Meet the 2025 Semi-finalists

Yixuan Nie

Redress Design Award

  • 2025
 Finalist

Meet The Designer

“Fashion comes from life and should also serve our living. Design is not only an expression of aesthetics, but also a responsibility to society, culture, and the environment.”
Yixuan Nie
“Fashion comes from life and should also serve our living. Design is not only an expression of aesthetics, but also a responsibility to society, culture, and the environment.”
Yixuan Nie

Bio

Yixuan Nie is a Finalist of the Redress Design Award 2025. She holds a master’s degree in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, USA, and a bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

Region

  • USA

Collection

  • Womenswear

Design Techniques

  • Reconstruction, Upcycling

Redress Design Award Collection

Yixuan’s Redress Design Award collection, ‘YANXIA’, is inspired by the street corners of the designer’s hometown in Beijing, China, where life gathers in casual and comfortable clothing. The collection features baggy and puffy designs upcycled from textile swatches and reconstructed from clothing samples and secondhand garments such as a terry cotton sweatshirt and knit sweater with elastic. Prints are added by splicing and combining strips of fabric, and an expandable dress hem offers versatility with styling.

Q&A with the designer

My awareness of sustainable thinking took root at a very early stage, long before I formally studied fashion. Growing up in Beijing, I was surrounded by a culture where elderly people would mend and rework worn-out garments with great care—transforming them into something new and functional. Each stitch carried memory, each repair added uniqueness.

However, it wasn’t until I moved to the US that I truly committed to practicing sustainable fashion. Here, I was inspired by the widespread embrace of vintage culture among young people. Wearing secondhand clothing isn’t considered shameful—it’s celebrated. This shift in mindset made me want to do more and explore creative ways to reduce waste.

My collection centres on transforming discarded garments through reconstruction and storytelling. While upcycling is widely practiced, what makes my approach unique is the narrative I embed into every design. Each look is inspired by ordinary but emotionally rich street scenes from Beijing—makeshift barbers, elderly men playing chess, mismatched household objects placed at doorsteps.
These memories, when translated into garments using salvaged fabrics, carry both texture and soul. I see sustainability as not only technical, but emotional—extending the life of clothes while preserving lived history.

My dream is to help clothes find their second life—to extend the value of garments that were once abandoned. I believe design has the power to reawaken emotion and function in forgotten items.

I’m also inspired by how young people today are increasingly open to playing with secondhand fashion. This gives me hope and energy—I see so many possibilities in reworking old clothes through creative styling, colour, and silhouette. I hope my joyful use of colour can inspire others to rediscover the potential in what they already own.

Definitely hair accessories! I love wearing hats, scarves, or scrunchies. They’re small but powerful—they bring personality to an outfit and can be worn in many ways.

I often make them myself using leftover fabrics, especially ones with personal value. For me, they’re a daily reminder that fashion can be both practical and playful.

This collection is fully committed to reworking secondhand clothing. Every piece is made from discarded garments or leftover materials, reimagined into new narratives.

For me, sustainability is not a trend, but a long-term philosophy—one that values process, patience, and creativity. Through this project, I hope to invite more people to see the hidden charm in what already exists.

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