As everybody knows now, the global fashion industry is a massive waste producer and carbon emitter. Over 10% of global carbon emissions come from this industry which will take over 24% of the global carbon budget by 2050 due to increasing demand, according to the United Nations FCCC. This is a huge problem for Asia in particular, where over half of the world’s clothing is manufactured, and where new-to-middle-class consumers are increasingly demanding more fast fashion. Did you know that making one pair of jeans requires 2,912 liters of water? And yet, despite the energy needed to produce them, textile items like these are thrown away every day.
Christina Dean who advocates for sustainable fashion decided to take action 10 years ago and found in HK an NGO called Redress to encourage people to love fashion responsibly and to reduce textile waste and promote environmental sustainability in the fashion industry.
Redress captures these unwanted and unworn clothes – which also means taking all of the valuable materials used to make new clothes and they collaborate with designers, brands, manufacturers, industry professionals, educational organizations, and consumers to give a second life to the clothes.
Top-quality clothes are also sold to raise funds for Redress, and the Redress Design Award was created to help emerging designers to compete and spin textile waste back into fashion. Today Redress Design Award represents the world’s largest sustainable fashion design competition. For Redress Design 2020 Award, 16 designers for menswear and 16 designers for womenswear were selected by a group of Regional Judges consisting of top industry experts, as semifinalists.
Vietnam was selected with a Vietnamese menswear designer, Ngoc Ha Thu Le. Her collection utilizes zero-waste, reconstruction, and up-cycling design techniques, takes inspiration from Japanese-style Americana, creating more sustainable versions of classic menswear items. It’s an exciting year for Redress as it’s the first time ever that the Award has two category prizes – menswear and womenswear. See the winners on REDRESS soon.
