Meet Redress 2019 Winner Maddie Williams

Every September, while major fashion weeks unveil the usual facade of glitter and champagne, a unique kind of catwalk unfolds in Hong Kong, to champion sustainability and highlight revolutionary approaches to fashion’s waste problem. The Redress Design Award offers a career catalyst to an outstanding designer, but it also serves to educate a new generate of socially conscious and eco-literate creatives.  Previous winners have included Kévin Germanier and Tess Whitfort. Below, we hear from the 2019 winner, Maddie Williams, who spoke with Fashion Revolution about her experience in the awards scheme and her vision for the future of fashion.

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Bronwyn: Tell us about yourself! Where did you study fashion and how did you come to focus on repurposing materials and wanting to ensure your collections have a positive impact?

Maddie Williams: I studied my Fashion Foundation at Kingston University and I think that’s where I really discovered the possibilities that Art and Design hold for positive action. I remember exploring various social issues with my work during that year – but I don’t think I ever touched on the environmental side of things.

My knowledge and awareness of the climate crisis grew as I was beginning my BA studies (in 2014)  in Fashion and Design at Edinburgh College of Art, so it was a natural pairing of the two. With my graduate collection I knew I wanted to create something that had a visual impact and brought awareness to the issues that were troubling/ interesting me at the time, but I also wanted to make sure that the pieces I made had a minimal impact. I knew the work I was making was not commercial and would never be sold or worn (I honestly thought it would only be worn once on the Graduate Fashion Week Catwalk), it was more like costume or art – so I was never trying to claim I was making work that offered a solution to the problems with fashion, just hoping to draw attention to them. I used a lot of reclaimed plastics, mainly Royal Mail sacks, and reclaimed PVC – these materials allowed me a lot of freedom creatively. However, going forwards, and if I was ever making clothes to sell, I would be avoiding plastics and placing a much stronger emphasis on natural fibres or reclaimed textile waste.

I continue to learn more, and am constantly trying to better my practice. Knowledge about the destruction we are doing to the planet continues to increase, new horrors are brought to light daily, you must keep reassessing your impact and avoid complacency.

Bronwyn: Can you talk about your experience with the Redress award?

Maddie Williams: Initially I applied to the Redress Design Award because I really wanted an excuse to do some of my own work and be creatively expressive again. I had been working for a more corporate company at the time, and although I’d been learning a lot, it didn’t feel like a natural home to me. 

I learned loads throughout the whole Redress experience, both while I was making the collection and of course when we were in Hong Kong. 

When making the collection I experimented with and learnt more about new techniques. Because there was such a short time frame to create the work it was really just a case of experimenting and making it up as you go. If I made mistakes that would just have to be how it was because there was no time to practice or test, luckily I’m naturally a bit slap dash and happy to improvise. For example, before creating my Redress collection I had only done a bit of screen printing while at secondary school, so I really had to learn how to print while I was printing the final fabrics – which was probably a bit risky, but it worked out in the end!

Bronwyn: What were the big learning points along the journey with Redress?

Maddie Williams: During the Grand Final trip we were taken to so many interesting and inspiring locations, the TAL Factory in Vietnam was a particular highlight. It was wonderful to see a factory that operates under such strong ethical and environmental principles, it shows that there is no excuse (other than an obsession with profit and growth) for big brands not to invest in manufacturers who are willing to improve the industry.

I am a real technophobe, but some of the most intriguing and exciting things we were shown with Redress were new tech innovations and the impacts they could have on changing the fashion industry for the better. For example body scanning technology for made to order garments could be a futuristic hark back to the traditional visit to the tailor or seamstress. It could become possible for custom made clothing to become more affordable and widely available. This would be great as it cuts back on deadstock waste, and would potentially lead to people valuing their clothes more and having a more personal bond with them.

I also learned so much from my fellow finalists, we all had different experiences, knowledge and approaches that we brought to the table. Their enthusiasm and dedication was so inspiring and I will use what I learnt from them as I go forward.

Bronwyn: What is your vision for the future? How will the redress prize shape your next steps?

Maddie Williams: The Redress Prize means that I will be spending some time in China this year, working with REVERB an environmentally conscious fashion brand, to develop a capsule collection. This is equally daunting and exciting; I haven’t commercialised any of my designs before so it should be a steep learning curve. And while I am still grappling with my conscience on how I feel about creating more clothing to be put out and sold in the world, I am consoling myself with the knowledge that this collection will be made out of reclaimed textile waste. I also feel that to be able to participate in and change the Industry you need to truly understand it and have experience of how it currently functions. I have everything to learn at the moment and want to make positive use of opportunities that are offered to me.

Looking further forward, I still don’t know what I want to do. I would like to study for an MA, probably not a Fashion Design MA. I would like to learn things that broaden my knowledge and make use of my skills in the way that is most helpful to tackling the climate crisis.

Bronwyn: I love that you acknowledge this paradox between wanting to create things and put them out into the world while also knowing this world has too much stuff. What is your advice to young designers who feel the weight of this same issue? 

Maddie Williams: I honestly don’t know… I can’t pretend I know or have an answer. I think where you stand on this is so personal, and so much to do with where you draw your boundaries, and also how you approach design and what your skill set is. 

For example, I think there is definitely a place for designers who care about the climate, but also thrive in corporate environments, to go in to these big brands and make vital change from the inside. The corporate world isn’t for everyone (I tried), and if you have the confidence and the right temperament to operate in that space, as well as a thirst for change and the courage to fight for it – that is a super important place to be. Personally I struggled, and I don’t think I could go back. 

I am still trying to work out where my place is, especially as I have a drive to create but I don’t have much of a business drive to sell my work. I suppose we have to think about why we need Fashion or Art and what its importance is to culture, you can get so wrapped up in the ethics and the sustainability (or financial profit) of the work you forget what the point of doing it was in the first place. Humans have always sought to create, either to express collective feelings, solve problems, tell stories, bring joy or just create beauty. I think it’s a natural impulse to want to create… we just have to find a way of doing it that doesn’t cause such a destructive mess, because if we stopped making art the world would be far more boring.

To follow the journeys of all of the talented redress finalists, you can read their stories here.