and savoir-faire for sustainability. As designers, we should all be moving into a new way of producing.” – Hugo Dumas

Hugo was also a Rising Talent in 2023.

redress Design Award Collection

Hugo’s Redress Design Award collection, ‘Make Sort & Mend’, reflects on our modern climate crisis in juxtaposition with rationing in World War II, which led to the British consumer campaign ‘Make Do and Mend’ that encouraged crafting. The collection creates modern menswear silhouettes out of old textiles, including a shredded military parachute upcycled into a zero-waste dress with a train, zero-waste siren suit and trousers made from pure denim end-of-rolls, and a Canadian-smocked patchwork bomber jacket.

Q&A WITH THE DESIGNER

1. Who or what inspired you to pursue sustainable fashion, and inspired the creativity behind your Redress Design Award collection?

Participating in Redress’ Rising Talents Programme last year changed my way of thinking about garment construction and production towards designing with sustainability. My collection, ‘Make, Sort & Mend’, adapts its production to the current industry, using materials that already exist instead of straining the planet’s limited resources with new materials. Starting with a shredded parachute, I drew inspiration from World War II rationing and imagining our society at war against climate change, with fighters such as the Sailor, the Engineer, and the Soldier.

2. What makes your Redress Design Award collection uniquely sustainable? (considering sustainable design techniques you have used in your collection, e.g. zero-waste, upcycling, reconstruction; or waste sources you have chosen)

‘Make, Sort & Mend’ contains woven and knitted garments made out of waste textiles, with recyclability in mind through sorting for monofibre materials. Durability is a key consideration in designing for longevity. The collection is also designed to be the beginning of a sustainable brand concept.

3. What is your career dream or goal? How do you see yourself developing in sustainable fashion in the future?

My dream is to create a sustainable brand that takes into account not only the environment, but also consumers’ needs, visually and practically. I hope to develop sustainable practices in not just fashion, but also other fields, including ways for designers to express their creativity through new techniques. I want people to understand that sustainability isn’t an aesthetic, but a craftsmanship.

4. As a sustainable fashion designer, what is one item you must always keep with you?

My sketchbook and pen are always with me, so I can sketch everything that comes to mind and organise my ideas. Sometimes what you think is a dumb idea can turn out to be your proudest project. Though I never saw myself as a sustainable fashion designer when I first started brainstorming, my sketchbook is now filled with zero-waste pattern designs for my collection.

5. Anything else you would like to share with us about you or your collection?

While my collection focuses on sorting for similar materials, I believe it is also important to work with materials of unknown compositions. Though technology may be limited in its ability to identify unknown materials, there is a whole new world of possibilities waiting for designers and producers if we can break through this barrier one day.

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