Educating designers to cut waste out of fashion

Dear valued donors,

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the Redress Design Award continues its mission to drive growth towards a circular fashion system. After the success of the 2020 cycle, the Redress Design Award proudly celebrates a decade of education to drive circularity in the fashion system with a report on its educational impact, including some 50,000 individuals reached through its activities across the years. Explore our impact in this report (link to Read Educational Impact Report)

In January, the Redress Design Award kicked off our 11th competition cycle with a thought-provoking panel discussion “Exploring Waste Hotspots to Hyperlocal Design Solutions” featuring experts across the industry who explored the changing landscape of sustainable design in response to waste hotspots and with this the diversification of sustainable design and emergence of hyperlocal solutions. You can watch it here (link) 

Educating emerging designers on sustainable design theories and techniques stays core to the Redress Design Award programme. Redress Founder and Board Chair, Christina Dean shares, “We must shift education urgently if we are to transform the fashion industry which, post-Covid, is rebuilding itself with sustainability at the centre. Now is the time to act. The industry is screaming for knowledgeable professionals to enter the market with ideas, techniques and creativity that can steer fashion through crisis and onto something more meaningful.”

If you missed it Redress’ first ever virtual exhibition is still available to visit online

Your continued support enables us to continue generating meaningful impact and we thank you! Donate here 

Best Wishes,

Hannah 

Dear valued donors,

This year Redress, like so many others, have had to adapt and change quickly - founder Christina Dean shared, “What a year! With the global pandemic disrupting our plans for the 10th cycle of the Redress Design Award, and at the same time underlining the urgency for our work to transform fashion’s waste, our activities evolved to take place virtually, joining our finalists and audiences from their homes across the world to highlight the crisis. And a crisis is the perfect opportunity for our designers to innovate and disrupt fashion industry practices that are wreaking havoc on our planet's resources.” 

In the weeks leading up to the Redress Design Award 2020 Grand Final this September, our 10 finalists participated in a series of educational expert talks, and virtual challenges to learn about all aspects of the sustainable fashion industry, gaining real industry insights and exclusive access to leading experts. 

Redress hosted the Digital Up-Cycling Challenge in partnership with TAL Apparel and Browzwear, where finalists were tasked to use digital design and sampling to demonstrate their up-cycling skills using Browzwear’s software to provide design-manufacturing solutions to address TAL’s Covid-19 related deadstock.

For the Made for Change Challenge finalists were asked to develop a sustainable and scalable business concept which brought VF Corporation’s brand Timberland’s purpose of life through responsible design and re-manufacturing of deadstock fabric. 

The Grand Final Show, saw the announcement of the womenswear (Juliana Garcia Bello from Argentina) and first standalone menswear first prizes and the menswear first prize (Le Ngoc Ha Thu from Vietnam). Explore our winners collections here.

The Redress Team are now working on finishing up the 10th cycle, with finalists’ exhibitions in Hong Kong and Amsterdam for Fashion for Good. We are gearing up for the 11th cycle launching in January 2021 – ready to educate and inspire emerging sustainable fashion designers. Fashion’s waste is a significant challenge. The industry is estimated to generate 92 million tons of textile waste1 annually worldwide. Covid-19 is set to increase this; 60% of textile and clothing companies expect their sales to drop by half in the short term2and with this leading to deadstock and cancelled orders. The Redress Design Award 2020 finalists’ collections demonstrate numerous solutions to reduce waste throughout the entire fashion supply chain and also across industries. The appetite for change and collaboration has never been greater. 

Your continued support enables us to continue generating meaningful impact and we thank you! Donate here 

If you’d like to find out more please refer to these quick links: 

• The Redress Design Award Website
• Haven’t seen our docu-series following the finalists’ journey to the Grand Final? Check out Frontline Fashion Unstitched    
• Watch the Grand Final Show 
• Read Volume 7 of the Redress Design Award Magazine 

Best wishes,

1 "Pulse of the Fashion Industry - Global Fashion Agenda." https://globalfashionagenda.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Pulse-of-the-Fashion-Industry_2017.pdf. Accessed 27 Aug. 2020. 

2 "EURATEX enters in constructive dialogue with European ...." https://euratex.eu/press-release/euratex-to-discuss-with-ec-recovery-plan-for-textile-industry/. Accessed 27 Aug. 2020.