For our final segment on Hong Kong’s zero waste lifestyle, we present to you Dr Christina Dean, a dentist turned fashionista advocating for sustainable fashion in Hong Kong.
Her Fashion Revelation
As founder and chief executive of Hong Kong charity Redress and upcycled fashion brand The R Collective, Dr Christina Dean’s always been a promoter of more environmentally-friendly fashion. Her promoting and passion for it started in 2007 but was confirmed further in 2012. This was the year when she found out how much waste the fashion industry was actually producing. Only then in 2012, at 39 years of age did she really realize how actually important the job she was doing was.
While Dean was filming a segment on sustainable fashion for TV, this is what she had to say about her findings: “We went to one of Hong Kong’s landfills and watched lorries queue up to dump thousands of tonnes of clothes. It was depressing. If the industry is trying to improve but consumers still chuck their clothes away, what’s the point?” she says. As a response to this, Dean spent the next year dressing only in second-hand clothes.
Can Fashion be Zero Waste?
“For the first few years, I thought the thing was to stop buying so much crap, then I realised consumers are always going to buy clothes because they do wear out,” she says. “There’s no ‘zero waste’ because people will be buying new clothes and I’m comfortable with that. The Redress world is about cultivating a more sustainable, responsible fashion industry, whether that’s from the industry side or the consumption side or consumer care.”
Additionally, Dean runs the annual Redress Design Award to celebrate up-and-coming designers anywhere in the world who use sustainable approaches, including upcycling, zero waste and reconstruction techniques, to create new clothes.
Dean prizes herself on dressing only in items that are second-hand or made with upcycled fibres and describes herself as “militant” when it comes to recycling and food waste.
What IS Zero Waste:
The zero waste lifestyle, if you’re unfamiliar with it, is a lifestyle where you strive to produce as little waste as possible. It says “zero” but really, it is just about trying your best to not produce unnecessary waste. Almost of all our plastic products can be replaced with reusable items that might take a little bit of getting used to, but are ultimately better for the environment.
Thanks for reading! What are your thoughts on Dr Dean’s efforts? Let us know in the comments below!
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