The finalists' runway collections, designed using circular techniques including factory surplus, discarded garments, excess new stock, furnishings waste, tackled the global textile waste crisis and highlighted what most fashion consumers do not realise: an estimated 80% of a product's environmental impact is locked in at design stage[1], long before the clothes hit the shop floor.
"My generation of designers won't be judged just on aesthetics. We must understand circularity - durability, repairability and recyclability - from the drawing board to fill the racks with what more consumers hope to buy. Coming into this wasteful fashion industry is intimidating and we must respond with courage," said Jon Liesenfeld, from Germany, Redress Design Award 2026 First Prize Winner, who outdesigned seven other finalists from Hong Kong, Chinese Mainland, United Kingdom, Austria, and Israel.
As Lead Sponsor, the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA) has supported the Award as a cornerstone project for 14 consecutive years. "Creativity and sustainability have never been more closely intertwined than they are today," shared Drew Lai, Commissioner for Cultural and Creative Industries, CCIDA. "We take great pride in the legacy of the Award: over 350 alumni across more than 40 regions, many of whom have gone on to translate circular design principles into thriving, real-world practice — a clear testament to the Award's wide-reaching impact."
The fashion industry must reinvent itself - from the drawing board up
Textile waste is a global crisis, with an estimated 120 million tonnes generated annually, of which 80% ends up in landfills or being incinerated[2]. The global textile industry is only 0.3% circular[3].
"Whilst the fashion industry faces serious challenges - from geopolitical pressures, inflation, complex global supply chains to incoming legislation - it is catastrophically still on its wasteful, runaway trainwreck," said Dr. Christina Dean, Founder, Redress. "Circularity is flat-lining despite circular textile business models being estimated to generate US$700 billion in economic value by 2030[4] and whilst clothing waste sky rockets, which will be exacerbated by global dominance of ultra fast fashion brands. Redress' work to catalyse circular fashion is critical and our educational movement has reached millions of designers in almost 100 countries worldwide," she said.
All finalists join Redress' Alumni global network of 350+ designers who continue sparking solutions. Alumnus Kevin Germanier closed Paris Couture Week this spring with a collection made entirely from LVMH-owned brands' excess inventory across. Alumnus Angus Tsui and Eric Wong have transformed retired DHL courier uniforms into accessories.
Upcycling continues moving mainstream, with LVMH Group, Miu Miu, Coach, Uniqlo, Converse, Wrangler and Vivienne Westwood, developing various upcycled collections, selling its creativity and uniqueness rather than sustainability alone.
Incoming regulation, particularly the European Union's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), Extender Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the ban on destroying unsold clothing and footwear, have given brands more incentive to embrace upcycling than just a few years ago.
Redress Design Award 2026 Prizes expose winners to array of British businesses
Jon Liesenfeld wins an educational journey to British fashion businesses; from design-led apparel manufacturers, Simple Approach who produce 50 million apparel pieces annually for brands including Primark and Next; luxury womenswear brand Roksanda, worn by Her Royal Highness Catherine, Princess of Wales, Michelle Obama, Kate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway. This prize is supported by GREAT Britain & Northern Ireland Campaign.
The runner-up, Jasmine Cheuk from Hong Kong, wins a mentorship with distinguished British fashion activist and competition judge, Orsola de Castro, who has mentored Redress' competition winners every cycle for the last decade and has been a judge since the competition's inception. Jasmine also won the Hong Kong Best prize.
Redress empowers emerging designers to help close the educational skills gap
Redress recognises the urgent need to equip designers with the skills required to narrow the educational gap within the fashion industry. An integrative review of 81 papers found that mainstream fashion design courses still "scarcely incorporate sustainability within their curricula", underscoring the need to strengthen sustainability education through both theoretical understanding and practical application.[5] To date, Redress has directly educated 36,500+ fashion designers and educators and has generated 18 million views across its online educational resources.
