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INTERVIEW
Redress is a Hong Kong-based NGO dedicated to advancing circularity within the fashion industry founded by Dr Christina Dean in 2007. Since then, she has transformed the organisation from a nascent startup into a global force for sustainable fashion. Under her leadership, Redress has pioneered initiatives that educate and empower fashion designers and consumers alike, aiming to mitigate the environmental impacts of clothing. Just in the year 2023, Redress launched its first industry report, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Shenzhen Garment Industry Association (SGIA), circular fashion training Get Redressed School Ambassadors Programme and hosted its first-ever Wear Secondhand Day in October. The organisation’s reach, while global, remains distinctly focused on Asia, the epicentre of textile production and consumption.
In January, Redress kicks off the new year of sustainable fashion and circularity with its prestigious Redress Design Award 2024, celebrating sustainable fashion practices. The launch event gathered key figures from the fashion industry, including the organisation's new strategic partners and Exclusive Fashion Sponsor, Maximilian Berleb, Senior Vice President of Operations for Tommy Hilfiger Asia Pacific, to highlight the urgency of their mission together. The coveted First Prize offers the winner a unique opportunity to collaborate with Tommy Hilfiger's team in Hong Kong on a sustainable design project. This partnership aims to inspire and support the next generation of fashion innovators.
In this exclusive interview, CSP Times sits down with Dr Christina Dean and Maximilian Berleb to delve into this dream collaboration and their collective efforts to redress the current fashion industry.
What is circular fashion, and how does it affect us as consumers?
Dr Christina Dean: Circular fashion is a system of designing, producing and retailing clothes in ways that take responsibility for the product along its entire life and where materials are reused and where nothing goes to waste.
Making fashion circular is important to consumers because, on the big planetary scale, it offers a solution to fashion’s current polluting ways. Currently, most fashion today is created in a linear system, where we take, make and dispose of clothes. That’s why we are in this awful reality in which of the 100 billion new garments produced every year, 80% will end up in landfill within one year of production, and where 92 million tonnes of textile waste are generated annually.
If consumers could do their bit to help transform the linear system into a circular system – by essentially buying less, buying better and wearing more - we could reduce fashion’s wasteful ways.
Making fashion circular is important to us consumers as we accept that we have an important role to play in being more ethical and respectful about all of our purchases, from fashion to food, and behaviours about what we own. We all live on this planet, for what is a very short period of time, and we owe it to ourselves to act with integrity, without having to compromise our sense of enjoyment or our ability to acquire beautiful objects that provide us with joy. The truth is that we are all increasingly affected by climate change, to varying degrees whether you’re a farmer living on dry soils or a fashionista watching your hard-earned cash, or worse, your home go up in flames.
How do you wish to impact Asia's fashion industry with Redress?
Dr Christina Dean: Asia’s fashion industry is dynamic and potently important to global fashion sustainability! Asia is the production powerhouse of the world – 60% of global exports of clothes and textiles come from Asia – and it is home to the world’s biggest shoppers – China surpassed the US as being the biggest domestic fashion consumer market – and APAC has many fast growing emerging markets. This is why we are HK-based and Asia focused, because to make change on the global stage, we have to work within Asia’s incredible industry, which is both awash with waste and also opportunity. This means educating fashion designers in Asia, as well as beyond, to inspiring consumers in Asia with more positive, and more circular, fashion consumption models.
That said, Asia is extremely diverse, from culture to economy and politics. So in some places we might see growing manufacturing hotspots – like Vietnam and Cambodia – and in others we see fast growing consumption – like India and Indonesia. So, like most complex things, there isn’t one cookie-cut-out solution.
However, despite these challenges, we have our eyes and hearts on Asia. We want to work more with leading Asian fashion universities, who already form a significant cluster of our already 160+ global fashion university partners. We also want to continue expanding our consumer-work, which educates and inspires more positive fashion consumption models.
How can consumers play a role in supporting circular fashion?
Dr Christina Dean: Firstly, we need to recognise that circular fashion is extremely complex. The fashion industry must grapple with new systems and materials and work together to make better clothes, and then to collect, recycle, unwanted materials to ‘new’ clothes using more recycled materials that are already in existence. This doesn’t happen overnight, sadly.
At the same time, us consumers need to get active in supporting a more circular fashion system. This means buy less and buy better – like buying secondhand clothes or better quality clothes made with safe and durable textiles – and we need to keep our clothes in use for as long as possible - by caring for clothes properly, repairing and altering them, or by reselling or swapping, and only then, if we really want to part ways with their clothes, to gift to friends, family or, only finally, to charities.
" The fashion industry must grapple with new systems and materials and work together to make better clothes, and then to collect, recycle, unwanted materials to ‘new’ clothes using more recycled materials that are already in existence." - Dr Christina Dean, Founder of Redress
What would you say are the biggest misconceptions about circular fashion today?
Dr Christina Dean: Despite circular fashion being complicated, one problematic misconception that consumers have about circular fashion is that it’s too big and lofty and complex for them to partake in it. So many consumers put off acting, or can’t be bothered to consider changing, as if we have all the tomorrows left in the world, which we do not. We all need to pull our socks up on our sense of responsibility and urgency and realise that our actions, and inactions, do matter. It might feel like a drop in the ocean to mend your trousers or alter your dress or schlep to a secondhand shop, but it is our collective actions that make change.
