The EcoChic Design Award is a sustainable fashion design competition educating and enabling emerging designers to create mainstream clothing with minimal textile waste. Now in its fourth cycle, The EcoChic Design Award 2013 is expanding to search for creative design talent in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, UK, France, Belgium and Germany. Following nine months of education, design and judging, eight finalists will present their sustainable collections at Hong Kong Fashion Week in January 2014, for their chance to win career-changing prizes that will further ignite positive change in the industry.
The fashion industry is one of the world's most polluting and resource-intense industries and integrating sustainability into its global supply chains presents significant challenges. Compounding this, today's accelerated fashion production and consumption rates are contributing to the depletion of natural resources and also creating increasingly alarming waste rates.Within this myriad of problems, designers hold significant influence. Designers are thought to influence approximately 80-90 percent of the environmental and economic impact of a product through their choices in design sourcing and manufacturing.
"Sustainability in the fashion industry is an over-discussed but under-actioned issue. Not enough focus is being put on reducing waste. We must crack the industry's problem of excessive waste production and lost economic value. The EcoChic Design Award 2013 fires-up emerging fashion designers from East to West to make tomorrow's mass market and independent fashion industries sustainable from the source,' said Christina Dean, CEO and Founder, Redress.
Changing a generation of designers
The competition educates and enables emerging designers and students with less than three years' industry experience to minimise and utilise textile waste in their competition outfits. Designers are challenged to use the sustainable design techniques zero-waste, up-cycling and reconstruction.
To support their understanding of these theories and techniques, Redress will throughout the nine-month competition present educational online materials, articles, workshops and seminars. Now underway in select cities is Redress' lecture series, which for many of the emerging designers attending, particularly in Mainland China, offers their first introduction to sustainable fashion design.
Designers living in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, UK, France, Belgium and Germany can apply now until 15 August 2013. Applicants will first be judged by a local judging panel in each of the eight regions, who will select three semi-finalists from their particular region based on the judging criteria of sustainability, marketability and originality. These 24 semi-finalists will then be reduced to eight finalists, one per region, by the highly influential international judging panel. The eight finalists will unite in Hong Kong for a two-day seminar and present their sustainable collections at Hong Kong Fashion Week in January 2014.
Career changing prizes
1st prize: The EcoChic Design Award 2013 in partnership with Esprit. This winner will design a recycled textile clothing collection for Esprit for their global retail. This will expand the competition's impact by providing sustainable fashion to the mass market at a competitive price point.'The collaboration with Redress allows Esprit to bring talented emerging designers with new innovative sustainable ideas to the forefront of the fashion industry by bringing their works to life via the Recycled Collection by Esprit,' said Charles Dickinson, Head of Global Quality Management and Sustainability, Esprit.
2nd prize: The EcoChic Design Award 2013 in partnership with John Hardy. This winner will go on an educational trip to learn first-hand how John Hardy integrates environmental and social sustainability into the core of their design, production and business philosophies.
Special prize: The EcoChic Design Award 2013 in partnership with Sandy Lam. This winner will design a sustainable outfit for artist Sandy Lam to wear on the cover of a fashion magazine to 'redress' consumers' attitudes towards sustainable fashion.
All semi-finalists and finalists will receive a career-boosting educational package, including a combination of mentorships, promotional opportunities and a selection of sustainable fashion books and journals.
Global dialogue - breaking fashion's borders and boundaries
Redress' expansion from their base in Asia to Europe through this competition aims to create a tangible international platform for experts and emerging designers to dialogue and drive innovation in textile waste reduction. Already, Redress has brought together a total of 29 influential judges, 14 expert advisors and over 30 academic institutions and supporting organisations within the eight regions to drive discussion.The EcoChic Design Award 2013 is supported by Create Hong Kong, Esprit, John Hardy, Miele, Vincent and Lily Woo Trust, ADM Capital Foundation and Sandy Lam.
The EcoChic Design Award 2013 is open for entries until 15 August 2013.
