150 150 Pollination Projects

Fashion Eco-Warrior: Christina Dean

Who: Christina Dean, Founder of Redress

Why: Redress is a Hong Kong based NGO with a mission to promote environmental sustainability in Asia’s fashion industry by reducing textile waste, pollution, water and energy consumption.

How did you go from journalism and dentistry to becoming an advocate for sustainable fashion education?  Was there a particular reason that spurred this venture?

I didn’t enjoy hurting people all day when I was a dentist in the UK and so I decided to stop! I retrained as a journalist in London and soon afterwards I moved to Hong Kong in 2005. Here, I wrote for various publications and one of my favourite topics was about environmental issues. It was whilst researching about China’s environmental crisis that I realized how much of the negative impacts in China – and the rest of the world – are caused by the fashion and textile industries, which are very polluting. When I realized that there weren’t many organisations trying to reduce the pollution from the fashion industry, I felt deeply moved to get involved. I knew too much! I couldn’t turn away from this huge new passion that I felt towards reducing the negative impacts of the fashion industry and so I started Redress in 2007.

Redress is about 10 years into operation, what are some of the key milestones of this last decade?

We’ve worked on many exciting and impactful projects in Hong Kong, Asia and beyond but in particular I’m proud of what The EcoChic Design Award – an educational sustainable fashion design competition for emerging fashion designers – has achieved since inception in 2011. Designers are thought to influence 80-90% of the environmental and economic impact of products and so we created a competition to educate and inspire designers about how to create clothes with less impact – and to cut waste out of fashion. The competition grew fast; we are now about to start out 7th cycle and we have energetic support from over 75 academic institutions in Asia and Europe – with 260 more universities in the sidelines. The response from designer applicants confirms everything I hoped for; designers want change.

Another big milestone is our documentary. We are launching our first documentary, Frontline Fashion, which follows 10 designers’ journey as they compete to prove that sustainable fashion doesn’t compromise on style. It demonstrates the innovation and passion for change expressed by emerging designers to the mainstream screen. 

I’m also proud of our alumni from the competition, a growing number of whom are successfully pursuing careers in sustainable design. Great examples are Janko Lam (Classics Anew), Angus Tsui (ANGUS TSUI), Kelvin Wan (Wan & Wong Fashion) and Alex Law (Alex Leau). Since participating in our previous cycles, they have impressively developed their sustainable brands for the market. In line with Redress’ mission to reduce waste in the fashion industry, each of their designs are textile waste-reducing.

I am also very excited by the traction that our consumer campaigns are having around the reduction of personal clothing waste. Our clothing drives are growing in size all the time and we have had great response to our secondhand pop-up shops, although there is still a long way to go until we change the mindset of many Hongkongers.

How have you leveraged on the ever-changing digital landscape to increase awareness and visibility?

The digital landscape is essential for us as we work across multiple countries for our projects. For example, The EcoChic Design Award is open to designers in all Asia and Europe and so it’s essential that we have educational content that can be visible wherever designers live. In terms of reaching consumers, we’re passionate about our continuous campaigns on our social media channels, so that we inspire people to keep on making small changes. Consumers absorb so much information about fashion through digital – so we need to be there too.

For example, with the 365 Challenge, we gained a lot of traction with consumers and we catalyzed discussions about the high levels of clothing waste. This created ripples in people’s wardrobes and in editors’ magazines and continues to do so. We have a number of digital campaigns coming up in the next year so watch this space!

Who are you speaking to? In other words who are your ‘customers’

Our mission is to promote environmental sustainability and reduce waste in the fashion industry and so we’ve targeted our progammes into areas were we can make an impact across the fashion industry, from production through to use and disposal. This means our work is relevant to pretty much anyone who works with – or wears – clothes! That’s no small feat!

Our programmes are broken down into the four main areas of; The EcoChic Design Award, a sustainable fashion design competition for emerging designers; Consumer Campaigns, which include a range of activities such as social media educational challenges, workshops, exhibitions and media outreach to encourage consumers to rethink the way that they consume, wear, care and dispose of fashion; Industry Engagement, where we push the development of a more sustainable fashion industry, for example, through seminars, workshops, and research; and The R Cert, a consumer-facing standard for recycled textile clothing that guarantees that a brand recycled their own textile manufacturing waste into their own recycled textile clothing, 

 Within these areas there are always challenges of course. We will not change the industry or consumer behaviour overnight. But we have chosen these four areas as key touch points to reach different audiences across the entire fashion cycle with different levels of engagement. Most of all our work is focused around highlighting positive solutions to enable change in the industry.

