2018 is tipped by many (including our ethical fashion trend whizzes) as the tipping point for ethical fashion crossing into the mainstream. More consumers are concerned with the ethical and environmental impacts of fast fashion (in doubt, read our RiverBlue interview here) and in response, the Redress Design Award has expanded to become a truly global search for emerging ethical fashion talent.
It’s focused on finding the next circular economy, minimal waste fashion designers.
Redress Founder, Christina Dean commented, “The fashion world’s ethical barometers are now switched on and we’re seeing an overarching yearning for positive change. Hope is now sewn into the core of fashion. We are now at a critical tipping point to act, especially for emerging designers who are ready to prove to the world that circular fashion can be a beautiful, retail reality.
And it can’t come soon enough. A recent report reckons that the number of garments produced annually now exceeds 100 billion pieces and we’re dumping our clothes twice as fast as we were 15 years ago.
The sustainable fashion award will take the top ten finalists to Hong Kong in September 2018 to present their innovative waste-reducing collections. The winner will get the chance to design a collection for up-cycled brand, The R Collective, proving to the world that sustainable fashion is not just a trend but instead a business reality.
Plant based knitwear designer Kate Morris won it in 2017 (read our interview with her here), for her minimal seam, zero waste, pop art inspired designs.
Do you have what it takes?
The Redress Design Award 2018 is now open to emerging designers and students with less than three years’ industry
experience. Applications are now being accepted until the closing date on 13 March 2018.
Applicants are tasked to design a sustainable collection that re-claims unwanted textiles in unexpected ways and they must source 100 percent textile waste for their competition collections. In addition to this, designers must incorporate one or more of the three core sustainable design techniques of zero-waste, up-cycling and reconstruction in their design.
