The R Collective is a social impact business in London and Hong Kong, born in 2017, to end fashion waste by rescuing, reusing and recycling fashion waste. The organisation creates responsible products and clothing with a conscience. In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, The R Collective Founder/CEO Christina Dean explains rescuing fabric waste and designing new collections using the same.
How did you come to start R Collective?
I have been working in textile waste reduction since 2007, having first been exposed to fashion’s growing waste crisis when I founded the NGO, Redress. Over the last 15 years, I have personally witnessed the industry’s growing waste rates and also mounting efforts to try to manage waste more sustainably. After 10 years in the non-profit sector, being neck deep in textile waste issues, I started The R Collective in 2017. I wanted to create a win-win solution to co-solve waste and excess material issues for fashion industry businesses – and the planet of course. We know businesses don’t want to create waste, yet for so many reasons, businesses end up with excess materials. The R Collective exists to support businesses with sustainable waste management services. Our goal is to #EndFashionWaste.
Where are the major manufacturers you source from situated in?
We have manufacturing and recycling partners in China, Thailand and Hong Kong. This is also where most of our materials are sourced. In addition, we have a smaller supply base in Italy for Italian luxury materials.
What kinds of criteria and compliances do you look for before associating with a supplier?
We are fortunate that we work with a relatively small number of suppliers, many of whom we have built strong relationships with over the years due to their ongoing commitment to sustainability. Suppliers like Avery Dennison now work collaboratively with us, and other circular fashion industry innovators. Together we’re all aligned to one common goal and that is finding circular solutions to waste. So, trust, and a long-standing history helps strengthen these relationships. We also ask all our suppliers to sign our code of conduct.
What kind of materials and fabric compositions you look for?
Our mission is to rescue, reuse and recycle waste materials. We rescue a wide variety of materials. Our criteria is that the materials are unwanted by their previous owner, and are therefore at the end of the linear system. We don’t disregard certain fabric compositions, rather our goal is to rescue waste materials. That said, our challenge is to identify the most suitable products to create using the materials we rescue. A lot of time goes into the design stage of our garments to ensure the redesign of the rescued fabric is suitable. If we were given a preference over a wider range of materials, we do prefer mono-fibres, due to their recyclability, but these are not always offered.
How do you design a collection since it largely depends on the amount and kind of fabric available?
Flexibility and creativity are key!
We know the design stage is crucial and needs to be carefully considered, since it is estimated that up to 80 per cent of a product’s environmental impact is locked in during this time. We assess which materials are best suited to specific products, and we analyse how durable the garment will be and how it will be constructed.
We’re particularly passionate about the consumer ‘use and care’ phase. We spend a great deal of time at the drawing board exploring better ways to educate and engage with our customers. One example is via the use of digital care labels and QR codes in our latest ‘Revival’ collection, which we launched in partnership with Avery Dennison. Here the aim was to make the consumer experience more transparent, enabling us to bring our entire brand story to life and including them at every step of the way, so that our customers can be part of the sustainable solution with us.
What are the challenges of designing a collection from what is leftover?
It’s the challenge that makes it fun!
The design process is turned inside out. Our designers work in a unique way as they’re inspired by the materials we rescue. We work with designers who have a strong creative flare and ability to work within some limitations. The challenge is to design with what we have.
We never know exactly what textile waste we will rescue next, or how much may be available, so the overarching challenge is to create a cohesive collection using our rescued mix of textiles and trims. Knowledge of materials plays a big part. We pay close attention to the type and quality of the fabric, how the material drapes and forms on the body and the ease of care for the consumer. Knowing this is a critical part to help the design process. It is also challenging because it takes meticulous effort to further design out waste at the pattern-making stage.
It is a creative process that requires intuition and an open mind because the final outcome may differ from the initial concept as the design evolves through waste-reducing construction.
In terms of planning fabric utilisation based on our rescued fabric availability, that is often a challenge, which requires business and costing flexibility! While we do rescue large amounts of fabrics at times, which can be more than we need for our womenswear, there are also occasions where we completely use up materials. This means that reordering may not be possible, as once it’s gone, it’s gone! This makes some product and range planning a challenge, but that’s the challenge we live by!
How do you manage to keep your collection sustainable yet trendy?
Trend is something we fear a little! We don’t want to be a ‘trendy’ brand per say, because we want our products to be timeless.
As a brand committed to #EndFashionWaste, our mission is to drive responsibility in every step, always seeking ways to reduce fashion’s environmental impact. On top of that, we guide our design process with circular design principles and our goal is to create forward-thinking timeless pieces that can be worn and loved for seasons to come.
Which are your best performing markets and product categories?
The R Collective ships worldwide with our base in Hong Kong. We enjoy having the opportunity to interact directly with our local customers from time to time. We love engaging in person with our audience through our local studio, and hope to host more special events in the future.
Outside of Hong Kong, the UK is a key market for us. We first entered the country in 2020 with our launch on Net-a-Porter’s Net Sustain and have since expanded our presence. We also receive a lot of support from the United States and our Australian friends down under. We hope to continue expanding our presence and to support this growth. We have partnered with UPS who further help lighten fashion’s load thanks to their carbon-neutral shipping.
Our best performing womenswear categories vary in each new collection. However, our tops and dresses have continued to be our top performers each season.
Do you see sustainable and slow fashion being able to beat fast fashion in future?
I think of sustainable and slow fashion as being one growing component within the larger fashion system. This is fuelled by consumers’ growing concerns for fashion’s negative environmental impacts and consumers’ desires to be more active in supporting purpose-driven brands and products. However, this exciting sustainability sector within the fashion industry is a small element that is otherwise completely dominated by the fast fashion industry. It’s not a case of slow fashion being able to ‘beat’ mainstream fashion - that seems unrealistic to me given the scale and power of the fast fashion industry. Instead, it should be viewed as an exciting opportunity for the fast fashion industry to see how innovations in materials, labelling, packaging, design and material sourcing are being tested in different markets, like ‘Revival’, and then to try to replicate and expand on the many great innovations that exist already. The mainstream fashion industry, which services many people’s wardrobes, is here to stay and the need exists to make the whole industry more sustainable, urgently.
Published on: 28/07/2022
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
