EPISODE 53: WHY SUSTAINABILITY IN FASHION ISN'T TALKED ABOUT WITH DAISY CHEN HUTTON
MEET DAISY CHEN HUTTON
Daisy Chen Hutton is the founder of The Fixx Collective, an Anti Bland Sustainability Brand where you can buy eco friendly basics and rent fashion items. She is mom to two beautiful kids and believes that starting this business has been more impactful than pursuing a medical degree could have ever been.
Visit her website: https://thefixxcollective.com
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Judy Tsuei 0:00
Today's interview features Daisy Chen Hutton, who's the founder of The Fixx Collective and anti bland sustainability brand where you can buy eco friendly basics and rent fashion items. She is the mom to two beautiful kids and believes that starting this business has been more impactful than pursuing a medical degree could ever have been.
Judy Tsuei 0:18
I'm excited for you to listen to the interview and hear how we talk about sustainability. Things that I never knew about fashion and why, you know, fast fashion like the cat and jack brand at Target was so cute, like so cute, I would buy all of the things for my daughter, that actually the impact is pretty great.
Judy Tsuei 0:37
And again, we're going to do whatever we can within the budget and options that are available for us. And this interview isn't designed to make any of us feel bad. It's simply to offer more information so that we can make different decisions if that feels aligned and right to us. It also takes into consideration how we grew up with our immigrant parents, and how that influenced our understanding of maybe purchasing secondhand or what sustainability look like growing up and what it looks like for us now. Enjoy the interview.
Judy Tsuei 1:12
Welcome to the F*ck Saving Face podcast. I'm your host, Judy Tsuei, and together we'll explore mental and emotional health for Asian Americans, especially breaking through any taboo topics. Life may not always be pretty, but it is indeed beautiful. Let's make your story beautiful today.
Judy Tsuei 1:30
Welcome back to the F*ck Saving Face Podcast, where we explore all topics taboo, and really try to redefine what it means to be Asian in America today. Today I have Daisy Chen Hutton. Here she is a mama, a female founder of The Fixx Collective, which we'll dive into what that is, and you know, a reluctant entrepreneur. And we'll dive into that too.
Judy Tsuei 1:51
But I'm just gonna turn it over to Daisy, because the conversation today is going to talk a bit about you know, sustainability. I think that that's an idea that as children of Asian immigrants, it's difficult to think about, you know, that idea of sustainability in the long term and the impact that you make when you're kind of like living like day to day in a survivalist mentality. And at the same time, there are different elements of Asian culture that are very sustainable. Like, let me tell you how many plastic dyes we were used, like over and over. So different facets of that. But let me turn it over to Daisy to just share a little bit about yourself.
Daisy Chen Hutton 2:28
Hi, thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. So that was a great intro. Yeah. started thinking about all all the things, which is what I love so much about your program, it always makes me think of all of the things. And then I'm like, Oh, I need to talk to Judy. No, this is really perfect. So where do you want me to start? You want me to talk about business you want to talk about?
Judy Tsuei 2:51
Well, how do you culturally identify? Let's start there.
Daisy Chen Hutton 2:53
Okay, so I call myself Chinese American. I was born here. My parents were born in Taiwan and emigrated here. But they were only born in Taiwan because my family was escaping the war in China. So I actually yeah, growing up, I didn't even really know what to think of myself. I wasn't sure if we were Taiwanese, and only recently kind of learned that that's actually a very different thing.
Daisy Chen Hutton 3:17
Like there are people who are native Taiwanese who kind of are offended when Chinese people call themselves Taiwanese. Yeah. And so I actually heard my dad describe at once I was like, we are ethnically Chinese, but politically Taiwanese, and I thought, well, that makes a lot of sense. So I guess I'll go with that. But simplification purposes, like with Chinese American, because that is still our heritage and our culture? And I guess, Jeanette Yeah, we are.
Judy Tsuei 3:43
I mean, that's exactly my story. And that's how I identify, and I'm sure that there are a lot of listeners out there, because I grew up in that same confusion of like, wait, we're not Taiwanese. Wait, wait, we're Chinese, like, I was so confused. And then also with my parents own evolution of, you know, their learning more about their own cultural roots and whatnot. And they've kind of like gone back to really embracing being Chinese. So I was very, I'm still very confused. To this day. I was like, yeah, where do you fall? Like, what does that mean? So I think you're so creative,
Daisy Chen Hutton 4:14
Even for us who kind of grew up that way. Like you said, like, I grew up, only having gone to Taiwan, you know, we used to go there for the summers, all of my family was there. I only knew Taiwanese culture. And I only went to China for one time in my life. And that was like in my 20s or so. And so I don't feel like I know China. I know about China. From the news. I know about China, a little bit from history. But you know, my experience growing up was always going to Taiwan and everything. That's fabulous there.
