The award aims to educate and
enable emerging fashion designers to
pursue careers in sustainable fashion
design, challenging them to create
mainstream clothing with minimal
textile waste. The competition – which
is always hotly contested – is in its
fifth year, originating in Hong Kong
but now attracting entries from over
40 countries across Asia and Europe.
For a city often trash-talked about its
environmental efforts, Hong Kong’s
fashion industry seems committed to
making a change.
The 2016 winner, Patrycja Guzik,
shared some insight into her collection
after her win with the
South China
Morning Post
. “For me it was about
creating beautiful clothes from waste.
I used a traditional tufting technique
which added a modern touch while
the print, which was created by my
illustrator boyfriend, was transferred
onto damaged polyester.” Her striking
collection combined the upcycling
and reconstruction design techniques
by hand-weaving damaged textiles
and unraveled secondhand garments.
Her fabrics were sourced from fabric
wholesalers and secondhand shops in
Cracow, but she also visited some local
sources while visiting the city.
One other standout among this
year’s finalists was homegrown talent
Tsang Fan Yu from The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University. You can see
his collection on his website
www.
tsangfanyu.com
. He shares, “I
believe in Zen philosophy, respecting
the relationship between natural and
human life. When this philosophy
is applied to fashion thinking, it
enhances the concept and the design
style of a product. As a sustainable
designer, I believe less is more.” And
with that, Tsang Fan Yu really hits the
nail on the head – less is more. Less
wasted material, less new material and
less impact to our world.
Materials matter
The end of last century saw the ‘fast
fashion’ revolution in the fashion
industry. High street brands like
H&M and Top Shop now present
us with incredible ranges in a very
timely manner. We’ve spent the past
few decades enjoying a flood of very
affordable seasonal fashion. However,
having access to the latest looks comes
at a cost. Our insatiable consumption
and readiness to just throw away items
has resulted in mountains of discarded
material. Here in Hong Kong,
roughly 79,205 tonnes of textiles were
sent to landfills in 2011. Considering
our landfills are almost full, that’s very
bad news.
In response, there’s a movement
within the fashion design community
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