EcoChic Design Award 2017 Competition Opens
Redress kicks off their biggest search ever for the best sustainable fashion talent with the launch of the 2017 cycle of the EcoChic Design Award, the world’s largest sustainable fashion design competition. With continued support from Create Hong Kong, Redress strives to prove that there is a more sustainable future of fashion.
Until 3 April 2017, designers residing in Asia, Europe and the USA can enter via www.ecochicdesignaward.com to compete for a chance to travel to Hong Kong in September 2017 to present their textile-waste reducing designs. The winner will create an up-cycled collection for B Y T, a new fashion brand borne from Redress’ work, which will retail on B Y T’s future e-commerce site and at Lane Crawford, Asia’s leading iconic luxury department store.
Dr. Christina Dean, Founder and Board Chair of Redress and B Y T explained, “Now is the time for radical disruption to the fashion industry, from education, design, sourcing to business. Without this, the fashion and textile industry, which is currently the world’s second biggest polluter, and the environment will spiral even more out of control, with dire consequences.
Instead, through the EcoChic Design Award and B Y T we are galvanizing the industry to the look at the current problems we face as opportunities. Those who don’t find new ways of operating will not make it through the seismic changes happening in fashion today.”
Environmental NGO Redress has a mission to reduce textile waste through various programs in order to protect the environment whilst also offering unique business opportunities.
Globally, textile waste has increased dramatically due to the rise in clothing consumption and production: the number of new garments produced annually now exceeds 100 billion – double the amount from 2000 ; annual waste estimates suggest that China generates over 26 million tonnes of industry and consumer textile waste worth 60 billion RMB ; and the European Union creates 9.4 billion tonnes of textiles that are either landfilled or incinerated.
This 2017 EcoChic Design Award cycle saw a phenomenal industry response to the recent distribution of the new Sustainable Fashion Educator Pack to teach the next generation about how to reduce waste. Additionally, Redress has expanded their online educational content to reach new global audiences and is conducting Fashion Academies in Asia, with particular focus on the clothing and textile export powerhouses of China and India.
Designers wishing to participate in the Award must incorporate the sustainable design techniques of zero-waste, up-cycling and reconstruction into their designs, sourcing their own textile waste for use in their collections, which will be judged by a prestigious line-up of global fashion leaders from Asia, Europe and USA, including designers Christopher Ræburn and Johanna Ho, and industry experts Orsola de Castro and Anderson Lee.
The prizes will be announced during the Grand Final fashion show at HKTDC’s CENTRESTAGE in early September 2017. Along with designing for B Y T, other prizes will be announced. Please visit www.ecochicdesignaward.com for more information.
-ENDS-
Media Enquiries
Amy Chan
Project Manager
Email: amy[at]redress.com.hk
High-resolution images available for download here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kz8ir0xyw0yz543/AAAWVbRe-5gAAavtOLplVhFha?dl=0
Editor’s Notes
•The EcoChic Design Award 2017 is open to newly emerging designers with less than three years’ professional experience or fashion students in any year at a university or institute, who currently live in Asia, Europe or the USA
•Key sponsors of the EcoChic Design Award are The Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Major Sponsor), UPS, TAL and Miele
•International Judges of the EcoChic Design Award 2017 are Michelle Bang, Orsola de Castro, Johanna Ho, Anderson Lee and a Lane Crawford representative
•The EcoChic Design Award 2017 Ambassadors are models Bonnie Chen and Sofia Wakabayashi
•To follow the journey of last cycle’s EcoChic Design Award finalists towards sustainable fashion, watch Redress documentary Frontline Fashion (www.redress.com.hk/frontlinefashion). Now available for download on iTunes
•Visit our LEARN platform (www.ecochicdesignaward.com/learn) for resources on how to source, design and market sustainable fashion. Find out more on the Sustainable Fashion Educator Pack on www.ecochicdesignaward.com/educatorpack
About The EcoChic Design Award (www.ecochicdesignaward.com)
The EcoChic Design Award is a sustainable fashion design competition organised by Redress inspiring emerging fashion designers and students to create mainstream clothing with minimal textile waste. Designers are educated with the theory and techniques to enable them to create sustainable clothing via zero-waste, up-cycling and reconstruction. The competition puts emerging sustainable design talent in the spotlight, creating a platform for the next generation of designers to cut waste out of fashion. The inaugural The EcoChic Design Award was in Hong Kong in 2011 and the annual competition has since expanded over the last six years to now accepting entries from designers living in Asia, Europe and the USA.
About Redress (www.redress.com.hk)
Redress is an environmental NGO working to reduce waste in the fashion industry. They achieve this through a variety of programmes, initiatives and campaigns. Redress aims to enhance, educate and enable the adoption of a more sustainable fashion industry that helps to minimise the negative and maximise the positive impacts of the fashion industry on society and the environment. Collectively, Redress collaborates with a wide range of stakeholders, including fashion designers, textile and garment manufacturers, brands and retailers, schools and universities, private sector organisations, multilateral organisations, governments, NGOs, media organisations and consumers.
About The Create Hong Kong (www.createhk.gov.hk)
The Create Hong Kong is a dedicated agency set up under the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau on 1 June 2001 to lead, champion and drive the development of the creative economy in Hong Kong. It co-ordinates Government policy and effort regarding creative industries, focuses Government’s resources catering for the promotion and speeding up the development of creative industries in Hong Kong, and works closely with the trade to boost the development of creative industries.
“The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to the project only, and does not otherwise take part in the project. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials/events (or by members of the project team) are those of the project organizers only and do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Communication and Technology Branch of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, Create Hong Kong, the CreateSmart Initiative Secretariat or the CreateSmart Initiative Vetting Committee.”
About B Y T
B Y T is new affordable luxury fashion brand that operates sustainably, and was borne from Redress’ 10-year focus of promoting sustainable fashion. B Y T is proud to produce responsibly using up-cycled and sustainable materials and processes in Asia, with EcoChic Design Award Alumni and designer Kévin Germanier joining to lead the brand’s designs. B Y T will engage with a community of fashion customers with design-driven, ethical apparel and accessories. B Y T has a focus on supporting Redress’ work as well as influencing positive developments in the fashion industry. Visit www.redress.com.hk/partners for more information.
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