Judy Tsuei 4:44
Yeah, exactly. So can you tell me about the fixed collective and what it what that is?
Daisy Chen Hutton 4:49
Yes. So the fixed collective is a fashion company that I started just a year ago, where we really wanted to offer people a more sustainable approach to their wardrobe. So I've worked in the fashion industry or over a decade. And what's embarrassing is that only recently did I realize that the entire industry is really poisonous to the earth and our environment. And it wasn't something that anybody ever talked about.
Daisy Chen Hutton 5:17
So when that kind of became a thing in my mind, like a light bulb went off in that I, I love fashion, I come from a fashion background, I just I've always enjoyed it. But I also knew there was no way we could continue just doing what we were doing shopping all the time, like I did in my 20s. And pretending everything was fine. And like people needed to talk about it, because there's still so many people who don't realize the impact that our clothing choices have on the environment.
Judy Tsuei 5:44
I love that what you're saying, because one of my closest friends, Joanna owns a poncho line called moto Ilana. And her whole thing is about slow fashion. So it's just through knowing her and being around her. I've learned so much more about how the products that you buy and like what you invest in really impacts the land in so many ways. And she really tries to bring in artisans from her native Columbia and really support that community.
Judy Tsuei 6:09
Because not only is the craft of you know, hand will crafted materials kind of like dying out as these people in that lineage also age and pass away. But, you know, we've just become so accustomed to all the trendy things that we can buy, like h&m and forever 21. That's so or even target. Like, I remember, before we got on this call, or this recording, we were talking about how when you walk through target, you were sharing with me like oh my gosh, all you see is like waste, waste, waste waste.
Daisy Chen Hutton 6:40
All I see are future piles of trash. It's so sad. It's all pretty and shiny on those shelves. But the minute you get home, that stuff turns into trash, like you buy the cute trinkets for your children, you buy the disposable fashion for yourself for a week or two, you buy these things you don't need we all do it. I mean, not blaming here, because yeah. And that's a part of our consumerism, that we as individuals need to kind of embrace and understand our impact, because there's a lot of things that companies need to be doing. But also as consumers, we just need to be aware of our own habits and what we can do to be better.
Judy Tsuei 7:16
So if nobody knows about, like, how wasteful the fashion industry is, or what kind of impact it has, can you talk a bit about that? Like, what is it that we're doing when we buy fast fashion.
Daisy Chen Hutton 7:27
I mean, it's, we like to definitely demonize fast fashion, because it's a huge problem in this industry. Because, again, part of it is culture in that it creates this idea that fashion is disposable, that we should constantly throw it away so that we can get new items. And the problem is there's a statistic out there from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that we throw away one garbage full truck of clothing every second in this country. I mean, imagine that that's, that's insane to me, but also totally feasible.
Daisy Chen Hutton 8:01
And the problem, we think about clothing being trash is that clothing is either made from manmade fibers or natural fibers, the man made fibers like polyester, a lot of people don't know that is a petroleum based fabric, like everything we love in polyester, because it's such a functional fabric comes from a renewable resource that is poisonous to the earth. And then once it goes into the landfills, it never biodegrade, it just sits there.
Daisy Chen Hutton 8:28
And then even with cotton, and manmade fabrics, those things at once, and they're in the landfill, because there's no breathing, they also don't go away because and when they do, they're releasing methane gas, which we also know is terrible for our atmosphere. So there's a problem just from the disposability aspect of it. And then you go back in the supply chain, and you really think about well, to keep up with our mass production of clothing, you're starting with even just the growing of cotton. You know, we're outsourcing inexpensive cotton to countries that were never meant to grow this product.
Daisy Chen Hutton 9:04
So you're you're destroying the terrain, you're using chemicals to process that cotton that poison the farmers, you you know, it's a it's a problem that agriculture faces overall. But all of this, all of these even natural fibers that we think are good are not necessarily good if it's not grown the right way. And then it's processed into fabric which takes a ton of water, it takes water to grow that cotton, it takes water to process it, turn it into fabric and then to dye it a lot of those dyes are made out of toxic chemicals, which then run off straight into the waterways of people in developing countries.
Daisy Chen Hutton 9:40
You know, Vietnam rivers are just like polluted with a ton of chemicals from these factories. So we're impacting people, we're impacting the environment. And that's before you know, we even talk about manufacturing waste. Every time you cut patterns out of clothing, there's a ton of waste and that's just from the fabric that gets cut out and then the clothing that becomes a waste the energy that goes into it, the shipping. I mean, I think, I don't know, it's fashion is like a multi billion dollar industry.
Daisy Chen Hutton 10:10
And it fueled by our desire to want newness all the time, which I think is okay. Because again, I love fashion. And I do really strongly believe that passionate empowers us and can really make us feel like we are expressing ourselves the way we're meant to. But we have to change the way we're doing it. And we have to be smarter about our production, we have to be smarter about our consumption, and just overall be conscious of what's going on.
