Ten emerging design talents have been shortlisted from hundreds of applicants from around the world in this year’s Redress Design Award – including two from Hong Kong and one from India.

The finalists, who include menswear designers for the first time in the competition’s history, now have just 11 weeks to bring their concepts to life before presenting their collections in Hong Kong later this year at a live grand final where the winners will be announced.

Using circular design strategies, ‘transforming waste into want’, the 10 will showcase solutions for repurposing the abundance of textile waste created by the fashion industry on a daily basis.

The design approaches are diverse among this year’s finalists, who are using a variety of textile-waste types, including damaged camping equipment, wedding dresses, uniform waste and restaurant table linens.

“Each finalist showcases the power of designers to transform waste in their own unique style,” said Christina Dean, founder and board chair of Redress.

“Each year the applicants’ creativity and thirst for knowledge increases, demonstrating higher levels of transformative thinking which is essential to solve this challenge,” she said.

Clare Press, Vogue Australia’s sustainability editor and one of this year’s judges, said the depth of thought and breadth of creativity applied by the young designer entrants this year was impressive.

“I can’t wait to see the collections up close when the 10 finalists present in Hong Kong. I’m sure we will discover more than one future fashion star.”

Now in its ninth cycle, the Redress Design Award 2019 receives major sponsorship from Create Hong Kong and Eastman Naia and partners with more than 130 educational institutes across the world. The competition spotlights the creativity of emerging sustainable designers with a particular focus on the low-waste design techniques of zero-waste, upcycling and reconstruction, while providing critical knowledge and skills to a wide range of emerging fashion professionals through a range of educational activities and resources.

The 10 finalists are competing for the first prize – to join leading fashion house JNBY Group to design a sustainable collection for retail. The runner-up winner will receive a professional development mentorship from Orsola de Castro.

The Redress Design Award 2019 finalists are: