Environmental NGO Redress, which works to reduce waste in the fashion industry, announced the ten finalists of the Redress Design Awards 2022 on Tuesday. The world’s largest sustainable fashion design competition is supported by Hong Kong SAR Government’s Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) as the main sponsor.
This year’s finalists hail from seven different countries and regions around the world and were selected by an international panel of industry leaders, including Desiree Au (Vogue Hong Kong), Orsola de Castro (Fashion Revolution) and Edwin Keh (HKRITA).
Three of the winners are semi-finalists from the previous year who made it to the finals this year. Now all ten must produce their competition designs (including four physical and one digital creation) in time for the finals in Hong Kong in mid-September.
The Redress Design Award 2022 finalists
Three countries are represented with two designers in the finals this year: India with Ashutosh Panda and Mohammed Numaan Khan, Spain with Drina Marco and Micaela Clubourg and Sri Lanka with Nawoda Bandara and Ruwanthi Gajadeera (both semi-finalists from last year).
Also making it to the finals were Lívia Aguiar de Castro of Brazil, Federico Badini Confalonieri of Italy (last year’s semi-finalist) and Patrick Lam of Hong Kong, China. This year’s audience favorite is Cris Miranda from Chile.
Some of the unusual materials used by the young design talents this year include hotel bed sheets, kimono and obi silk and damaged knit collars from leftovers. Many of them also used zero-waste patterns and other circular design techniques to further improve the sustainability of their designs.
“The participants in the competition have shown new dimensions of colour, form and style, while taking into account sustainable practices. We can definitely see the next generation ‘game changers’ striving for a brighter future,” commented judge Angus Tsui, creative director of his eponymous brand and a former Redress Design Awards entrant.
Winners will receive career-boosting prizes, including a sustainable design collaboration with the Timberland team at VF Corporation and a HK$50,000 development fund as the first prize.
Designing sustainable fashion requires a combination of creativity and innovation, taking into account the source material, the impact of manufacture and use, and the recyclability of the products at the end of their lifecycle. In order to get into the final round, the ten designers were not only judged according to these criteria of sustainability and creativity, but also according to the marketability and scalability of their creations.