Q: What are some of your earliest memories of cassette tapes? Can you describe the kind of nostalgia that cassette tapes evoke for you? 

A: Sentimentally, cassette tapes were part of the medium of communication with my best friends in school ( who moved to Australia ) when smartphones and social media had not been invented yet. The international call was very expensive for a teenage student at that time. Therefore, we came out with a solution to record what we want to say, the music I composed, and our favorite song from the radio in cassette tapes, and sent it to each other.  New sustainable material.

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Q: Congratulation on being selected by Kevin McCloud as his Top Green Hero in 2018 & 2019! What makes you realize the urgency of saving our planet?  Have you always been interested in sustainable fashion? 

A: Thank you!  I guess is my education and working experiences made me realized the urgency.  I was fortunate to have this chance to work in Yellowstone National Park in summer 2005 when I was just 18 years old. It was my first time seeing animals free to roam in the park, and as a human from the city, I was entering into another world, a world that is dominated by animals, it made me learn how to respect animals and appreciate what mother nature had given to us. When I study at Parsons, I was selected as a recipient of the Yeohlee fellowship program which allows me to learn and practice sustainable fashion from Yeohlee directly. In 2014, I participated The People's climate march in New York, which determine to sell the world "a better world." New sustainable material.

 

Q: Why you decide to tackle waste? especially cassette? 

A:  I believe that music is a universal language that can tie everyone together, it has the power to change the world. According to a press from MIT, there are 56 million kilograms of PLASTIC used to make physical cassette tapes since it first introduced to the world in 1963. That is just part of the environmental cost in the music industry, not including vinyl and CD. I want to reimagine a new way of exchanging music by addressing our global waste issue and transform it into another new medium that inspires the global community. 

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Q: What are those challenging stage you face throughout your journey as a social enterprise? 

A: When we started this "experiment", we only have ten cassette tapes on hand, but throughout these years with the help from different media, pop-up events, and workshops, we have collected more than 5000 tapes, and we are still collecting them. When we have enough supply to work on, we face difficulties in finding platforms to sell and also how to engage with our customers.  I believe that this cycle will repeat and we will have more challenges to overcome.

 

Q: Why you describe yourself as a memory keeper? 

A: The future of luxury is not about new products, markets, or ideas, it is about something deeper -- our memory. By weaving MusicCloth, we are able to keep a moment alive far beyond the moment itself and give the product a luxury integrity, an inner depth. 

 

Q: Can you explain how's this new feature "Scan & Listen" works? 

A: Starting from 2021, each MusicCloth city map and products will come along with a code which allow customer to scan and listen to our secret curated city playlist. Each playlist is carefully curated based on the city character and mood which supported by Spotify app and refresh it monthly. Some of our customer feedback to us that they missed the music in the cassette tapes, we hope this Scan & Listen feature allow people to connect more on sustainability topic in a brand new level. We want to bring the music back, especially in these tough days when the world is still fighting in the midst of pandemic. Music can not stop the virus, but it can at least heal our soul. 

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