Judy Tsuei 10:37
I love everything that you're sharing. And I think you know, a lot of what you're saying, every time I hear these messages, I think about my daughter, and I think about the world that she's walking into, and you have children as well. And you know, just thinking like, Well, yeah, I might not be around to deal with all the repercussions, even though if you read anything about climate change. And like any of those books, like when I was working at a mindfulness app, we had to deal with eco grief meditations because people get really stressed out about the fact that like, we are basically at the turning point now where there's no going back, like, you know, we don't fix it. 100%
Daisy Chen Hutton 11:11
I need one of those sessions. All the time. I'm like, What do I do? What do I do? And then I have to focus on Okay, well, I'm making these changes. And that's what I can control. That's what I can focus on. And again, by no means am I like a perfect environmentalist. I still eat meat, you know, less. Now these days, I still use plastic when I you know, I still shop from Amazon.
Judy Tsuei 11:35
Yeah,
Daisy Chen Hutton 11:37
things we can't control. And there's things we can control. And fashion for me was the one thing I was like, I know how this works. I know this business. And so this is where I'm going to make the greatest change.
Judy Tsuei 11:49
That's awesome. So when it comes to the fixx collective, how exactly does that work? How does that support sustainability?
Daisy Chen Hutton 11:55
So yeah, we have this two parts to our business. So we really started as a rental company, because again, my love for fashion has not changed. And my desire to want to have options will never change. I'm just not that type of minimalist person who can like wear, you know, white linen dresses for the rest of my life. There's a lot of sustainability people who have this idea, well, everything's gonna be beige, and everything's gonna be linen. And that's just like all we can wear. And I was like, No, we don't, we don't have to be that. That's great. If that works for you. That doesn't work. For me, I love options. And I honestly feel inspired by clothing, because I believe that it can be an art form.
Daisy Chen Hutton 12:34
So my solution was, well, if we can't, you know, if we can't be buying fashion all the time, we should consider renting it. And I think about it, like a library of books. You know, even with books, like we want to buy books all the time, but like you read it one time, and you want to give it away to a friend, right? Otherwise, it just becomes a pile of clutter in your house. And it's the same thing with clothes. A lot of times we'll buy something, where it once or twice, and then we're kind of done with it, and we'd rather give it away.
Daisy Chen Hutton 13:00
So instead of buying new clothes, or buying new books, why not think of it as a library where you can rent the pieces you want to wear for your fashion purposes, get the use out of them, and then give them back and give somebody else a chance to wear it. So we developed the rental program for our clients where they can kind of just come in and swap pieces out and just yeah, wear them for your occasions, give them back. And then we have the other side of the business because especially as we learned during the pandemic, there are things that you are going to wear a ton of like your loungewear everybody's at home and your sweat pants and your T shirts, denim activewear like there are things that you are going to wear a lot of and basically live in.
Daisy Chen Hutton 13:43
And those are the things we say you should buy, but buy them from conscious brands buy them from sustainable brands who are making a difference instead of all the fast fashion or regular brands out there who are not you know, so we curate a list of amazing brands. We have denim brands who use like 90% less water than a traditional denim brand. Because another crazy statistic out there is that it takes 2000 gallons of water to make one pair of jeans and 2000 gallons breaks down to ash if you're drinking eight cups a day, that's 10 years worth of water that one person can drink goes into your jeans.
Daisy Chen Hutton 14:19
And I mean that seems crazy. But yet if you think about the agriculture and the dyeing and the washing and the everything that goes into a pair of jeans, it's a lot of wastage. So we have companies who have revolutionized their production methods and who are doing that we have brands who are making leggings and sports bras out of recycled plastic bottles. We have companies accessory companies who are using recycled brass brass is like one of those materials that you can continue to recycle over and over which is frayed. And yeah, really promoting handmade Craftsman and artisan work like you were talking about in like local communities where you can really support People and not feel like it's just going into the giant cogs of a giant corporation somewhere.
Judy Tsuei 15:06
Yeah, I mean, after all of the stuff that I've learned, it is difficult now to shop at Target. Like, it's I love like cat and jack, that brand for kids. So adorable. And yet every single time like I feel tempted to buy something, I'm like, I'm not gonna feel good about this later. Like, it's just not gonna be great. And I think that it's learning how to temper that desire to have with just like, okay, like, you know, what do we have that we aren't, we don't need access of. And I think that one of the things that is a challenge sometimes is when you invest in sustainable brands, it's usually more expensive.
Judy Tsuei 15:41
And yet, I think I remember reading like years and years and years ago that Europeans when they buy items, they buy nice items that are going to last for a very long time. They're not buying many, many, many items. They're just investing in like specific pieces. And so I think, you know, just shifting the mindset a little bit around that enables us to think like, Okay, well, we're, we're not just investing in like a piece of clothing, that's expensive. We're investing in the future for our children in the health of the planet and the people who've worked on this, you know, item to bring it to fruition. So I love everything that you're sharing.