As my friend Robert Swan said, ‘the greatest threat to the planet is the idea that someone else will save it.'
What is the Redress Design Award, and what are its values?
Dr Christina Dean: The Redress Design Award is the world’s largest sustainable fashion design competition working to educate emerging fashion designers around the world about sustainable design theories and techniques in order to drive the shift towards a circular fashion system. By putting sustainable design talent in the global spotlight, the competition creates a unique platform for passionate and talented fashion game-changers to transform the global fashion industry and rewards the best with career-changing prizes to maximise long-term impact.
We strongly believe that fashion designers are in a powerful position to transform fashion because it is estimated that 80% of a product’s environmental impact is determined at the design stage. We know that sustainable fashion education at tertiary level generally is lacking and because we value fashion designers so highly, we have essentially crafted, over 14 years, a high-impact, exciting competition that has a very strong, foundational educational base. This means that all our designer applicants, from around 50 countries worldwide, get educated and they change, whether they make it as winners or not.
Above all else, I personally believe that our fashion designer applicants are actually fashion activist, who are using the drawing board as a place to cast their dreams and aspirations for a better fashion industry – and world. These designers are micro and macro influencers, changing their friends, communities minds, from all over the world.
"By putting sustainable design talent in the global spotlight, the competition creates a unique platform for passionate and talented fashion game-changers to transform the global fashion industry and rewards the best with career-changing prizes to maximise long-term impact."
- Dr Christina Dean, Founder of Redress
Sustainability and ethical practices are becoming increasingly important in the fashion industry. Can you share some of Tommy Hilfiger's initiatives and commitments in this regard?
Maximilian Berleb: Powered by our parent company PVH’s Forward Fashion strategy, Tommy Hilfiger launched its sustainability strategy in 2020 with a commitment to driving circularity and inclusivity in fashion. Although we are accelerating this change, our social and environmental sustainability work began more than a decade ago.
As part of our ambition to Waste Nothing and Welcome All, we believe in a future of fashion that limits waste and minimizes environmental footprints, and one that is inclusive for all. Tomorrow’s fashion should be circular, which is why we are designing to keep our products in use as long as we can, critically assessing how we source and scale the use of innovative and sustainable materials, and reducing emissions across our supply chain. We are also continuing to increase transparency for our consumers so they can understand more about where their products come from.
"We want to make circular design the norm."
-Maximilian Berleb, Senior Vice President, Operations for Tommy Hilfiger Asia Pacific
How does Tommy Hilfiger approach the design process with circular fashion principles in mind? Are there any design elements that reflect this commitment?
Maximilian Berleb: By 2030, we’re aiming to design all our products following circular economy principles, recognising that 80% of the environmental impact is determined at the design stage. We want to make circular design the norm.
While there's no industry standard, we align with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's vision for a circular fashion industry, where products are designed with safe, recyclable and/or renewable materials, made for extended use and made to be made again. We challenge ourselves by questioning the purpose, lifetime, materials and end-of-life considerations for each product to foster a circular mindset.
Currently, we’re developing a comprehensive framework to equip our designers, product development teams and merchandisers with the necessary tools and knowledge to bring to market more durable products that can be reused for as long as possible. This proactive approach aligns with our long-term commitment to embedding circular principles throughout our entire design process.
"We’re also testing and running projects that push boundaries and build our knowledge of biotechnology, circular systems and innovative materials."
- Maximilian Berleb, Senior Vice President, Operations for Tommy Hilfiger Asia Pacific
Are there any upcoming projects or innovations related to circular fashion that you are particularly excited about and would like to share with our readers?
Maximilian Berleb: We are continuing to test and scale circular business models, such as resale and trade in, to find new ways of creating value for our customers while reducing environmental impact. This is helping us to build a stronger, more agile and resilient business while extending our products’ lifespans. We’re also testing and running projects that push boundaries and build our knowledge of biotechnology, circular systems and innovative materials.
We want to encourage more designers to join us on this journey of circular design. As Exclusive Fashion Sponsor for the 2024 Redress Design Award, we will collaborate with Redress on educational resources on circular design, participate in the judging process and really get to know the semi-finalists and finalists. The winner will have the opportunity to work with the Tommy Hilfiger team on a project basis. We’re proud to be supporting emerging design talent, contributing to critical education and elevating circular design to the mainstream.
What advice do you have for individuals looking to make more sustainable fashion choices?
Dr Christina Dean: The best advice I have is one that involves the heart and mind really, not what temperature to wash at or which fibre to buy! I’ve always believed that at best, our own closets are a reflection of our taste and values. If this is true, then curating a closet can become an ethical, style and purpose-driven adventure that can take us from recycled, fair trade, secondhand, tailored, artisanal to swapped pieces and beyond. The fashion industry is a USD2.5 trillion annual business and each of our purses contribute to this. So the exciting opportunity for individuals wanting to make more sustainable fashion choices is to dive in and have fun exploring how to weave more heart and soul into our closets.
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All imagery is provided by Amara Communications.
Address: 78 Ap Liu Street, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, Hong Kong | Website: redress.com.hk | Phone: +852 2861 0360 | Email: info@redress.com.hk | Instagram: @getredressed | Facebook: @RedressAsia