Celebrating 10 cycles: now open worldwide for applications

Worldwide applications for the Redress Design Award 2020 - the 10th cycle of the competition - are now open until 18 March 2020. In celebration, Redress presented a special Retrospective Exhibition during January 2020 showcasing the creations of each of the nine cycles’ past winners at The Mills in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong.

Visitors got the chance to see up close our talented emerging designers’ transformation of various forms of textile waste into stunning fashion pieces and learn about the evolution of the competition and what the winners have gone on to achieve. 

The Redress Design Award Alumni Network now has over 180 alumni from 30 different regions around the world, including 39 from Hong Kong. Among them, more than 40 have established sustainable brands, with some already enjoying international recognition for their work. 

10 CYCLES IN RETROSPECT 

2011 cycle:

• The inaugural EcoChic Design Award opens to Hong Kong emerging designers with sponsors including Government Agency, CreateHK, and Esprit.

• Winner: Janko Lam (Hong Kong)

• Prize: Collaboration with Esprit to design first ever Recycled Collection for retail.

  • Following her win, in 2014, Janko Lam launches her own sustainable fashion brand Classics Anew which focuses on modern Chinese heritage made from up-cycled leftover denim and prints. After opening a retail store at Central’s PMQ, she receives the Hong Kong Culture & Creative Industries Award from the Asia Pacific Creativity Industries Association in 2016, recognising Classics Anew’s contribution to the preservation of traditional qipao craftsmanship. Her work has been displayed all across the globe, including Paris, Germany, Japan, Vietnam, Shanghai and Macau.

2012 cycles:

• In parallel to the Hong Kong edition, the EcoChic Design Award expands into Mainland China, including extensive lecture series at universities.

• Two Grand Final fashion shows storm Shanghai Fashion Week and Hong Kong Fashion Week.

• Winners: Wister Tsang (Hong Kong) and Gong Jia Qi (Mainland China).

• Prizes: Collaboration with Esprit to design Recycled Collections for retail.

• Gong Jia Qi becomes the first Mainland Chinese sustainable fashion designer to create a recycled collection in collaboration with internationally renowned brand, Esprit, for her homeland.

  • In 2013, Wister Tsang launches his sustainable line, fifty by Windauswister, offering statement looks up-cycled from discarded and surplus textiles. 

2013 cycle:

• The competition takes a giant leap opening to eight Asian and European regions, becoming the first international mainstream sustainable fashion design competition.

• The EcoChic Design Award introduces design challenges for finalists in Hong Kong to provide them with deeper knowledge around sustainability and circularity in fashion.

• The EcoChic Design Award LEARN platform launches online, offering resources for designers on sustainable and circular fashion with a specific focus on textile waste.

• The first issue of the EcoChic Design Award Magazine debuts at the Grand Final Show, providing deeper information on finalists, alumni successes, and the issues driving this competition, along with exciting innovations transforming fashion for the better. 

• Winner: Karen Jessen (Germany).

• Prize: Collaboration with Esprit to design a Recycled Collection for retail internationally.

  • Karen Jessen’s sustainable womenswear brand, Benu Berlin, which focuses on reconstruction, up-cycling design techniques and material manipulation, features at Berlin Fashion Week in 2014 and 2015, and Paris Fashion Week in 2015. She is also named a finalist of the fellowship programme co-organised by Fashion Council Germany and H&M.

2014/15 cycle:

• The competition adds another two regions in Asia and Europe searching for emerging design talent in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

• The Ford Motor Company and Shanghai Tang come on board as new sponsors.

• The programme surpasses 2,000 designers reached face-to-face with sustainable fashion education.

• Winner: Kévin Germanier (United Kingdom).

• Prize: To join the design team to create Shanghai Tang’s first luxury up-cycled collection from their own surplus textile stock.

  • Kévin Germanier debuts his own womenswear label, Germanier, in 2018, featuring up-cycled materials including beads and sculptural fabric, and utilising zero-waste methods. He has retailed at MatchesFashion.com and JOYCE and his glamorous up-cycled garments have been worn by multiple A-list celebrities including Lady Gaga, Björk, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Swift and K-Pop star, Sunmi.

