Love Letter: On Sustainability as a Brand

How does a brand sustain? For us, this question makes a ripple in our heart throughout our journey for over 25 years.

We talked with our dear friend, Mary Bernadette, about sustainability, and how it’s beyond what’s being fussed about in the social media. With how social media works these days, it’s new features make shopping easier. One social media, one button, and one tap, you’ll easily find a shopping page from thousands of fashion brands. As a fashion brand, it makes selling products easier. Do all of these new features make our brand sustain?

As a brand, our point is of course, to sell our item. That’s how we pay the bills. But, we also realize that producing more and more items will also lead to waste. Mary pointed out that she’s concerned with how she consumes. She’s been evaluating her wardrobe, selling some stuff that she doesn’t wear anymore. She’s also evaluating her approach art as an artist; what function does it serve? what is the value?

This makes us rethink our values. How are we sustained as a brand? How do we approach sustainability? Before last year, we were not the kind of brand that generously gave some price off. We relied mainly on our stores for profit. We only gave some price off for very old items and samples. However, things start to change as we slowly shift our stores to websites. Having a website means we can sell more, but do we want to promote consumerism? Should we shift all of our fabrics to organic? Should we put our report out there for the customers to see?
The answer is, not necessarily.

Treating our staff right is our priority.When the pandemic started last year, we supported work from home for our sections that are possible to be done digitally. We had to close some of our stores to pay our employees. It was not an easy decision. We closed the store in Legian that had served us since day one. We believe that sustainability comes from within. Nurturing relationship with our staff is only the beginning.

Consciously producing new items. We don’t release products based on season. We only release products when it’s needed. If a collection receives great response, we will keep continuing to produce them. So our new release doesn’t happen a couple times a year, sometimes it could take us 2 years to finally release a new collection.

Designing a timeless design.We aim to design clothes that outlasts any trend, that you can keep for as long as you allow it to be. Hence, we carefully plan to cut our fabrics so we’ll have less waste. We also choose a loose silhouette with expert craftsmanship that doesn’t easily torn apart and lets you move even when your size changes throughout the years. It’s also classic and easy to match, letting you create various wardrobe styles with additional pieces like outer or pants.

Designing accessories from fabric offcuts. As we carefully cut our fabrics, we make room for the possibilities beyond apparel. From bags, homeware, to jewellery. Read here to see how we design our items from fabric offcuts.

Reducing waste through Archive Sale. Sale, discount, or bundles – how a brand puts effort to sell what’s left in the cabinet is usually a matter of pride. The pressure to offer something perfect is high in the fashion and craft industry. However, not every approved product has perfect stitching. Aside from that, some might see a discount as a product that has expired a trend. As we do not design our items based on trends, it’s easier for us to make decisions to do any sale. All items from our past collections and samples are under Archive Sale. It is our way to make our item stay outside the garbage and to embrace slight imperfectness.

We hope through this love letter, we can deliver our concern and frustration of being a brand in the era where the lure of consumerism and greenwashing is hard to avoid. We hope that we can show you our ways to reduce waste through our mindful small steps. We also remind ourselves that we still make a room to improve for a kinder production, relationship with our staff and customers, and a more sustain business modal.