Bio

After winning Redress Design Award 2013 first prize, Karen Jessen designed the third Recycled Collection by Esprit. This collection launched in Autumn 2014 and retailed in nine markets across Asia and Europe. Karen designs for Benu Berlin, the sustainable womenswear brand she launched in 2012, focusing on reconstruction and up-cycling design techniques, and material manipulation to transform streetwear into wearable artworks. The brand’s vision is to reintegrate the tailoring craft to Berlin and to show a diagonal proposition on fashion for a conscious way of consumption.

Karen continues to make waves in the fashion industry. Her brand has been featured at Berlin Fashion Week (2014), Paris Fashion Week (2015) and the VOGUE Salon at Berlin fashion Week (2015). Karen previously lectured at ESMOD Berlin and she is now teaching at mediencollege Berlin. Karen holds a Fashion Design and Pattern Drafting degree from ESMOD Berlin.

Jeans and T-shirts are some of the most mass produced garments in the world and also the most thrown away. Transforming old clothes is an effective approach to turn this cycle around - Karen Jessen

Redress Design Award collection

For her Redress Design Award 2013 (formerly the EcoChic Design Award)Collection, Karen reconstructed jeans and T-shirts sourced from secondhand stores in Germany.

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