Judy Tsuei 16:15
Do you have any other like tips or tools for consumerism, the other thing that I'm curious about too, is, you know, given our Asian backgrounds, I think that when you achieve a certain level of like wealth or not wealth, so once you've moved out of the scarcity mentality, I think you want to demonstrate that you've moved out of the scarcity mentality. And one of the ways to do that is to buy more, right? more things and show that you are no longer in that place. So I'm curious about like, you know, your experience in that and how that's potentially informed any of the things that you are just any observations that you might have about that?
Daisy Chen Hutton 16:54
Yeah, I definitely think about that. Sometimes. I mean, I grew up I know, my mom like hand, sewed a lot of my clothing when I was young. And like my mom was also still it's like, what she went to school for is like the domestic, I forget what they domestic engineering, I guess is what they call it. So she could sew anything. She would sew all of my Halloween costumes and like my clothes for school, and I remember seeing pictures of myself and things. And she would always be like, Oh, I made that.
Daisy Chen Hutton 17:20
And I think it wasn't about sustainability. It was about necessity. It was like you were saying, you know, being an immigrant, you come to this country don't have a lot. So you make do with what you have. And there's a real interesting thing about like secondhand clothes, because yes, the scarcity thing, when you don't have a lot you are forced to reuse and use the things you have as much as possible. You were talking about reusing the plastic bag. I mean, we've we never had any matching Tupperware, we definitely didn't have Tupperware.
Daisy Chen Hutton 17:50
Yes, everything was a container that had come. We didn't have matching glassware. I don't know why my parents didn't believe in drinking glasses. They had mugs that have again, collected from all kinds of nothing matched. And I always remember thinking, how come nothing in our house like goes together? And actually one year for Christmas? I taught my parents like a set of glassware because I was like, we need proper drinking glasses. But again, yeah, they weren't thinking about that. They're thinking about getting by and providing for their children. So it is it's about reusing everything. But you're right, when people get to a certain status, all of a sudden, that becomes shameful.
Daisy Chen Hutton 18:29
Like, there are a lot of Asian families, I think, who have a real stigma against secondhand clothing because yeah, don't want their children come across as poor. You know, and I can see where that thought process comes from. But then it's also really interesting, because secondhand clothing is like a trend amongst very privileged people. And so it really is just about perspective. And it's, I think, if we can just kind of think about that and, and recognize that, you know, it all comes down to what our own thought process is that shapes our decisions. And like, why does secondhand clothing have to be any less legitimate than brand new clothing? There's, there's so much of it out there.
Judy Tsuei 19:11
Yeah, I love what you're saying.
Daisy Chen Hutton 19:14
framing our thinking process and being open minded to different things and being less judgmental, and, and stopped wanting to fit in with everybody. I mean, that's a huge thing, right? Like we all just kind of want to fit in. It's it's a little bit of code switching. It's a little bit of just wanting to be part of society the right way. But there's so many aspects of society and there's so many ways to look at it. Like, I don't know, I definitely am a big promoter of secondhand shopping. I don't see any reason to buy new things. I do it very, very rarely, especially for children. I mean, my kids go through their clothes so fast. There's stains and holes and everything. Why would I buy them anything new ever?
Judy Tsuei 19:55
Yeah, absolutely. I fully agree. I while you were talking, I was Like, oh yeah, when I was growing up, I feel like we just had so many free items from the Asian banks, a calendar cup, like, just all the time, the the set of chopsticks, Boone things that like they get, I don't know, there's just so many things that we got there too. Like, there was no idea about like interior decor who was thinking about that kind of stuff.
Daisy Chen Hutton 20:23
And food, like food, I think it's really interesting. Because we I think as many Asian cultures like fitting for very resourceful and using up every piece of everything that we eat, right, like, there's nothing that gets discarded if every piece of an animal is used every part of vegetables, use the roots and like, there is a natural sustainability thing built in there that is not necessarily for sustainability purposes. But perhaps again, it's just being resourceful. But yeah, I feel like we all you know, we were trained to eat every single thing that we were ever given. There was no waste. There was leftovers. We're like we ate what I love leftovers. I don't understand.
Judy Tsuei 21:08
Well, yeah. And you you had mentioned before, like, for some populations, secondhand shopping is such a trendy, cool thing. And it just got me thinking of like, Yeah, when it came to food, we ate like the marrow out of everything we'd like sucked it out. And now it's like a delicate. I was like, Wait, what? That was like, the poor like, you know, just eat everything that you can, or like,
Daisy Chen Hutton 21:32
Phone cost me $20 at this fancy restaurant, it's a giant bone on a plate.
