About

Jasmine Tuan

Zero Waste Lifestyle and Sustainable Fashion Advocate & Activist,
Co-founder of Cloop

A self-confessed shopaholic, hoarder, collector, and a well-organized one, Jasmine Tuan, a multidisciplinary creative brand consultant who loves fashion, design, art and traveling, downsized her life from a walk-in wardrobe to a single rack in 2015 and committed to buying nothing new in 2018 as she realised her shopping addiction is detrimental to the environment and her mental health.

No stranger to the fashion, music, and creative scene in Singapore, Jasmine used to work for Zouk as a Senior Multimedia Designer (Aug 2000-2009), co-owned fashion cult brand ‘FruFru & Tigerlily’, and co-founded retail concept store ‘Blackmarket’ housing the best of Singapore and Asia fashion, design, and art (Nov 2008 – Aug 2013). After a series of unfortunate events, including a near-death experience, passing of her grandmother, and the closure of her five-year retail business, Jasmine began questioning her true purpose in life. She had a strong desire to change. In 2015, Jasmine was offered an opportunity to live and work in Malaysia. It was then she had to downsize her life from a walk-in wardrobe to a single rack. Jasmine left Singapore feeling light and free. However, the currency exchange got her excited about shopping again, and the vicious cycle returned. Her location changed, but she didn’t.

At the end of 2017, Jasmine met Zero Waste Malaysia NGO and realised she could do much more than just recycling. Inspired, Jasmine radically changed her lifestyle in 2018 by applying the 5Rs principles by Bea Johnson: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot. She added ‘Rethink’ in front as she believes everything starts from the mindset. At the same time, Jasmine committed to zero shopping on new fashion items, especially from fast fashion brands.

In September 2019, she revived the ‘Blackmarket‘ brand into a preloved store at the newly revamped REX cinema in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Jasmine moved back to Singapore at the end of February 2020, started My Zero Waste Wardrobe, and later joined forces with Cloop on a mission to close the fashion loop for good by collecting, curating, and circulating good fashion pieces within the community through sustainable shopping alternatives such as Fashion Swap! pop ups, Curated Bag personal shopping service, and Open Wardrobe – Singapore’s first honor-system thrift store operating on a trust system. Part of the proceeds are then channelled to cloop.sg/beneficiaries. Through this initiative, Jasmine hopes to encourage fashion lovers to swap before shop and buy secondhand first.

In June 2021, Jasmine joined charity ENGO Zero Waste Singapore. Through her role as a Marketing Associate Director, she hopes to move Singapore towards becoming a zero-waste nation through education and advocacy. After serving for a year, Jasmine continues to be an Outreach Partner with the organisation till 2023. Since August 2022, Jasmine has been working relentlessly on Cloop and the textile recycling bin project. Together with an ISO-accredited recycling partner, Cloop hope to double Singapore’s textile/leather recycling rate. Since the first bin launch in July 2022, more than 470 Cloop bins are deployed across the island. Use the Cloop bin near you here: bit.ly/mapcloopbins

It’s never easy going against the tide, but it’s been liberating and exciting for Jasmine to exercise her creativity to a whole new level. She discovers more Rs along the way and wants to dedicate this site to sharing what she has learned and helping others embark on their own zero-waste journey, one R at a time.

Smiles Like Green Spirit

Road to Zero Waste Nirvana – Namaste

Media Coverage