Redress and Tommy Hilfiger announce new strategic partnership for the redress design award 2024

Redress, the Asia-focused environmental NGO accelerating the transition to circular fashion by educating designers and consumers, organises the Redress Design Award 2024 under the support of Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) as the Lead Sponsor. Redress is pleased to have iconic fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger joining forces for the Redress Design Award 2024, the world's leading sustainable fashion design competition. The competition calls on emerging designers globally to apply with their circular and sustainable fashion collections, before the closing date of 15 March 2024.

Dr. Christina Dean, Founder of Redress, shares, “Fashion is one of the world’s most polluting industries. Left unabated, pollution and waste is set to worsen. We urgently need to accelerate circular fashion, which is the best way to let fashion thrive without costing the earth. Working from our Hong Kong headquarters, and with our Asia focus, we want to redress — to remedy and set right — fashion, by collaborating with bold fashion brand businesses and brilliant designer talent to create the fashion industry of the future, right now.”

Mr. Victor Tsang, Head of Create Hong Kong, remarked that, “the Redress Design Award plays a pivotal role in bringing design elites from around the world to gather and conduct exchanges. The HKSAR government is pleased to support the competition with a view to reinforcing Hong Kong as the East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.”

Tommy Hilfiger, which is owned by PVH Corp. [NYSE: PVH], is pleased to enter a new partnership to nurture emerging talent. The Redress Design Award 2024 First Prize winner will join the Tommy Hilfiger design team to work on a sustainable design project for retail, gaining valuable industry experience, and building on their knowledge of sustainable fashion.

Creating fashion that “Wastes Nothing and Welcomes All” is part of Tommy Hilfiger’s DNA and reflects on the brand’s decades-long track record and commitment to making fashion more sustainable and inclusive. Tommy Hilfiger is exploring new, circular materials and manufacturing methods like creating quality pieces from textile waste, while operating with sensitivity to planetary boundaries. The brand is also working to make the fashion industry more accessible to underrepresented communities through programmes and partnerships and creating inclusive products that work for every Tommy Hilfiger fan. 

Education needed for a circular fashion system 

Fashion’s current unsustainable linear system of ‘take, make and waste’ is wasteful and polluting. Around 100 billion apparel items are produced per year, approximately doubling since 2006, and the majority of this is landfilled or burned within one year of production. An estimated 92 million tons of textile waste is created annually from the fashion industry, with the equivalent of one rubbish truck of textiles landfilled or burned every second.

It is estimated that 80% of a product’s environmental impact is determined at the design stage, where decisions from everything from materials, trims, repairability, longevity to recyclability are laid down. 

Fashion designers looking to enhance their expertise in circular fashion design are encouraged to enrol in the free, online Redress Circular Fashion Design Course, delivered by leading industry experts, to gain an edge in the fast-changing fashion industry. The newest module ‘Design for Recyclability’, launching on 23 January and featuring insights from Jessica Wei, Senior Director of Sustainability at Tommy Hilfiger Asia Pacific, offers a unique opportunity to explore circular business models and learn from professionals embracing recyclability – and will be exclusively available to Redress Design Award applicants through 15 March. 

With over 170 university partners worldwide, Redress is committed to equipping the next generation of fashion professionals with the necessary knowledge and tools to support, and succeed in, a fashion industry transitioning toward circularity. The Redress Academy, a free online learning platform, has benefited more than 120,000 students, designers, and industry professionals. 

Applications for the Redress Design Award 2024 are now open worldwide until 15 March. Emerging designers can visit www.redressdesignaward.com for complete guidelines and submission details.