Judy Tsuei 21:37
Exactly. And then, you know, seaweed growing up, I had such shame about it, like bringing that to school. And then all of a sudden, it was like the hippie snack. Like, oh, like that was like, ooh, seaweed or Yeah, like just so many things that require just a simple reexamining, I think of the beliefs and the stories that we tell ourselves and how, you know, it's only in like, the recent year or two, when I've really been encouraged to look at my core values, and whether my core values are aligned with what I grew up with, or whether I just adopted, what I was told was important.
Judy Tsuei 22:10
And, you know, I think that we're not even aware that those are things that we can challenge or that we can rewrite, and, you know, core values for how we want to live, how we want to raise our children, how we are in relationships, they're all a little bit different at times, too. So I think everything that you're saying is helping to illuminate you know, you don't have to do what is being told to you is of value or important you can examine for yourself, like does that actually mean anything to me? And I think oftentimes, we're surprised at realizing like, Ah, that wasn't even mine to begin with. Like, I didn't even really think about that?
Daisy Chen Hutton 22:45
Or just realizing like the bubbles that we live in sometimes are so small. And there's just so much more out there regarding everything. Like there's so many different perspectives. There's so many different cultures, so many different options, so many different lifestyles, like we just, we need to keep learning about everything. So keep improving.
Judy Tsuei 23:03
Yeah. I think that one of the examples of that, that I remembered of just like wait, we get so tunnel visioned and narrowly focused in what we think we know, in our day to day lives. We forget, there's like a whole big world out there. So I was on a trip when I was like in my 20s going to Mexico and I was in line to get on the plane or whatnot. And there was a woman standing behind me and you know, like I'm in Mexico. I don't know anybody. I'm like getting on the plane. And all of a sudden, this flock of people just started like coming to the woman standing behind me.
Judy Tsuei 23:33
At which point I realized that she was a celebrity. Like, you know, she was I think she was on like a soap opera, like, just from what I could gauge for what people were saying. But I was like, Huh, that's so interesting. She was no one to me, but to everybody else around me, she was someone for sure. And it was such an interesting moment of being like, well, gosh, we really are so focused on like, what we think is like real or important like oh, there's like so many other variables and factors. So I like you know what it is that you're saying? I wanted to ask you have on your Instagram, your daughter's account as well. And I kind of wanted to ask you about that too. Like you being a mom and like you know having children and one of them who is a little bit in the entertainment industry.
Daisy Chen Hutton 24:20
It's funny, you know, when I first I think becoming a mom changes everything right? Like your world turns upside down. My son is almost eight My daughter is five and when she was born, she just she was born special. A lot of people think she takes after my mom which is really interesting when when you think about all your Asian mom issues and then you think about I think I just gave birth to my mother because she has a huge personality. Just like loves people instantly. Like a two weeks old was smiling at people never has never had any stranger danger has never have like a moment. She's the most confident little girl you could ever meet. And just early on, you could tell like she has a big personality.
Daisy Chen Hutton 25:08
And so, at that time, I was not working. And I didn't know what was going on with my life. I think I was still struggling with that kind of post birth identity crisis. And I figured, Okay, you know what, I'm gonna put her into child modeling, cuz she's really cute. And we're just gonna have fun with this and see what happens. And it's a crazy business. But we were super lucky. Like she booked her first job, her first audition I had no idea was going on. It was for a Disney job, a print job. And she booked it. And I was like, oh, okay, this is just what happens.
Daisy Chen Hutton 25:37
And since then, she has gone on to work for a lot of big clothing companies. And, and yeah, it's, it's really interesting. Like, She's hilarious. I've never taught her what modeling is, I've never showed her any thing about that. But at three years old, she would go on set and the photographer and the child Wrangler, which is like my favorite job in the world, they have to hire people on set to just like, entertain the children to make them behave. But they would tell her to do things.
Daisy Chen Hutton 26:02
And she would bust out these moves that are like, I don't know, somebody 20 or 30 years older would be like, it was full on like shoulders and ankles and seeing and face pallets. I was like, what, where did this come from? But it's something we had fun with for a long time, and only more recently cut back on just because with me starting my business, I was like, I can't take her around auditions. And honestly, it wasn't her choice. I put her into that. And now she's fine with it.
Daisy Chen Hutton 26:33
But she also, you know, I want like if she's gonna really continue in entertainment, I want it to be her choice, not mine. Yeah. And I also the odd thing is I think about her job as a model is to promote clothing. It's completely the antithesis of everything I do. So that was a big struggle all the time. I'm like, Huh, dude, should we be doing this? Is this good? I mean, I, you know, and I always tell myself, this is great for confidence, not that she really needs that. And it's great. Obviously, she makes a little money, but she can use for college later. But oh, models, this is like 100% consumerism that I am trying to combat.
