Cover Christina Dean (Photo: Supplied)

In this edition of Tatler’s Secrets of Success series—the all-access pass to the city’s most notable business magnates and entrepreneurs—Christina Dean reveals the constant elephant in the room and why the word “regret” is too negative for her liking

Christina Dean has been championing sustainability in fashion for 15 years through Redress, a company she founded in 2007 to reduce fashion’s waste problem, and The R Collective, a social-impact fashion label founded in 2017 that rescues, reuses and recycles textile waste. Dean is steadfast in her mission to change the way people think about fashion. “I continue to be perplexed and polarised at whether the industry and, more importantly, its leadership, has what it takes to steer fashion off its polluting and wasteful trajectory. Estimates suggest that textile waste will increase 60 per cent by 2030. This would suggest no,” she tells her followers on Instagram.

After arriving in Hong Kong from the UK in the mid-2000s, Dean found herself at the centre of the world’s clothing production and knew she had to make a change for the better. The Asia’s Most Influential honouree has since used her platforms to promote environmental education in the fashion industry and has written pieces for CNN Style and The Huffington Post, among others, about the enormous waste problem facing the industry.

Dean co-authored Dress [with] Sense: The Practical Guide to a Conscious Closet, and her TEDx talk “You are What You Wear” has been viewed by half a million people. Here, the entrepreneur speaks to Tatler from London about the key to her companies’ growth, and her fundraising plans for the future.

Tatler Asia
Above Christina Dean (Photo: Supplied)

Describe what you do in one sentence.

I champion and campaign for better practices in the fashion industry by finding solutions to one of fashion’s greatest crises: waste. 

How does your business make a difference?

My social impact business, The R Collective, rescues textile waste from luxury fashion and then reuses and recycles these waste materials into our responsible fashion brand and corporate gifts. To date, we’ve rescued 97km worth of waste. My NGO, Redress, prevents and transforms textile waste in the fashion industry.

What do you put your success down to?

Deep and sincere concern and anger towards fashion’s environmental issues, and a commitment to solve far-reaching environmental and social issues.

What are the top three ingredients for a successful business?

Authenticity. Kindness. Empathy.

Do you have any mentors? If so, who are they and what is the best piece of advice they have given you?

Yes, I have several mentors, most of whom are women, who guide me through personal and professional growth challenges. Boiled down, the best advice is to take care of yourself. 

Tatler Asia
Above Christina Dean (Photo: Supplied)

What qualities do you look for in a potential employee?

Willingness to learn and be challenged, and to challenge back. I also look for sincerity. 

What has been your biggest career obstacle to date? How did you overcome it?

Access to funding is the constant elephant in the room. We always overcome it by having conviction about what we are doing that, somehow, we always beat the elephant out of the room and keep the wolf from the door, too. 

Do you have any business regrets? If so, what?

I don’t have regrets, because the concept is so negative. I do have many lessons, which I learnt through making mistakes. Most of them relate to choices of where to allocate resources, i.e. where to put time and money. Everyone makes mistakes, particularly when working in unchartered territory. It’s a very real part of the process. 

How do you plan to develop your business over the next five years?

I’m fundraising for The R Collective to bring this business up many notches. We know there are enormous amounts of waste materials that we can’t rescue in time because we don’t have the resources. This is highly annoying. We need to grow so that we can do more good.

What is one surprising thing about you that most people don’t know?

I’m very open and I don’t hold many secrets. People know most things about me. I guess, deep down, on a very personal level, I’m relatively shy, as life can knock you about. I would say there is some shyness hidden away inside me.

Christina Dean is an Asia’s Most Influential honouree from 2021. Discover the changemakers, industry titans, and powerful individuals who are making a positive impact on the region in the Asia’s Most Influential list from Tatler.

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