Meet the Hong Kong-based fashionista-turned-children’s clothes recycler

Second-hand children’s clothes are packed in a studio at a Hong Kong industrial building, where a team of six carefully inspects and photographs each item before reselling them online.

After working over a decade with high-end fashion brands such as Lane Crawford and Shanghai Tang, this is how Sarah Garner had been wanting to help the environment in the face of a fast-changing fashion industry that she described as “an unsustainable engine”.

Last year, the Canadian national, who has been living in Hong Kong for 10 years, launched Retykle, an online platform for buying and selling second-hand children’s clothes.

At Retykle, sellers can schedule a free pickup or drop off unwanted clothes, shoes or accessories at the company’s studio in Wong Chuk Hang. Retykle staff photograph, set retail prices and list items on its website. For each item sold, sellers can earn 50 per cent of the retail price if paid in cash and 55 per cent if in credit.

Garner, a former director of merchandising and product development at Shanghai Tang, said she was inspired to start the company right after she became a mother.