Redress Design Award 2019

Redress Design Award 2019 now is over!

The Redress Design Award, the largest sustainable Fashion Design Award organised by Redress, recently has opened for edtries in its 2019 edition working to educate emerging fashion designers around the world about sustainable design theories and techniques in order to drive growth towards a circular fashion system.

About Competition

The Redress Design Award 2019, fashion design competition is now open globally to emerging womenswear, menswear and unisex fashion designers with less than 3 years’ experience.

The Redress Design Award is the world’s largest sustainable fashion design competition. Organised by Redress, the competition works to educate emerging fashion designers around the world about sustainable design theories and techniques in order to drive growth towards a circular fashion system. By putting sustainable design talent in the global spotlight, the competition creates a unique platform for passionate and talented fashion game-changers to transform the global fashion industry and rewards the best with career-changing prizes to maximise long-term impact.

Guidelines:

The current fashion system is incredibly wasteful, with less than 1% of material used to produce clothing recycled into new clothing after use,equating to a loss of more than USD100 billion worth of materials each year1. Butwith 80% of a garment’s environmental impact defined atthe design stage, designers have tremendous power to change this.

You are challenged to re-design fashion, by re-thinking how clothes are made and worn through a lens of design for circularity. You must design a womenswear, menswear, or unisex sustainable collection for contemporary, fashion-loving individuals who value directional design (be it inspired by the runway or the street) and technical innovation as much as they respect people and the planet.

Under the design strategy of "Design for Low Waste", Redress highlights three sustainable design techniques: zero-waste, up-cycling and reconstruction. You must use one or more of these three sustainable design techniques throughout your collection and in addition you can combine the techniques within any of your garments. You must source 100% textile waste for use in your collection. If you reach the final, you will also be provided with concept fabrics made from the Eastman Naia™ fibre which you must incorporate into at least 50% of one or more of your collection pieces.

WHAT IS NAIA FROM EASTMAN?

Eastman is the Gold Sponsor of the Redress Design Award 2019. Eastman Naia cellulosic yarn is made from fully traceable and sustainably sourced wood pulp and holds FSC® and PEFC™ Chain of Custody certifications. Naia™ cellulosic yarn is produced in a safe, closed-loop process where solvents are recycled back into the system for reuse. In addition, Naia™ cellulosic yarn has an optimised, low-impact manufacturing process with a low tree-to-yarn carbon and water footprint. With a third-party reviewed Life Cycle Assessment compliant with ISO14044, Naia™ cellulosic yarn is also listed on the HIGG Materials Sustainability Index.

Submission requirements:

• You must submit 1 mood board illustrating the theme, inspiration and colour-theme of your entire competition collection.
• The core concept of your collection should incorporate Redress’ four circular design strategies (Design for Low Waste, Design for Low-impact Materials and Processes, Design for Longevity, and Design for Recyclability). This can be reflected in your choice of materials and trims, patterns, construction, etc.
• You must submit 3 ready-to-wear outfit illustrations with technical drawings (front and back) based on one or more of the sustainable design techniques zero-waste, up-cycling and reconstruction. All submitted artwork must be your original creations and must not have been previously shown in public.
• Each entire outfit must be made up of one or more pieces that cover a model’s upper and lower body and can include garments such as tops, bottoms, dresses, jackets and coats. Shoes and accessories are not required to be designed but you will need to provide shoes to accompany your collection should you reach the final.
• All of your designs must use textile waste. Information about your textile waste selection for your three outfits including the type of fibre, type of textile and source must be provided. Applicants are required to provide clear photos of the original textiles before any cutting or alteration, in order to show that such textiles are available for use.
• You must submit 3 photos of recent original finished garments from your portfolio. These are NOT your competition designs but instead are to demonstrate your skills and experience as a fashion designer.
• You will also need to provide eight written statements about your collection, your circular design strategies and your aspirations as a sustainable designer.

For the open application and semi-final judging, your designs will be scored in three categories:

• Creativity and originality;
• Sustainability;
• Marketability;

For the grand final judging, an additional category of Workmanship will be added when the judges view your collection in person. During the grand final trip you will also be observed in order to assess your understanding and application of sustainable design strategies and processes during the various challenges.

Judges will be looking for evidence of circular design thinking in designers collections. This means from sourcing your materials to pattern design, creation and consideration of user and disposal after use, you must have a clear understanding of the environmental impacts of your creations and will have explored solutions through the design of your collection. You should be reflective and critical of your work and be able to clearly explain your decision making at each step of creating your sustainable collection.

The top 10 finalists will be selected to come to Hong Kong to take part in sustainable fashion educational activities and showcase their collections at HKTDC Hong Kong’s Fashion Week Cntrestage.

There is no entry fee to participate!

Eligibility

>u>You can apply if you meet all of the following criteria:>/u>>br>>br> • Aged 18 years or over as of application closing date of 14 March 2019.>br> • Hold a valid ID/passport/visa/residence permit in your country of residence,>br> • Have less than three years’ professional fashion design experience and/or are a fashion student in any year at an educational institution at the time of application.>br> • Are applying as an individual (group applications are not permitted).