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Known as one of the biggest climate polluters in history, the fashion industry is responsible for eight to 10 percent of global emissions, according to the United Nations. We are beginning to realize how much our shopping habits are affecting the planet. While sustainable labels seem to be popping up every week, the best way to reduce our carbon footprint as fashion shoppers may be to buy secondhand. For Earth Day 2023, Asian lifestyle It spotlights the innovators who are struggling to transform the industry from the inside out. We speak to three of Hong Kong’s most popular pre-owned designer retailers – Vestiaire Collective, Hula and Retykkle – to learn about the city’s thriving club fashion economy.
HULA was born out of excess. Founder Sarah Fung recounts her nine-year tenure as a buyer at Lane Crawford, when the designer’s clothes were tossed aside season after season: “IIt was a little sick, because I could see like a pair of Alaia boots, for example, that nobody wanted. I said, ‘Oh my God, someone [else] I absolutely want those.’
The shopping culture is brutal, especially if one works in fashion. Sarah remembers her fellow shoppers wearing the designer head to toe. of the day, Changed every 6 months. Special perks like staff sales and 50% off at Lane Crawford didn’t help either.
Sarah admits that she has never been completely free of shopping habits, but she has had a love of saving since childhood. “In England I always wear pre-owned or second-hand, I never buy that much new. But when I came to Hong Kong, I stopped because I didn’t feel like that kind of look suited my work in Lane Crawford. After realizing that there wasn’t much of a secondary market in Hong Kong (barring handbags), and considering the products she and her peers had collected through their fashion careers, it seemed to make sense to found HULA in 2016. “So after nine years I left Lane Crawford. I prepared this.
Now in the midst of relocating its headquarters from Wong Chuk Hang to Quarry Bay, Sarah plans to develop a sustainable marketplace in the new space, which will open at the end of May. In our chat below, she talks about the challenges of promoting circular fashion in a market fixated on novelty, the city’s shopping culture, and changing the way we think about designer fashion – for our wallets and our good. Planet.
What were the challenges in bringing the idea of circle fashion to the Hong Kong market?
What I didn’t realize at first was that the locals here don’t buy second hand products. When I started, I did a survey, the survey was obviously among my friends, and they were like, “Yeah, well, that sounds good.”
Some people are lost by it, but I didn’t realize all the implications of buying a pre-owned in Hong Kong. In the first few years, it was very difficult to start the business. I was importing products, but I wasn’t selling as much as I was taking. Nothing close.
So there were many educational efforts. I got to do a lot of panel discussion. It was very difficult at first to know who my customers were.
Hong Kong is always obsessed with finding something new, and there’s a huge thrift culture in everything from clothing to furniture. But there are also many boutiques, such as Milan Station.
Yes, but the thing is that handbags are different from clothes and shoes. So I’ve heard that people are safe buying second-hand items that don’t touch their body. So the handbag market here is always very buoyant.
We were really trying as a brand to make the proprietary arousal first. I think the turning point is actually opening the warehouse in 2019. Every week we had an event where you could see cool, fashionable women come together and shop. And I think that didn’t happen as much before because people were shy about buying second-hand.
I believe people in Hong Kong still love the shopping. The idea of buying and actually doing it as a hobby.
“When I first started, people didn’t know – actually, I didn’t even know – that fashion is the biggest polluter globally. I didn’t realize it could take 30,000 gallons of water to make a t-shirt or 10,000 gallons of water to make a pound of cotton. People used to keep such data very hidden – or brands were.
Must be an experience, right? And you’re really creating a community here. Back to education, what ideas have you been bringing to events like your panels to bring awareness to circular fashion?
A lot of it was around sustainability. When I first started, people didn’t know – actually, I didn’t even know – that fashion is the biggest polluter globally. I didn’t realize it could take 30,000 gallons of water to make a t-shirt or 10,000 gallons of water to make a pound of cotton. People used to keep such data very hidden – or brand names. And fast fashion was definitely taking the spotlight.
[Another part of] The surrounding education was about the benefits of buying a pre-owned, namely the price. It’s that they come to one place and buy Maje in the same room as Chanel. accessibility; Being able to try on Chanel when you don’t usually go into a Chanel store.
You can mix and match. You don’t look like anyone else. TThere are many different things here. That alone is a win-win for me. So I feel like it’s an easy topic to sell.
I think people are changing their minds about buying pre-owned. And if the store is centrally located, we’ve definitely converted a lot of people, who may never have considered owning one before.
Where do you see circular fashion both locally and globally in the next 10 years?
Although this market is not a new one, it has gained a lot of attention in recent years. It was very popular in the West and Japan. Covid was the reason people really thought about what they were buying and had time to think about fashion’s impact on Earth. Any product that is resold only sells for 5-7% per year. There are many untouched items in people’s closets, worth about $2 trillion dollars. So I think it’s here to stay, people are getting smarter about how to make money on their closets, and you know, I think it’s a recession-proof market.
If you buy pre-owned and resell and do that, you’re not really spending that much money on buying fashion. Especially if you bought it as a first owner. You have to make sure that the quality is good enough to wear it and sell it again.
I really feel you can have fun with fashion. Because obviously, the number one thing to do [that’s best for the planet]Not buying anything, right? But we are human, and we all have desires. We all want to look a certain way. We all want to feel a certain way. And I feel pre-owned is the fastest and most impactful way we can do that.
(Images c/o HULA)
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