Are there are other organizations such as yours being developed both locally and globally?

Although to date we have not found another organization that is directly comparable to us, there are a number of other great initiatives touching on different parts of what we do. For example, if designers or brands are interested in going deeper into transforming their businesses, as well as Redress pushing this agenda through our forums and industry engagement, there are several other great organisations here in Hong Kong, such as The Sustainable Fashion Business Consortium, Hong Kong Design Institute and the Clothing Industry Training Authority, who are all educating new and seasoned fashion industry insiders on issued related to sustainable fashion.

For consumers there are a number of great organisations, such as Fashion Revolution or Greenpeace that are pushing change and providing information to the world about what goes on in the process to make our clothes. Closer to home in Hong Kong, there’s an exciting start up scene of organisations making a more sustainable closet possible; cue clothing rental companies, secondhand sales companies and swapping events to name just a few.

When do you foresee people making a more remarkable shift to curb demand of fast fashion?

 Firstly, you need to educate to encourage change. Unfortunately, too many consumers don’t understand the true depth of the situation that when they purchase clothes they are buying into one of the world’s most polluting consumer goods. This lack of awareness, which is particularly evident in Asia, is allowing the fast fashion industry and fast fashion production to continue like wildfire to a devastating environmental and social outcome.

However, in general once people are educated about how their direct shopping habits affect the planet and people, they begin to shift behaviors, be it with small steps, as few willingly wish to be clothed with products that caused direct harm to others. Ultimately, people need to be educated about how responsible and influential they are for how the fashion industry operates simply through where they choose to spend their money, how they choose to care for their clothes and how they discard of their clothes.

A simple way for consumers to start would be to look at their favorite fashion brands and ask basic questions; like where and how was it made? Will these clothes last? Are they made well? Brands are (albeit slowly) reacting to a growing need for information within their consumer bases and providing more transparency on this information. Consumers should also look within their wardrobes and ask – Do you already have similar items in your existing wardrobe? How could you restyle or rework what you already own.

 Although the change is not as fast as we would like, we are definitely seeing a shift in perception. The rise in coverage in the media is creating a thirst, particularly with the young generation, for a different fashion system. We hope it will continue to accelerate and we wont be stopping our work any time soon!

What are some brands that are successful in delivering great product/design in a sustainable and cost effective way?

Many of the big, famous named international giants are producing some more sustainable collections, in addition to their conventional lines, and are transforming their businesses bit by bit. These include the likes of H&M, Puma and Levi’s, for example. There are also a number of brands launching with sustainability at their core, some notable ones are Reformation and Everlane in the US. On the smaller scale and locally to Hong Kong, there are also many emerging designers and brands that are developing more sustainable brands. Some of my favourites in Hong Kong are new brands, like Wan & Wong Fashion, Janko Lam’s Classics Anew and Alex Law’s brand, Alex Leau, who are all putting waste back into fashion! For the full list.

Personally, I am a huge fan of buying secondhand clothes, as this is one of the most creative, cost effective and environmentally sustainable way to create a conscious closet. With secondhand, you can creatively compile your personal style and you’re almost guaranteed that no one else will be dressed the same! You can save money since secondhand comes at reduced cost and your closet will have a low environmental impact because you are simply reusing resources already embedded in pre-existing garments, rather than driving the production of new clothes.

“Fashion is a reflection of our time. Fashion can tell you everything that’s going on in our world,” says Anna Wintour. The fact the fashion industry is in such a polluting mess reflects the bigger environmental and social challenges that we face on a global level and across all industries. ” A Quote that Inspires Christina Dean

FRONTLINE FASHION - Official Trailer

Ever wondered what it’s like for designers working on the frontline to make our clothes more sustainable? Frontline Fashion follows 10 talented Asian and European emerging fashion designers determined to change the future of fashion – currently one of the most polluting industries – for the better in the world’s biggest sustainable fashion design competition, The EcoChic Design Award.

As they descend into Hong Kong for the design battle of their lives, all eyes are on the first prize; to design an up-cycled collection for China’s leading luxury brand, Shanghai Tang. But before they meet the region’s fashion elite on the Hong Kong Fashion Week runway, the designers must prove they have what it takes to transform fashion’s polluting ways, by tackling fashion’s waste at a discarded clothing warehouse and exploring behind the scenes at one of the biggest shirt manufacturers in the world. As the 10 vie for the winning position they prove that when it comes sustainable fashion, there is no need for a compromise in style – but there can only be one winner…