Redress Design Award 2021 Winners Announced

Redress’ mission is to reduce fashion’s waste and the
competition’s core criteria is to source and design into various waste
materials to activate circular fashion. Following the open call that drew
applications from designers in 58 countries and regions, the resulting 10
finalists then sourced local waste – including end-of-roll, samples, secondhand
clothing, school uniforms, boat covers, damaged camping equipment to place mats
– to create their menswear and womenswear competition collections.

Redress’ Founder, Christina Dean said, “Fashion’s
waste rates are unacceptable and change is not happening fast enough. Whilst recycling technology engineers search in labs for
breakthrough recycling solutions and the finance community dither about
financing much-needed recycling start-ups, Redress is increasingly promoting
hyper-local waste sourcing solutions, spearheaded by fashion designers. Every
textile deserves a second life.”

Every second, the equivalent of one
rubbish truck of textiles is landfilled or incinerated globally, and textile waste is estimated to
increase by 60% by 2030. Designers are said to
influence around 80% of a product’s environmental impact, which is why education is core to each Redress Design
Award cycle. As such, the finalists also took part in 10 days’ of
digital immersive educational challenges and masterclasses in the lead up to
the Grand Final fashion show, including the ‘Digital Zero-Waste Challenge with
TAL Group and Browzwear’, and ‘Icebreaker Move to Natural Challenge’ in the
lead up to the Grand Final.

WINNER JOINS
TIMBERLAND FOR EXCLUSIVE COLLABORATION

The Redress Design Award 2021 First Prize Winner
Jessica Chang whose winning collection
wowed the judges due to its strong marketability, commerciality whilst bringing
waste back into designs that connect with and inspire consumers, now joins Timberland’s team to collaborate on an
exclusive sustainable design project, during which Jessica will also work
closely with VF’s Sustainability and Responsibility team to gain valuable
insights from across the supply chain, including responsible design and
marketing.

“Winning this chance to work with Timberland is a
life-changer for me,” said Jessica Chang. “Entering this complex industry as an
emerging designer is daunting because, so often, everywhere we look we see bad
news and complexity. We know we can bring change. Yet it is hard to magnify our
big ideas as start-up designers. The Redress Design Award has given me
confidence – we are all in this together to make a positive change!”

Victor Tsang, Head of CreateHK, shared his congratulations
with the awardees. “The Redress Design Award has not only become an important
brand in the sustainable fashion design community that recognises talented
emerging fashion designers around the world, but is also an extensive
educational platform that equips them with sustainable design theories and
techniques”.

BUILDING ON THE
COMPETITION’S LEGACY

Following this 11th competition cycle, all 2021
finalists and semi-finalists are welcomed into the Redress Design Award Alumni
Network, which now includes over 200 talented designers globally, over 60 of
whom have since started their own successful brands. These trailblazing
designers continue to act as international ambassadors to promote the
competition’s powerful legacy.

Redress, with the sponsorship of Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong,
showcased six talented alumni sustainable fashion brands to global buyers and
the fashion community at CENTRESTAGE, Asia’s Fashion Spotlight event, including
two brands home grown in Hong Kong. In partnership with accessories brand,
Kipling, two Redress Design Award Alumni are collaborating to upcycle deadstock
fabrics back to life for commercial collections.

CALL FOR
CONSUMER ACTION

The Redress Design Award 2021 Grand Final was
livestreamed, in partnership with TENCEL™, to global audiences with a specific
call out to consumers to act now to transform fashion so as to signal stronger
intent and demand to the industry. Consumer surveys consistently show that
people are becoming more aware of fashion’s negative environmental impacts,
particularly post-Covid. Key actions that Redress is promoting are; ‘Shop
Better’ – look for sustainable designers, sustainable collections or secondhand
clothing – and ‘Wear Longer’ – to keep clothing in use.

High-resolution images available for
download here and full media
kit here.

FULL LIST OF REDRESS DESIGN AWARD
2021 CYCLE WINNERS

●      Redress Design Award 2021
First Prize with Timberland Winner: Jessica Chang (Taiwan)

●      Redress Design Award 2021
Runner-Up Prize Mentorship with Orsola De Castro Winner: Jin Pei-Wen (Taiwan)

●      Redress Design Award 2021
Hong Kong Best Prize Winner: Lau Sin Yi (Hong Kong)

●      Redress Design Award 2021
People’s Choice Winner: Tulika Ranjan (India)

●      Redress Design Award 2021
Alumni Prize with Kipling Winners: Beatrice Bocconi (Italy – Redress Design
Award 2020 Finalist); and Grace Lant (Hong Kong – Redress Design Award 2020
Finalist and Hong Kong Best Prize Winner)

SUPPORTING INFORMATION

●    
The Redress Design Award 2021 was open to emerging designers
and students with less than four years of experience globally

●    
See the full list of
Redress Design Award 2021 prizes at www.redressdesignaward.com/2021/prizes

●    
The Redress Design Award 2021 International Grand Final
Judges are Orsola de Castro,
Fashion Designer, Global Creative Director and Co-Founder, Fashion Revolution;
Desiree Au, Founding Publisher, Vogue Hong Kong;  Andus Tsui, Creative Director, ANGUS TSUI and
Alumnus, Redress Design Award; Cecile Thorsmark, CEO, Copenhagen Fashion
Week;MAHMOUD Salahy, Vice President & Managing Director, Timberland APAC; Sean Cady, Vice President, Global Sustainability,
Responsibility and Trade, VF Corporation and Christophe
Degoix, Chief Operating Officer, TAL Apparel Ltd

●    
The competition is
organised by Redress and supported by The Create Hong Kong of the Government of
the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as the lead sponsor, and multiple
other sponsors including key sponsors, VF Corporation, Avery Dennison, UPS and
TAL Group. See the full list of partners at www.redressdesignaward.com/partners

●     
The ‘Icebreaker Move to
Natural Challenge’ tasked the Redress Design Award 2021 finalists to design a
solution for a 100% natural fibre hoodie that aims to re-use or minimise
textile waste from the icebreaker supply chain, from sheep to shirt

●     
The ‘Digital Zero-Waste Challenge with TAL Group and Browzwear’ challenged the
Redress Design Award 2021 finalists to work with digital design and sampling to
demonstrate their zero-waste and upcycling skills, on TAL’s deadstock fabric.

●     
Both design challenges will be included in the
upcoming 6th season of Frontline Fashion, launching in later September at www.youtube.com/user/RedressAsia 

●     
In a first for the Redress Design Award Grand Final,
finalists produced four outfits physically with a fifth item projected using
virtual models, creating a digital-hybrid experience made possible by
innovative technology to accelerate sustainable fashion.

●      An exclusive extended version
of the Redress Design Award 2021 finalists fashion shoot where virtual and
physical models meet will be showcased in the October 2021 edition of VOGUE
Hong Kong.

Supporting Statistics

●    
Every second, the
equivalent of one rubbish truck of textiles is landfilled or burned globally. Ellen Macarthur Foundation (2020)
The Circular Economy: A transformative Covid 19 strategy

●    
Textile waste is estimated to increase by 60% by 2030 (from
2017 numbers). Source:
Global Fashion Agenda and The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (2017), Pulse of
the Fashion Industry

●    
Designers are said to influence around 80% of a product’s
environmental impact. Source: EU Science Hub (2018): Sustainable Product Policy

●    
More supporting statistics on the issues that under the
Redress Design Award’s mission can be found here.