How Redress sustainable fashion award winners turned junk into jazz

Sustainable fashion is somehow comparable to veganism, in terms of the stigma around the concept and the often eye-rolling reaction it could cause.

This was the what grand prize winner of the Redress Design Award 2018, Tess Whitfort, said when we talked about popularising sustainable fashion.

Hong Kong-based NGO Redress was founded by Christina Dean in 2007. The eighth edition was held earlier this year with the aim of educating up-and-coming fashion designers about sustainable design techniques as well as highlighting sustainable design talent.

According to Redress, more than 100 billion garments are produced globally every year, and 87 per cent of the 53 million tonnes of materials used end up in landfills or are incinerated. In Hong Kong alone, 343 tonnes of textiles waste went to the landfills every day in 2016.

Whitfort, 24, won the gold trophy with her bold, neon-coloured collection made from upcycled end-of-roll industry fabrics and hardware salvaged from garages and hardware stores, all sourced from her hometown in Australia. The garments were splattered with eco-friendly watercolour spray paint. It took Whitfort two-and-a-half months to complete her collection.

At the exhibition of the award finalists’ collections at the Mercedes me Store in Central in the week after the competition, Whitfort explained how her award-winning designs were inspired by punk culture. “I wanted to play with something that’s totally different,”she said. “Sustainable fashion is often [portrayed as] natural, feminine and elegant, so I wanted to create edgy, grungy streetwear as I feel there’s a need for more [variety].”

The collection, in her words, was like an amplified version of her personal style.