2020 Runner-up Wins Educational Trip to London with Inspiring Design Destinations
Supporting her prize mentorship with Orsola de Castro as the runner-up of the Redress Design Award 2020, Ruth Weerasinghe was awarded an educational trip to London in partnership with Eden Travel to meet leaders in sustainable fashion to gain key practical insights and further establish her network. After travel restrictions from the global pandemic eased, the Sri Lankan designer embarked on the long-awaited, two-week trip in September–October 2022.
Eden Travel International are specialists in providing customised, industry-focused academic study tours and together with Redress, connected Ruth with various leaders in the industry to inspire and support her career and development of her upcycling brand, SO4 including: Christina Dean, Founder, Redress; Jesse Lee, Redress Design Award 2018 runner-up and Hong Kong Best Prize winner; Kay Liu, Project Lead on Circular Textiles, The R Collective; Katherine Soucie, award-winning artist and designer specialising in upcycling pre-consumer waste hosiery and other textile waste; and Cassie Quinn, designer innovating sustainable biomaterials for the fashion industry.
One opportunity led to another, and her meeting with Christina Dean kicked off her next project with SO4: a responsible backpack designed exclusively for UBS, in partnership with The R Collective, the social impact business rescuing waste (including car airbags!) into fashion. Read more about it here.
Ruth’s trip was also filled with visits to inspiring design destinations, including: the Design Museum, Museum of London, Christopher Raeburn - Raeburn Lab Tour LAB E20, The Conscious Festival, Tate Modern, Fashion and Textile Museum, Somerset House, Victoria and Albert Museum, Fashion Space Gallery, Natural History Museum, and she even found the time to join our online networking event with Redress Design Award alumni from across the globe! The visits broadened her horizons on sustainable design, processing, and product management.
“This journey provided a great wealth of experience, learning, and exposure for me to further improve my practices in upcycling and brand development,” shared Ruth. “I got the chance to meet, spend time and even get feedback from a few of the best designers and industry specialists, which helped me elevate my thinking and improve my approach to design.”