Leading Ladies: SW Wong, The Closeteur

SW Wong is the co-founder of The Closeteur, Hong Kong’s newly launched online shopping mecca which features preloved items offered by celebrities, fashion influencers and industry professionals. It also works to support charities too: Half of the profits go to environmental charities 1% For The Planet and Aquameridian Conservation & Education (ACE) Foundation. Wong talks about fashion waste and how she hopes to change Hongkongers’ view towards secondhand clothes.

Before starting The Closeteur, I worked in the fashion industry. On the side, I did charity work and was part of Shark Savers Hong Kong One year ago, we began forming our business idea [for The Closeteur]. Our goal was to combine our love for fashion and our passion about helping the environment together.

Many people do not know that they are indirectly contributing to pollution by partaking in fast fashion. Today’s popular culture is one where clothes are cheap, so people are always purchasing without thinking about the quality and whether or not they really like the items.

The more we buy, the more we end up not wearing and throwing away, which in turn causes us to buy more.

This fashion waste contributes to the landfill problem—more than 10,000 tons of clothes are thrown away each year just in Hong Kong. However, Hongkongers do not like to purchase secondhand clothes.

The Closeteur is different from other secondhand stores because we teach you how to mix and match the pieces we sell.

I previously lived in Australia, where people recycle as a part of their everyday lives. Here, the government has to do a lot just to educate people on the subject. Nowadays, it has improved. We want to change Hongkongers’ views on secondhand clothes, not just to convince people to buy them and that’s it. To change the industry, we must change ourselves and our spending habits first.