Towards a sustainable model – and future – for luxury fashion

As we start the new year and close the books on another season, The Mag looks at some of the trends that will define the luxury market of the future as we strive for a zero waste world–and at the ways our Taikoo Place community is embracing this new luxury model.

 

“Shop til you drop” and “retail therapy” are two familiar expressions that have been fading from use as we all become more aware of the environmental consequences of over-consumption. Many Taikoo Place community members are reflecting: Do we really need everything we buy to be brand new? Is there a way I can re-use and renew items I already have instead of acquiring more?

The Taikoo Place neighbourhood offers a number of options that we can use to consume fashion more sustainably. For instance, we are home to one of Hong Kong’s most innovative fashion retailers, OnTheList. “We are turning old inventory into opportunity,” says Diego Dultzin Lacoste, OnTheList’s co-founder and CFO. The shop, which in addition to offering sales on overstock luxury merchandise, also hosts clothing swaps in its 11,000 square foot Oxford House storeroom.

Taikoo Place has been leading the way with other initiatives that boost a “circular economy” approach to fashion and make it super-convenient for people who live or work here to take part in. Taikoo Place has played host to several second-hand clothing collection and swap pop up events by Redress, an environmental NGO working to reduce waste in the fashion industry.

Last month, Blueprint at Dorset House was the setting for another circular economy initiative, Métier Minus Post-loved Fashion Charity Pop-up by Freshfields. The hugely successful event gave our community members an opportunity to build their wardrobes with gorgeous, second hand designer pieces, while contributing to Green Ladies, a local charity that works towards lowering fashion waste. [Read more in this month’s Taikoo Place Insiders with Teresa Ko]

Our local Taikoo Place initiatives reflect the larger, big picture changes that are happening in the global luxury fashion industry, where the issue of sustainability has moved from a fringe to a mainstream concern.

The new emphasis on sustainability in luxury is still in early stages, but gathering steam as companies work to establish credibility with consumers that goes beyond PR and “greenwashing”. High-end designers like Stella McCartney and the late Vivienne Westwood were early advocates, creating ethically-sourced fashion lines, and in the case of Westwood, using their celebrity platform to increase ecological awareness. The jewellery and watch industries, for their part, began highlighting their use of non-conflict gemstones and recycled gold and other metals.

The Kering Group’s Gucci brand has introduced an entire new line called “Off The Grid”, luggage and accessories that use recycled, organic, bio-based and sustainably sourced materials. Chanel introduced a new, environmentally conscious tweed to its Cruise 2021/22 collection. The fabric boasts 70% eco-responsible yarn that meets Global Organic Textile Standards (GOTS). Luxury has a built in advantage when it comes to such initiatives – without the bottom line pressure and thin margins typical of mass market fashion, high-end brands have more freedom to explore sustainable materials and eco-friendly practices that might add to a product’s cost.

Consumers are a big driving force behind this shift by luxury companies. In a 2018 Statista study, it was found that 67 percent of consumers overall – and 87 percent of Gen Z consumers – are willing to pay more for a sustainable product.

There’s a fashion magazine cliché that paying more for well-made, timeless luxury pieces is “a good investment.” With the expansion of online second-hand sale sites like Vestiaire Collective, The RealReal and Watchfinder (recently purchased by Richemont), that truism is actually becoming reality – it may indeed, make more sense to pay a premium for a sustainably sourced, beautiful, long lasting item that can eventually be turned into cash when it’s no longer needed or wanted.