Early Days

I went to Bradbury for primary school and joined Kellett in Year 7. The Kowloon Bay campus hadn’t been built yet, so we shared a campus with Carmel School, Elsa High School Campus in Shau Kei Wan. We were there about 2 or 3 years before moving across, so I feel like I followed along with Kellett’s journey and growth..

The Beauty of Kellett 

I loved that Kellett Secondary was such a small school, under 30 in my year group and even less in the years above. I was so nervous on the day of my entrance test, but our principal Mr. Giddings made me feel welcome straight away; he was so kind and I remember feeling a huge sense of relief that everything was going to be OK. This was true of all the teachers– they were all so nurturing and you really felt like they cared about your wellbeing and wanted to see you succeed as a person as well as in your academics. I was one of the only students who was interested in fashion and creating and making things, and my DT teacher Mr Hughes Caley was so lovely and encouraging, helping me realise my talents and continue the subject through A-Level.

A Sense of Belonging

My parents are from Hong Kong, but my Mum was born and raised in Central London, so she ended up working as an expat here! I grew up with the best of both worlds, as I’d be a local at home speaking Cantonese with my family and then I’d go to school and feel like I was in England. I think these experiences made me very curious about different cultures and nationalities and I wanted to do something that reflected that when I came to choose my EPQ (Extended Project Qualification). I had friends from everywhere, mostly European–they’d often be here for 2 years and then fly off again, but they were all Kellett Kids. I created a book called Home, in which I tried to capture the essence of Hong Kong–it’s such an interesting community where you can feel like you’re from here even though you don’t speak the language. I sold the book to raise money for Mother’s Choice, as I felt this really fit with the theme of belonging.

Uni Days

I was over the moon when I got into fashion marketing at university, but when I did my first internship I felt so out of place; the environment, the people, it was all so competitive and just didn’t fit my personality, so I actually never thought I would end up in fashion related work! Then, when I finished uni, Covid hit so it was so difficult to find a job and I kind of fell into digital marketing and comms. After a while I felt like I wasn’t learning anything and I wasn’t getting anywhere, so I decided to take a delayed grad trip to Canada. I felt very lucky I’d travelled to so many places when I was growing up, but then going to such natural places where you see bears walking by the side of the trail was just incredible, and made me realise how big the world is. It was such a refreshing break that I didn’t know I needed, and so inspiring that it made me realign what I wanted to do. 

The Right Direction

I started working at Métier Minus in November last year. The company’s founder Teresa Ko is a corporate lawyer who’s at a point in her career where she wanted to focus more on charity work, and a mutual friend thought I would be perfect for the role. I completely rebranded the company, aligning our purpose, our vision and everything we stand for in terms of fashion sustainability and youth and women empowerment and then I led our third preloved clothing pop-up early this year.

Fashion and Sustainability

The first of our core values is to encourage conscious consumption through luxury fashion pop-ups, workshops and panel talks. Our aim is to help people to gain confidence in their style and avoid excessively shopping for things that don’t work for them. For example Gigi Li of The Curated Style held a session on personal colour theory and post-loved fashion styling to teach how to carefully consider what suits someone and buy only what they will wear. We focus on luxury for our pop-ups because of the quality of the fabrics and often the environmental and social impact they can afford to have. The experience is also very important to me–you’re shopping for luxury, so it should feel like luxury, not like you’re rummaging through a second-hand sale. The advantage is that you’re getting these quality pieces at an affordable price; while it may be a little more than you would usually spend, it’s about changing your outlook to appreciate the value of what you are buying.. 

Female Empowerment

Our second core value is to support programmes for youth and women empowerment. We were very lucky to get our Section 88, which makes us officially a non-profit organisation. We’ve started our own programme called “Career Let Start,” which helps mostly young girls who need some career guidance and confidence building.as they’re transitioning from university to work life. This is such a hard change for many young people, so we have people who support them in that stage by offering interview and styling practice. We work with other organisations such as St James’ Settlement who have a big network and a range of established local youth services. So far around 12 students have gone through our tailored programme and it’s amazing to see how much more confident they are going into their workplace and navigating through adulthood. 

A Bright Future

Working in fashion sustainability has really changed my outlook on fashion. I’ve seen how raising awareness of other people’s journeys to ethical fashion can inspire others to change their habits. Social media is a double-edged sword–there are a lot of trends to follow and people are encouraged to buy fast fashion, but there’s also information about all the waste that’s involved in the fashion industry.

I’m hopeful that younger people are starting to appreciate both vintage and ethical fashion and the importance of buying clothes that last from quality brands. I feel so lucky that I get to look at nice clothes every day and also get to support really good causes and work with incredible charity organisations. For me, it was either fashion or teaching, but now I get to do both.

Below are some pictures of Chloe's from her time at school &  Métier Minus’ Post-loved Luxury Fashion Charity Pop up store (login to view).