He hid his parents for 2 years, went to design school, gave up his top job to research eco-friendly fabrics

Chloe Uyen Tran (29 years old) is known as a materials researcher and fashion designer, having worked at fashion brands such as Ralph Lauren, Alexander Wang and Peter Do. She graduated with a master’s degree in fashion design from Parsons The New School of Design, the largest university of art and design in New York, USA.

Uyen Tran founded TomTex with the idea of ​​taking advantage of agricultural by-products to create biomaterials to replace leather, towards environmentally friendly fashion products. ShrimpTex is a 100% bio-based material, created from shellfish or mushroom waste.

TomTex and Uyen Tran have continuously brought back many impressive “trophies”, including CFDA K11 Innovation, Forbes Under 30 Vietnam, Idea Development Award and raised $1.7 million and most recently, Forbes Under 30 Asia. In February this year, she was also in the list of 25 young people in the top Under 30 in 2022, announced by Forbes Vietnam.

Inventor Uyen Tran

Wearing “second-hand” clothes during adolescence and the pursuit of sustainable fashion

Uyen Tran’s love and passion for pursuing a sustainable fashion business comes from the familiar things that she attaches to her hometown. It is what the founder of TomTex always has in her heart for her homeland that has motivated her to start her journey to research environmentally friendly materials.

“I was born and raised in Da Nang city – where there is a lot of textile waste as well as old clothes. I’ve been wearing “second-hand” clothes all my life, and almost all of those items come from European countries and the US.”

However, witnessing that old items are sometimes not handled properly or no one wants to buy them back, leading to serious pollution by the waste of the textile industry. some fun”.

“One of the reasons dealing with these ‘waste’ became so overwhelming for the developing country at the time was that synthetic fibers – a common base material that is not biodegradable.”the founder of TomTex added.

Uyen Tran decided to become a researcher of sustainable fashion materials

That is why in order to pursue a sustainable and environmentally friendly fashion path, in 2012, Uyen Tran moved to live and study in the US. Here, she works as a freelance designer for big names like Alexander Wang and Peter Do.

However, the pain of environmentally friendly fabrics still rekindled in her heart, causing Uyen Tran to temporarily stop working as a fashion designer and enter the path of research, pursuing a Master’s degree in Material Design. After that, she obtained a diploma from Parsons Institute of Design – one of the most prestigious schools in the field of fashion in the US.

Uyen Tran confided: “I have lived and experienced synthetic fabrics during my years of working for a series of famous fashion houses, however, I have never stopped thinking about Da Nang and the toxins and waste that my hometown will destroy. have to suffer. And all motivated me to start a design project with biological materials.”

“I think about all the things that remind me of my hometown like the seafood factory near my old house or even the coffee grounds that I used to throw away every morning.”She added.

“I started a design project with biological materials”

As a materials researcher, Uyen Tran said that today’s waste can completely become a raw resource for the future. Besides, our planet is being operated with many inadequacies. Nature’s natural resources are limited and sadly we are approaching the point when those natural gifts begin to show signs of being exhausted.

Uyen Tran shared: “The excessive consumption of resources encourages us to find ways to get back what we can from the waste. In parallel with providing certain benefits for the environment, I founded TomTex as a sign of a change in our “relationship” with the materials of fashion, away from the sources of supply. one-way with the production and disposal of the product, but instead, create a rotation in the search for materials.

It makes more sense than ever to harvest alternative materials such as shellfish, seafood and coffee grounds from the domestic waste stream, especially since they will provide a biodegradable function.”

Hiding her parents to study fashion design during the first 2 years of university

Success on the path of fashion design and materials research is like that, but not from the beginning, the founder of Forbes Under 30 Asia has received absolute support and recognition from his family. In 2012, when Uyen Tran went to the US to study abroad, during the first 2 years of her university studies, she hid from her parents to study fashion design.

Uyen Tran shared: “Every parent is interested in the career direction of their children. They always want their children to have a happy and healthy life. That’s why my parents prevented me from choosing an art career for fear that I wouldn’t be able to financially secure it in the future.

I am passionate about the fashion profession and feel that it will be a source of life. I longed to pursue and fulfill my cherished dream for so long, so I hid it from my parents for 2 years. When grandparents found out, they were also very upset.”

“My parents prevented me from choosing an art career because I was afraid that I would not be able to secure the economy later”

But then, the Forbes Under 30 Asian top designer convinced his parents when he was selected to be an intern at Ralph Lauren (a famous fashion company) in his second year of college and guaranteed. got a job at Ralph’s after college. Since then, Uyen Tran’s parents feel more secure and support her to pursue this industry. Until starting a business and pursuing the path of sustainable materials technology, Uyen Tran has received absolute support from her parents.

The startup story of the top Forbes Under 30 Asian designer has just begun…

Uyen Tran’s career just started with TomTex. Her company focuses on producing a new generation of biological materials from two main research sources, Chitin (derived from aquatic/seafood shells and mycelium) in parallel with coffee grounds. With these two materials, TomTex will exist as a supplier of eco-friendly leather products for fashion, alternative to animal skin and synthetic leather.

The unique idea that led Uyen Tran to find a method to reuse shrimp shell by-products and combine coffee grounds into a substitute for skin stems from her meticulous observation with the environment.

“If we take the time to look at the statistics, every year, 17 million tons of waste from seafood and coffee grounds will be pushed to the empty land and accidentally, they become giant landfills. The way we dispose of waste is still very clumsy and disorganized. On the other hand, nature has the ability to return what people think is ‘waste’ to the ecosystem, bringing a new ‘life’ to an organic source of materials that has always been considered as a source of organic materials. waste”the designer who reached the top of Forbes Under 30 in Asia confided.

Researching on environmentally friendly fabrics or establishing a business with Uyen Tran is not only for personal success but also for responsibility to the environment and society.

“I think the desire to succeed in starting a business is a good thing, always going hand in hand with purposefulness. However, it must be associated with issues of governance capacity. Besides creativity, breakthroughs with great ambition, I have a basic knowledge base and understanding of the market.

In addition, I always wonder if there is something missing in my efforts and abilities that need to be supplemented and perfected in order to seize the opportunity to succeed. In the process of creating shared values ​​above economic, social and environmental benefits, we can always choose. I want to build a business that values ​​human values ​​and puts the responsibility of protecting the environment on top.”materials researcher Uyen Tran said.

Photo: NVCC