What is Slow and Sustainable Fashion
Slow fashion is the alternative to fast fashion, and promotes a slower, more sustainable approach. It supports buying vintage or second-hand clothes, redesigning old clothes, shopping from smaller producers, buying quality garments which last years, not months. All this with particular emphasis on the use of the planet’s resources by preserving, protecting, promoting, tracing, certifying, optimising, and recycling product.
We, Native Denims are proponents of Slow and Sustainable Fashion. We embrace “Buy Less /Buy Better”, “I made your cloths” and “Fashion Revolution” and exalt the finest natural materials.
We emanate this in five primary areas.
Fabric Sourcing
We have visited and source fabric from the top sustainable weaving mill’s in Italy, Turkey, US and Japan. These mills all embrace “Better Cotton Initiative” (BCI) and “Global Organic Textile Standard (GTOS), have close to Zero water usage, and are circular manufacturers. Circular manufacturing takes production processes into consideration and outlines how to reuse, repair, and recycle items, thus increasing sustainable manufacturing and consumption.
In particular, our Turkish weavers are “Textile Exchange Certified”, accredited GRS (Global Recycle Standard) and RCS (Recycled Claim Standard) with minimum water usage. Our Italian weaver has produced the first fully bio-degradable stretch denim which will compost in six months and our Japanese weaver uses hand-picked and spun BCI cotton which is woad dyed and woven on Shuttle Looms which are 1950’s built.
Garment Construction
Our garment is constructed on vintage machines ranging in age from 40 to 90 years. We only use Permacore thread, which has a “Beech Wood Pulp” core and is a cotton coated. Our Rivet Suppliers only use single source metals, no alloys and none contain nickel which is harmful in some instances to the skin.
Carbon Footprint
As we manufacture locally, we are part of the “On-Shoring” movement. On-Shoring is the process of sourcing or relocating a business’ production operation within domestic national borders. During the years of globalisation, many companies outsourced or moved their production overseas to benefit from cheaper labour and material costs. However, this has had detrimental effects on the environment, has created social instability, poor working conditions for employees and with significant carbon footprint.
Guarantee
We guarantee our garments for five year, where one can visit our studio and have their garment repaired for continued use free, thus elongating its lifespan and increasing the value per-wear.
Wash
All our garments are sold “Raw”. We do not wash, distress, sand, chemically alter, or grind our product. In Fast-Fashion the process of “Stone Washing”, “Bleach Washing”, or the employment of “Crystalline Silica dust treatment” to age and distress garment’s is highly damaging to the environment in terms of water usage, water pollution, and human health.
By selling Raw (and yes, we do have Raw Stretch) this allows the Jean to breakdown naturally, mould to your body shape and last for years, not months. For those who do not like the feel of stiff raw denim or have the desire to break Raw Denim down, we have sourced “Brushed Weft” denim. This is a very old method to soften denim prior to wear. This method is kind to the fabric, kind to the environment and kind to the wearer. It does not use water, chemicals or abrasives to break the fabric in, is a natural process and in addition adds warmth to the Jean.
Summary
Where feasible we source BCI, Organic and Recycled Cotton from verifiable sources and where possible naturally dyed. We prioritise the procurement of fabric which is reused, recycled and recovered, with full traceability, minimising environmental impact with assured provenance.
The Future – Striving for “Cradle to Cradle”.
Cradle to Cradle® describes the safe and potentially infinite circulation of materials and nutrients in cycles. All constituents are chemically harmless and recyclable. Waste as we know it today and which is generated according to the pre-existing take-make-waste model will no longer exist, only useful nutrients.
We are well on our sustainability journey. We do not use any oil derived polymers such as Rayon, Nylon, Viscose, Polyester or any plastic based material. It is our goal within two years to have a fully sustainable and authentic “cradle to cradle” Irish product. We will “On-Shore” where feasible and develop products which are wholly Irish derived. We have met sheep farmers whose fleeces command such a low price that they are rotting in warehouses. We believe it shameful that such materials, cannot be developed into apparel garments which are sustainable, long-lasting, create local employment and are environmentally friendly. We are currently exploring a wool/linen hybrid, known as a “Virginia Cloth” to make clothing of immense quality.
We operate an open-door policy and will meet with any individual to show and discuss our Sustainability Credentials in person.