Judy Tsuei 27:12
So I love that I love the twist of all of that. And just from a personal standpoint, I just had this question. It's been coming up for me a lot, just in my own life. And so I'm curious as to what you think about this, because you're also raising a girl. When I was growing up, we were not taught to be boastful at all, like you're taught to me very, very humble. And especially when it came to your physical appearance, like you were never supposed to focus on that. And so here's like a little vulnerable share, when I was growing up, I totally had a mustache, and we get bullied about it and made fun of, and like my parents would not let me do anything about it, they would not, they thought it was so superficial, to focus on your physical appearance.
Judy Tsuei 27:56
And so in my rebellious stage in high school, one of my fellow Chinese American friends who's really also into like fashion, like, you know, railfan and like, cared about all the clothes and the shoes, took me to like Umberto is in Beverly Hills, because we went to like, Beverly Hills High. And so she had my eyebrows done. And she like, you know, just did the whole shebang. And I came home. And I'm like, my father was rage, fully angry, like, just so upset. And you know, at the time, I was like, I don't care, I don't care. Like, you know, I, I'm establishing my own independence and whatnot.
Judy Tsuei 28:30
But I know that all of those messages have played into my psyche. And so as I started to mature and like, grow up and develop into the person that I am now, I would have friends in like my 20s and my 30s Tell me, like, you have to notice when you walk outside the attention that you get, right, and I was like, No, no, nananananana No, and it also negatively impacted like when a person of the opposite sex would pay attention to me, because then I didn't know what to do. And I felt like I had to appease or like what or it was just so unhealthy on so many levels.
Judy Tsuei 29:04
And so as I'm raising my daughter, I find myself in this like struggle sometimes where I see her looking at herself in the mirror, and she has a lot of the SAS that you're, you know, described like the confidence and, and just the personality that comes through and I really try to encourage that as much as possible. And every time I see it, there's just quiet like stories that come up in my mind what my parents had said to me. And so I'm curious as to how you are helping to foster and nurture you know, that confidence and the inner beauty or if you had any of those challenges, or you know what it's looked like for you, especially in the fashion industry.
Daisy Chen Hutton 29:44
Okay, there's a lot here. So I grew up also never thinking about my own books, which is odd because my mom again who is just like my daughter, my mom was really into beauty. Oddly, she like number one she grew up in like rural Taiwan on like a farm being chased by case but somehow in her teens like she was super into clothing, she was always like she did a little bit of modeling in Taiwan. She was always into makeup and her looks and I remember as a child always thinking, my mom would put on makeup like going or and at nighttime, she would, she would stand in the mirror and just practice her smiling.
Daisy Chen Hutton 30:18
Like she was posing for photos. And I always want to like what are you doing, but like, that's a big memories, just about my mom standing in front of mirror, like kind of admiring herself and practicing her faces. That was definitely but I don't know, I feel like some of its genetic because none of that came into me I take after my dad 100%. So even though my mom was always into beauty, it's not something she taught me. Like I too, also had my eyebrows waxed for the very first time in Beverly Hills because mine took me next door.
Daisy Chen Hutton 30:50
I was working retail at the time. And she took me next door. I was like, What is this waxing thing? What what why would you do that? Nobody ever taught me about that. But I grew up not thinking about definitely not thinking about appearance, not thinking about beauty. But I do remember a phase of thinking about fashion and it was more lashes several phases. Again, growing up. I feel like a lot of my Taiwanese relatives would send me clothes or like, and I always had very different clothes than the rest of the kids in Pittsburgh.
Judy Tsuei 31:20
So like,yeah, they have like Chinglish on it where it didn't make any sense.
Daisy Chen Hutton 31:25
Animal characters are like random, all over and none of it made any sense. But like big bubble skirts before anybody knew what a bubble skirt was, like, I see pictures of myself like where did all these clothes come from? That time I didn't know those are fashionable, but I could definitely tell they were different from what other their kids are wearing. And that made me self conscious at one point. But then later on, I also remember thinking, gosh, everybody, your dress is so boring. And I would be the kid at the mall, again in Pittsburgh where there's not that many options.
Daisy Chen Hutton 31:54
But I remember thinking I just want to look different from everybody. Like I want to stand out in some way. And I feel like these t shirts and jeans are just like boring. And I want to find something special. That makes me feel good. So the road down the fashion path kind of came, I guess, a little bit organically but maybe a little bit came from my mom who was also really she loved shopping. And we would go on massive shopping trips to these discount stores all the time where she would buy. I remember Sometimes you'd buy like 10 different ball gowns.
Daisy Chen Hutton 32:25
There was a store I forget the Gabriel brothers that was like a discount like a maybe a TJ Maxx version of a I don't know type of store. And there were sequined gowns, evening gowns, and she would try on so many of them and they were so inexpensive. She would buy like 10 of them for her karaoke nights. And that's what people in Pittsburgh is like, get dressed up and go to their friend's house and do carry. So I'm all over the place with this right now.
