10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion

“10 fashion game-changers innovate

with waste-reducing

design techniques for the runway.”

 

Did you know that the fashion industry is now the world’s second most polluting industry in the

world, after oil?

That’s why The EcoChic Design Award was created.

Their mission is to educate, inspire and encourage designers around the world to reduce waste

through sustainable design innovation and to ultimately affect a monumental shift in the fashion

industry towards “a better way to redesign our fashion future”.

The EcoChic Design Award is the world’s largest sustainable fashion design competition

challenging emerging fashion designers to create mainstream clothing with minimal textile waste.

The 2015/16 cycle celebrates the competition’s fifth year anniversary and is open to emerging fashion

designers living in any country in Asia and Europe.

 

“The world is finally waking up to the horrific

environmental  and social impacts caused by the wasteful

fashion industry and people are questioning how the

fashion industry has  become the world’s second most

polluting industry, after oil. 

 

This is a crucial time to act because fashion consumption is

at an all time high and this is driving up textile waste levels,

and the associated pollution, to shocking highs.”  

“It’s imperative that we instill education into

tomorrow’s fashion industry.”

Christina Dean, Founder, Redress

 

Fashion NGO Redress’ biggest search in history for emerging sustainable fashion designers in

Asia and Europe has culminated with the unveiling of the ten designers who have made it as

The EcoChic Design Award finalists.

 

The talented ten out-designed a record number of applications received from 40 countries,

including newcomer countries such as India, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Iran and Israel, and

this cohort of designers collectively represent the greater global focus put onto sustainable design

amongst emerging designers.

Cutting Waste Out of Fashion

10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion

 

Now these ten designers, who represent seven countries across Asia and Europe, will continue their

ambitions to create a more sustainable fashion industry as they produce their textile-waste-reducing

collections ready for the reveal on the Hong Kong Fashion Week runway in January 2016, where career-

changing prizes, including designing an up-cycled collection for Shanghai Tang, will be awarded.

 

 

“Through The EcoChic Design Award,

we are educating designers

 around the world to reduce waste

through sustainable design innovation, to

inspire a more positive future for the industry.

The change we need is in their hands.” 

Christina Dean, Founder, Redress

 

The EcoChic Design Award’s current competition cycle had unprecedented interest with over sixty

university partners joining to promote the competition to their students and alumni, including Central

Saint Martins in the UK, National Institute of Fashion Technology in India and Beijing Institute of

Fashion Technology in Mainland China.

 

For their applications, designers with less than three years’ industry experience and students were

challenged to design a textile waste-reducing womenswear collection.

The applications received showed diverse innovation, with many designers going all out and constructing

their own fabrics through weaving, patchwork or knitting using yarns and fabrics from cut up and unwoven

secondhand garments, off-cuts and even from surplus textile labeling.

 

The finalists will now bring their application concepts to life by each creating a six piece collection that

showcases their creativity using the waste-reducing design techniques of zero-waste, up-cycling

and reconstruction.

The EcoChic Design Award 2015/16 Finalists

10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion: 2015/16 EcoChic Design Awards

Wang Di – Asia (Mainland Chinese)

10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion

Esther Lui – Asia (Hong Kong Chinese)

10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion

Pan Wen – Asia (Mainland Chinese)

10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion

Belle Benyasarn – Asia (Thai)

10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion

Sara Kiani – Europe (Danish living in UK)
10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion

Annie MacKinnon – Europe (British)

10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion

Cora Maria Bellotto Europe – (Italian living in Spain)

10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion

Patrycja Guzik – Europe (Polish)

10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion

Amy Ward – Europe (British living in Germany)

10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion

Tsang Fan Yu – Asia (Hong Kong Chinese)

10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion

The Judges

To secure their prominent position as finalists, each designer faced a fiercely influential jury of 10 judges,
including Raffaele Borriello, Creative Consigliere, Shanghai Tang; Orsola de Castro, Fashion Designer,
Cofounder of Estethica and Co-founder of Fashion Revolution; Susie Lau (Susie Bubble), Fashion Writer
and Editor; Anderson Lee, Vice Chairman of the Sustainable Fashion Business Consortium (SFBC); and
Stephanie Zhu, Fashion Editor ELLE China.

 

“I was extremely impressed with the level of thought put

into the initial sketches by the designers as well as

the propositions of use of fabrics,

be it using unconventional materials, zero-waste

patterns or secondhand textiles.

It’s interesting to see ideas of reducing waste being

put into practice in a multitude of ways.

This competition shows that when designers are still gestating

their ideas at the beginning of their careers, and they

become exposed to the concept of using limited resources

and coupled with their imagination, you get some

really exciting ideas that are truly innovative.”

International Judge, Susie Lau

Prizes to put waste back into fashion

10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion: 2015/16 EcoChic Design Awards

The competition provides impressive prizes to support the emerging designers’ careers.

They include a one week immersive sustainable fashion trip to Hong Kong, with sponsorship

from Create Hong Kong during which the finalists will stay at EAST, Hong Kong.

They will take part in an educational design challenge, with sponsor Ford Motor Company, and

other design workshops and influential networking with top industry professionals.

Their stay in Hong Kong culminates at the Grand Final fashion show where the designers will

showcase their minimal waste collections on the runway to compete for career-changing prizes.

 

*The First Prize winner will design their own named capsule collection using up-cycled textiles

for Shanghai Tang, China’s leading luxury brand, and will later return to Hong Kong to work with

Shanghai Tang’s creative team from the collection’s design, production to marketing.

 

*The Second Prize winner will be coached by distinguished fashion designer, Orsola de Castro

and receive expert and targeted support that will propel his or her career in sustainable fashion design

forwards in preparation for the competitive market of attracting fashion media, buyers and sales.

 

*The Special Prize winner will design a sustainable outfit for supermodel Janet Ma to reveal at a

high profile event and in a top fashion editorial.

Other prizes include sustainable fashion books from Bloomsbury Publishing and Fairchild Books and

subscription to The Ethical Fashion Forum.

 

“Over the past five years The EcoChic Design Award

has provided support and inspiration for a new

generation of fashion designers, paving the way for

creative and environmental innovation.

It has inspired and encouraged a shifting of attitudes

towards a better way to redesign our fashion future.

I am proud and honoured to have been a part of it since inception:

it has changed my life as much as the lives of the young

designers it has supported.”

International judge, Orsola de Castro

 

The remaining 20 semi-finalists will now join Redress’ increasingly impactful community

of alumni, which include over 80 designers from the competition’s five-year history.

More information on Redress’ alumni can be found at:

http://www.ecochicdesignaward.com/alumni/

 

Want to Make a More Sustainable Fashion Statement?

10 Emerging Sustainable Fashion Designers Cutting Waste Out of Fashion
Get the goods!

Check out these Sustainable Fashion Consumer Resources compiled by Redress including top books,

videos, websites, reports and organizations to help you can dig deeper into the world of sustainable fashion.

 

To Contact Redress:

Megan Lee
Email: megan@redress.com.hk
Tel: +852 2861 0360

Images courtesy of Ecochicdesign awards

 

 

Have you recycled, repurposed or upcycled any of your clothing?

What are you doing to minimize your impact on the environment through

your clothing choices?

Share your thoughts and comments with us.

 

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