2015/16 cycle:

• The EcoChic Design Award becomes the biggest sustainable fashion design competition in the world, opening to all of Asia and Europe.

•  TV documentary, Frontline Fashion, following the finalists journeys through the competition, broadcasts on Fashion One and Cathay Pacific in-flight entertainment, and launches on iTunes.

• Winner: Patrycja Guzik (Poland).

• Prize: Exclusive up-cycled capsule collection with Shanghai Tang.

  • Patrycja Guzik’s ‘Heaven is a Place on Earth’ EcoChic Design Award collection is named one of ‘10 collections that shook Poland and the world’ by Polish lifestyle magazine, K MAG. In 2016, she launches namesake sustainable womenswear brand, Pat Guzik, and receives the Best Formal/Couture Fashion Label award by leading sustainable luxury publication, Eluxe magazine, at Green Fashion Week in Los Angeles. Pat Guzik wins the Redress Design Award 2018 Alumni Prize and takes her +There were never flowers, there was fire+ collection to Vancouver Fashion Week. 

2017 cycle:

• The competition opens to designers in all of Asia, Europe and USA for the first time.

• The EcoChic Design Award Sustainable Fashion Educator Pack, available in English and Chinese (simplified and traditional), launches to enable educators in higher education to integrate sustainability into the fashion curriculum.

• Founder Christina Dean creates luxury up-cycled fashion brand, The R Collective,  which collaborates with EcoChic Design Award Alumni on capsule collections for retail.

• Winner: Kate Morris (United Kingdom).

• Prize: To design an exclusive knitwear collection with The R Collective.

  • In 2017, Kate Morris launches CROP, a vegan, cruelty-free knitwear brand using zero-waste and minimal seam production techniques on plant fibres, with focus on mono-materials for easier post-consumer recycling. Shortly after, she is awarded first prize in the 2017 Shima Seiki Design Competition, shortlisted for The WGSN + ArtsThread Future Creator Award, and CROP is recognised as ‘Best Wool-Free Brand’ in the 2017 PETA Fashion Awards. 

2018 CYCLE:

• The EcoChic Design Award rebrands to the Redress Design Award alongside its expansion to accept worldwide applications and unisex designers for the first time.

• Frontline Fashion 2 launches and wins two coveted accolades from the Asian Academy Creative Awards.

• Winner: Tess Whitfort (Australia).

• Prize: Design an up-cycled collection in collaboration with The R Collective for retail.

  • Tess Whitfort launches her own brand, PENDULUM Studios, in 2019, focusing on eliminating fabric wastage through zero-waste pattern cutting and establishing circular supply chains through up-cycling waste textiles and using biodegradable materials. Shortly after, she showcases her most recent collection at Undress Runways, one of Australia’s top sustainable fashion events.

2019 cycle:

• The Redress Design Award expands again to accept menswear designers.

• Frontline Fashion 3 launches as a digital mini series on YouTube hosted by Cara G McIlroy.

• The Redress Design Award Sustainable Fashion Educator Pack reaches over 850 global downloads in two years. One third of downloads are from fashion related industries.

• The competition enjoys partnership with innovative fabric brand, Eastman Naia™, and finalists are challenged to incorporate their cellulosic yarns into their collections.

• Winner: Maddie Williams (United Kingdom).

• Prize: To join the REVERB (a JNBY Group brand) team to assist in the creation of a sustainable collection for retail.

  • After winning the most recent Redress Design Award, Maddie Williams heads to China to join  REVERB and work on an up-cycled capsule collection set to retail in 2020. 

2020 cycle:

• The Redress Design Award celebrates its 10th cycle and opens for applications until 18 March 2020.

• Frontline Fashion 4 launches on Redress Asia’s YouTube Channel. 

• The Circular Fashion Design Pathway Course launches to support designers with applications and deepen their knowledge in the subject of design for circularity. 

• Winners: ...To be announced in September 2020.

• Prize: Prize: Womenswear Prize winner to design an up-cycled collection in collaboration with The R Collective. Menswear Prize winner to join the VF Corporation on a career-changing mentorship programme with industry experts and a professional development fund.