Daisy Chen Hutton 32:49
But I Yeah, I definitely think about wanting my daughter to grow up different and I think they already are, you know, there's such so many, so much more language now about body positivity, and body consciousness, and just being aware of different things and, and seeing more representation across the board of not getting pigeonholed into one specific type of beauty. So I feel like the conversation is already so much better than anything we ever had. Because Yeah, we didn't have the conversation.
Daisy Chen Hutton 33:20
There was no conversation, it was just kind of, well, unless it was negative conversation. Again, Asian moms and Asian aunties and who want to tell you that you gained a few pounds. You're like, thank you, I know. In every aspect of everything I my kids are already growing up more conscious conscious of race awareness conscious of, you know, people with different abilities, conscious of people just just embracing our different differences and not not assuming that you're better than anybody because of any reason. You know, it's it's definitely a better time.
Judy Tsuei 33:57
I love it. There's two things that I want to ask you about before we close. So one of them will be the usual question that I asked all the guests. But before we do that, I'm just going to pay homage to the Joy Luck Club, because you mentioned when you're listening to previous episodes, and you're like, how has no one mentioned this movie? So I just want to say if nobody's watching that movie, and I'm sure that if you are Asian American in our age demographic, you probably watched it because it was the only like, Asian movie to come out, you know, in that big of a cast and everything. But yeah, I've never stopped so hard in a movie ever in my life, like could not breathe sobbing so hard. And I was like, how are these people knowing my story?
Daisy Chen Hutton 34:40
Exactly, I think we were I was like, 15 years old watching it in the basement of my friend's house with actually two white friends and one black friend. No other Asians but everybody was sobbing. It was one of those stories where, I don't know definitely for me, it was like, Oh my gosh, my immigrant parents who I struggle with so much, but look at their history. Look at thinking they go through to come here and provide for me and I'm so ungrateful. Oh, my God is like so many layers, right? And so yes, all of your earlier episodes, I feel like you were talking to guests and everything. Everybody had an issue with their mom and that could be everybody's episodes.
Judy Tsuei 35:20
The joy club? Yeah. Oh my always makes me think of that movie and I always Yeah, go back. Yeah. Oh yeah, I mean that my Chinese school class the Saturday Chinese school class we all went for a field trip to go watch the movie and here I am sobbing with all of the other like young 15 year old kids. What is happening right now? So there's that. So just wanted to acknowledge that finally is getting on the air Yeah, isn't needed. So along the lines of flex saving face, you know, just breaking through taboos and really shifting how we look at things. What is something that you would like for people to know about or challenge or just consider?
Daisy Chen Hutton 36:00
Yeah, so I feel like I definitely put some thought into this because I know you ask everybody. And I think it's about embracing vulnerability as a positive. because growing up, you know, we're, we're so used to thinking about our vulnerable vulnerability as our weaknesses, like we want to put this face on demonstrating strength, demonstrating power, demonstrating that we have everything under control. But the fact is that every single one of us has vulnerability regarding something no matter what it is, if it's your physical appearance, it's your culture, it's your food, it's your body, it's your language, like anything, it, we all have issues that we're concerned about.
Daisy Chen Hutton 36:44
And I think that if we all walked around this earth, putting our vulnerability ahead of everything else, if we lead with that, I feel like people would get along so much better, because you would understand where every person is coming from. And instead of putting on a front and trying to show off this fake image of who we are, like, we should all just wear a T shirt.
Daisy Chen Hutton 37:08
And like, list out our flaws, list out our triggers a little bit of stuff, you know, because, again, it's nothing to be shameful of like, we all have issues and, and now I'm really trying to embrace that I'm trying to never let anything hold me back from saying what I want to say what I think from hearing what I want to wear from supporting people who need to be supported. Like I'm putting my truth out into the world. And I no longer worrying about what other people are thinking about me. And it's not an easy thing to do. It's taken a lot of time to train myself. And I go around every day when I feel like insecure in my decisions or like get overwhelmed. I tell myself fuck everybody, I'm sorry. I'm Oh, no, yes.
Judy Tsuei 37:57
The name of the podcast.
Daisy Chen Hutton 37:58
And I'm like, fuck what other people think it doesn't matter what they think I know who I am. And I'm doing the right thing for myself. And I'm just going to embrace my own issues and put them out there because I think it helps us all relate to each other. You know, as much as we struggle with polarity, and a lot of things like we need help relating to each other.
Judy Tsuei 38:21
Absolutely. I was just downstairs last night at my neighbor's house. And we were having dinner to celebrate one of my neighbors, birthdays, and then their kids are now teenagers and young adults.
