Note from Our Founder
Dr. Christina Dean | Founder and Board Chair, Redress
It’s been said that ‘circularity is a team sport’. I’d agree.
The good news is there are many more players joining fashion’s circularity game, with the goal that nothing goes to waste. From designers to manufacturers, consumers to academia, the mammoth global fashion industry is gradually retraining its players to go circular, to keep textiles and clothing materials in use, and to not waste, in order to reduce fashion’s hefty environmental impacts.
That said, the bad news is that the game’s referee — the planet, if you will — is screeching “time!” on this messy battle to clean up fashion’s act. She is whipping out red cards with abundance, as evidenced by storms, floods, and draughts for bad sportsmanship of the players on the pitch before us, and still with us. With data suggesting that fashion consumption, production, and waste are continuing to increase, it sometimes feels like we’re on the losing side.
At Redress, which I founded in 2007 when these battle lines were just emerging, we believe in the positive power of fashion. We believe we can, and will, win this battle.
Redress’ mission is to accelerate the transition to a circular fashion industry. As a Hong Kong-based, Asia-focused charity, we empower designers and consumers to design and wear clothes in responsible, circular ways. We collaborate with many industry team players to collectively pave the way to a circular fashion system, breaking down the relics of the highly wasteful linear system of the 20th century.
Some of the most potent players transforming fashion are designers, whose decisions made at the drawing board make up an estimated 80% of a product’s environmental impact. This is why we focus on educating emerging designers, and why we organise the world’s largest circular fashion design competition, the Redress Design Award – to scout, train, and release game-changing designers into the global fashion industry, to make their marks from Hong Kong to Hungary and from Shanghai to Sri Lanka.
Over the last 13 years, the Redress Design Award has attracted thousands of talented players from all corners of the world. This 2023 cycle is no exception. Our Redress Design Award 2023 Finalists are to be congratulated for their efforts in designing for circularity, hurtling their circular creations down the runway with bravery and brilliance. We wish them great success and strength, no matter who wins. Together with our 302 Redress Alumni from over 40 countries and regions, who have come before them as Finalists and Semi-finalists, it is a true honour to work shoulder-to-shoulder with these global talents.
A team is so much more than its star players, and Redress is hugely grateful for the partners and sponsors who make our work possible. In particular, we thank Create Hong Kong, without whom we could not have positively influenced the global fashion industry from within our home in Hong Kong — a historic textile and apparel hub and now an emerging leader in sustainable and circular design. To VF Corporation, one of the world’s largest fashion, footwear and accessories companies, and TAL Apparel, for steadfastly supporting this educational competition, and for collaborating with our finalists and winners. To our many other partners and our judges, advisors, board, and ambassadors — we salute you.
But there is no time for self-congratulation. This referee won’t wait for us to play a better game. The battle to win is incumbent on us all, whether we work within the industry or simply love buying and wearing clothes. Fashion needs game-changers whose actions will score for the planet — from drawing boards to supply chains to closets.
Game, set, match. Together, we will make it – because circularity is a team sport, after all.
Christina Dean