In addition to education, Redress builds strategic industry partnerships to create real-world pathways for designers. During the Redress Design Award 2026, finalists remade discarded, unwearable post-consumer clothing waste into retail-ready collections for multi-brand fashion retailer, D-mop, in collaboration with TAL Apparel, leading global garment manufacturer. This work was delivered as part of the 'Remake to Retail' challenge; the resulting collection is scheduled to launch with D-mop later this year.
Redress Design Award turns consumer concern into sustainable demand
Engaging with consumers to drive the sustainable fashion movement is critical, given rampant overconsumption and clothing underutilisation, which results in the majority of clothing being landfilled or burned within one year of production.[6] Whilst the majority of consumers believe brands have a responsibility to make positive change in the world[7], an intention gap between what consumers think and what they do persists, whereby 71% of global consumers are concerned about sustainability in fashion, yet only 3% of them are willing to pay a premium for it.[8]
Through the Redress Design Award, finalists demonstrate that sustainable fashion can be desirable. By showcasing exceptional design and compelling storytelling, and by bringing remade clothing into mainstream spaces, these next-generation designers motivate consumers to actively choose more sustainable options, turning concern into demand.
Editor's Notes
- Data and Statistics Insights: Redress Design Award: Redress Design Award Additional Resources - The Issues
- Competition Criteria: The Redress Design Award 2026 was open to global applications from emerging designers and students with less than four years' professional experience focusing on womenswear and menswear original collection designs. Competition brief here.
- The People's Choice winner, voted by the public, was Tal Zohar from Israel.
- Judges are: Orsola de Castro, Author and Fashion Activist; Rachel Franklin, Director of ESG, Simple Approach; Cherry Mui, Editorial Director, Vogue Hong Kong; Rod Henderson, President, TAL Apparel Ltd; Angus Tsui, Creative Director, ANGUS TSUI and Alumnus, Redress Design Award; and Dr. Christina Dean, Founder and Board Chair, Redress.
- Sponsors Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA) as the Lead Sponsor. Other key partners include DHL and TAL Group.
- Redress Alumni Networkoffers designers ongoing support as they develop their careers in sustainable fashion.
Hashtag: #RedressDesignAward
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
The Redress Design Award
The Redress Design Award (www.redressdesignaward.com) is the world's leading sustainable fashion design competition that educates and empowers emerging fashion designers about circular design techniques to reduce fashion's negative environmental impacts. Organised by Hong Kong-based, Asia-focused environmental NGO Redress since 2011, the competition partners with academic institutions globally and attracts designer applicants from over 50 countries and regions to win prizes that connect them with global-leading fashion businesses to accelerate the change to a circular fashion industry.
Redress (www.redress.com.hk) is a Hong Kong-based, Asia-focused environmental NGO founded in 2007 accelerating the change to a circular fashion industry by educating and empowering designers and consumers to reduce clothing's negative environmental impacts. Locally, Redress has collected 208 tonnes of clothing for recirculation and educated 21,000+ Hong Kong students and teachers. Globally, they have directly educated 36,500+ fashion designers and teachers, amassing 18 million online views of their sustainable design educational content and building a social media reach of 46 million users.
The Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA) (www.ccida.gov.hk), formerly known as Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) since 2009, was established in June 2024. CCIDA is a dedicated office under the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR Government) to provide one-stop services and support to the cultural and creative sectors with a mission to foster a conducive environment in Hong Kong to facilitate development of the arts, culture and creative sectors as industries. CCIDA's strategic foci are nurturing talent and facilitating start-ups, exploring markets, promoting cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary collaboration, promoting industrialisation of the arts, culture and creative sectors under the industry-oriented principle, and fostering a creative atmosphere in the community, thereby reinforcing Hong Kong as Asia's creative capital and our positioning as the East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.
Disclaimer: 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 organisers only and do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency, the CreateSmart Initiative Secretariat or the CreateSmart Initiative Vetting Committee.
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