It’s been a busy year’s end for fashion brands in Hong Kong, including Tove and Libra as it celebrates its fifth anniversary along with the release of a new collection, the Black & White Capsule. Co-founder CHRISTINE CHOW tells us more about creating upcycled fashion and sustainable styles.
Introduce the Black & White Capsule for us. What inspired it and who is it for?
We wanted to hone our original mission of creating work-to-weekend essentials that balance style with sustainability. Keeping to a black and white palette not only makes these pieces timelessly essential, but also allowed us to focus more on the design, the fit and, most of all, our customers’ needs.
We design multi-tasking clothes for the busy modern woman, so we’re excited to offer this very modular capsule, where pieces can be elegantly paired together or styled separately as you like.
What are some of the new key pieces for your fashion brand in Hong Kong?
The Classic Blazer is a new key silhouette for us that we’ve felt was a missing piece for a while. It took us a while to get more into suiting – we’re testing different styles that offer the right quality and soft tailored look that’s signature to our collection. I really love how the Mini Houndstooth Blazer turned out; it’s so versatile while also making a subtle statement, whether matched with our Pleated Wide Pant, or thrown over a T-shirt on the weekend.
Tell us a bit about upcycled fashion and the manufacture of materials used in the new collection
This capsule is crafted from upcycled deadstock fabrics, which means we use excess fabrics from other designers’ production, as we have a commitment to reduce waste throughout our process. Each garment is, as always, delivered in our custom reusable pouches made from recycled poly.
We also plant one tree with every order, in partnership with the Eden Reforestation Project – and all our online orders are made carbon neutral by Shopify Planet.
What are you excited about for Tove and Libra in 2024?
We’re excited to have an ongoing six-month popup inside K11 Select, at K11 Art Mall, which opened at the end of September and will run until March 2024. It’s been hectic for a small team like ours to run two store locations, but we feel it’s an important element for customers, especially since our brand focuses on tangible qualities like great fabrics and fit.
The end of 2023 marks our five-year anniversary – and we’ve actually been reflecting and working on a brand refresh. We spent a lot of time going through customer feedback, evaluating lessons learned, and really digging deep to redefine our mission of “Fashion Made Better” in finer detail. We plan to unveil a new website in Spring 2024, when we launch our next collection!
Interested in upcycled fashion brands in Hong Kong? Visit the Tove and Libra website to see their collections, and follow the brand on Facebook and Instagram @toveandlibra.
This article first appeared in the Winter 2023/2024 issue of Expat Living magazine. Subscribe now so you never miss an issue!