Judy Tsuei 38:36
And so we were saying that my friend Carrie, she has these post it notes that are in her car, like on the dashboard to remind herself to have those like thoughts, you know, to shift the thoughts. And her teenage daughter was like, Oh, my God, it was the best. I was like, I had friends in the car, and we're all reading them. And you know, and it can feel very vulnerable to realize that, you know, we share all of these like human traits, and that it all takes practice. And it all takes work.
Judy Tsuei 39:03
And you know, we're celebrating his 51st birthday, you know, she's a few years younger than him. So it was just a eye opening experience to me to realize like, yes, it's never gonna end like the growth process is never going to end. And if we could see that tenderness in that vulnerability, it would lead to so much more compassion for you know, others who are going through a hard time or when we're going through a challenging time, that there's nothing wrong with us. We're not like flawed and broken. But we're just human
Daisy Chen Hutton 39:33
Human. Exactly. doing our best. Yeah. Sadly, there's a lot of broken humans out there who end up doing bad things in the world. And I don't know if this is an Asian thing. I always give people the benefit of the doubt because I never want to believe anybody's like purely bad because I don't really think they are but I do. I always think about like what are these people like where do they come from, like how damaged were they who hurt them to make them hurt other people. And if we could, you know, if people could get help for everything earlier on, we can make a difference instead of shunning people and their issues like how do we keep making people better?
Judy Tsuei 40:11
That's exactly yeah, one of the core missions for flex saving face is that I believe that hurt people hurt people. So if we can help ourselves heal, we can stop that process from continuing to take place. Yeah, so thank you so much for today's interview. It was extremely illuminating and a lot of fun. I wanted to ask if people want to follow up with you and learn more about the fix collector, where can they find you?
Daisy Chen Hutton 40:33
So they can definitely find us on Instagram. Our handle is the fixx collective with two x's, we use two x's because we are women founded you know. And also, I guess I just realized that double X's stands for kisses, like when you're signing off, like instead of x x, x, x is like kisses. Oh. So the fiscal idea with two x's. And you can find me my own personal page at the real Daisy Chen Hutton and also our website, which is also thefixxcollective[dot]com.
Judy Tsuei 41:04
Yay, thank you so much. Also, you're based in LA, I just wanted to mention that. So as you know, we come out of this season of the pandemic. And however, we're learning to navigate and opening up the world a little bit more, you also host in person events. So I wanted to point that out for anybody who's in LA, you know, I'm originally from LA. So we may be collaborating for future events. So that would be really fun. Thank you so much again, for today.
Daisy Chen Hutton 41:32
Thank you for having me.
Judy Tsuei 41:36
I love fashion I mentioned in Monday's episode, Episode 52, that when I used to work at Neutrogena, I, you know, I was living in a studio apartment in Santa Monica. But it also had a walk in closet. And that walk in closet was full. And when I moved from Santa Monica to San Diego, I was giving away so many clothes to my colleagues at Neutrogena, because it was a majority, you know, female, co working kind of environment. And they were asking me, where did you get all these clothes, like how big is your place that you have this much stuff. And at the time, it felt really good. And I used to have people who asked me to take them shopping to help stylize them.
Judy Tsuei 42:15
So I love fashion as much as Daisy does, she probably loves a little bit more. But I also gave all that up when I became a yoga teacher. And all I lived in was workout clothes. And then after that, I gave that all up and moving multiple times, including internationally. And because I had to start from scratch, when we got back to San Diego, it really afforded me an opportunity to be very intentional with the things that I was bringing into the home. Now I still do the best that I can to be very mindful about what it is that I invest in. And there's this Buddhist saying that for every one piece of clothing or one item that you bring into your home, that you get rid of two to three items, so that you're always making sure that the thing that you're about to acquire is something that you actually need or actually want, because that means that there's a trade off somewhere.
Judy Tsuei 43:01
And it was such a great way for me to look at you know, what's really essential. What's really meaningful. Is all of this stuff going to become trash in the end? And if it is, how am I going to feel about it. So this is just my own journey of reframing things in my mind and my conscious awareness how good or maybe not so great, I feel about things. And again, every person is entitled, allowed enabled to make their own decisions. I just hope that Daisy's interview provided a bit more insight into maybe some of the things that we didn't even know about.
Judy Tsuei 43:34
I had a mentor one time tell me that you only get the answers that are going to help move you forward by asking better questions. And if you're not asking the questions, or you don't even know what questions you should be asking, how are you going to attain or achieve that knowledge? So hopefully I asked some questions today that informed you in a different kind of way. I look forward to seeing you on Friday for the mindfulness practice.
Judy Tsuei 43:58
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you liked what you heard and know someone in your life who might also benefit from hearing this episode, please feel free to share it with them. Also, if you'd like to support our show, you can make a one-time donation fcksavingface.com. Or, you can make a recurring donation at patreon.com/fcksavingface. That's “fck” without the “u.” Subscribe today to stay tuned for all future episodes.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
