Redress Design Award calls for next generation fashion designers from around the globe to make fashion circular before 17 April deadline
8 April 2026, Hong Kong] – Asia‑focused environmental NGO Redress opens the Redress Design Award 2026, in their urgent scout for game changing designers for the 16th cycle of the world’s leading sustainable fashion design competition. Together with Lead Sponsor, the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA), the competition educates designers from every corner of the world to clean up fashion’s wasteful and polluting act.
“With one garbage truck of textiles being landfilled or incinerated every second and only 0.3% of the global textile industry being circular, fashion has a long way to go to become innovative,” said Dr. Christina Dean, Founder and Board Chair of Redress. “Eighty percent of a product’s environmental impact is determined at the design stage, so we must find the designers’ talents who can transform fashion.”
Redress Design Award 2026 challenges designers, students, recent graduates and those with less than four years’ professional experience, to create contemporary, fashion-forward collections using waste textiles and guided by circular design strategies including zero waste, upcycling, and design for recyclability.
Textile waste worsens as global search intensifies
With textile waste projected to increase by 60% between 2015 and 2030, the need for circular solutions, which keep materials in use, becomes more critical. Since launch in 2011 in Hong Kong, the Redress Design Award has educated over 23,000 emerging designers through online resources and in-person programmes and attracted over 4,500 applications from 92 global regions, from Hong Kong, USA, UK and South Africa to designers living closer to the textile manufacturing waste hotspots of China, Vietnam and India. Redress Design Award 2026 Semi-finalists will join the Redress Alumni Network, which offers ongoing support to over 350 designers as they develop their careers in sustainable fashion.
Winning experience; empowering people to protect the planet
The previous 2025 joint First Prize winner Hugo Dumas from France said, “Winning is not just about my designs, it’s about proving that creativity can outpace crises.” Fellow 2025 joint winner Carla Zhang from Chinese Mainland added, “Winning this competition has empowered us to promote resourceful solutions to more of the industry and consumers, as a way to find value in overlooked materials. It’s challenging, and I’m ready to rise to the challenge.”
Orsola de Castro, Author and Co-founder of Fashion Revolution and 2026 Judge, adds, “Now more than ever, we need to address the real solution which is to design waste out of the system entirely. This competition empowers emerging designers to create beautiful, commercial collections that protect people and the planet.”
Competition prizes and opportunities
- A fully funded trip to Hong Kong for all Finalists, including masterclasses, industry immersion and participation in the Redress Design Award Grand Final Fashion Show
- Editorial features and global media exposure
- Expert mentorship from leading fashion and sustainability professionals
- Access to Redress’ global Alumni Network of 350+ like-minded designers
Applications are open now. Full guidelines, eligibility criteria, timeline and entry details are available at: Redress Design Award