h o n g k o n g tat l e r. a u g u s t 2 0 1 9 93
The world is getting smaller. It’s not
a cliché, it’s reality. There are fewer
and fewer borders, and more and more
collaboration—a need for collaboration
ALL SMILES
Ronna wears jacket by
Theory, top by Marella,
earrings by Tiffany & Co;
necklaces by Cartierbecome intrinsic elements of Novetex’s core values.
“Novetex started paying attention to sustainability
as a commercial decision a decade ago; it has been a
journey of discovery for us as well,” Ronna says. “As a
company, we looked at our manufacturing processes
and other ways we can improve and contribute less to
environmental issues.”
Enter The Billie. Created by Novetex in cooperation
with the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and
Apparel, The Billie is a waterless textile upcycling method
that allows for colour sorting and fibre processing, and
which releases no harmful chemicals. In Hong Kong,
where more than 300 tonnes of textile waste goes to
landfills each day, The Billie is a glimmer of hope—a
conscientious decision in the production cycle that could
provide brands with nimble and varied upcycled options
while exerting minimal environmental impact.
“We have always offered recycled yarn. Textile
recycling is nothing new; it’s been around for a long
time,” Ronna explains. “The Billie is new because of
the method. In the old way, the traditional way of
recycling, you get a load of old clothes, we chop it up,
we card—basically, comb everything back to fibre—and
the colours are mixed, so you’re kind of getting some
greyish purplish colour, and then we dye it into a dark
colour: black, navy or heather grey. That’s pretty much
the old way, the conventional way of recycling textiles.
“The way we’re doing it now, we separate by
fibre content, we separate by colour, so the system
can make upcycled yarn in nine major colours. Let’s
say you’re a big brand and you have 10,000 pounds
of a particular garment that didn’t sell or that you
collected from consumers, and it’s all a similar colour.
We will recycle it, add virgin material to it, and we’ll
tell you, ‘It will be this colour—or this range of red.’
The customer can accept that red and knit it into red
sweaters. That’s the closed-loop circular recycling that
we’re hoping to achieve.”
On set for her Tatler cover shoot in July, Ronna is
relaxed and exuberant. She has an easy-going rapport
with the photographer, stylists and staff, and possesses
a natural confidence and warm engagement that’s a
byproduct of her New England liberal arts education,
at Choate Rosemary Hall and Brown University, after
which she headed west to earn her MBA at Stanford.