We view sustainability as an ongoing journey, recognizing that we haven't reached our ultimate destination yet. However, we are committed to celebrating our current progress and learning from it. Our aim is to continuously redesign and rethink how we can enhance our business practices, with a commitment to both people and the planet.
How We Care for the Planet:
We carefully evaluate every stage of a product's lifecycle—creation, manufacturing, marketing, consumption, and disposal—with longevity in mind. We select materials and processes that minimize waste and are designed to biodegrade safely. This means using non-toxic dyes, eliminating plastic, and avoiding single-use items to prevent contamination of natural resources.
How We Care for People:
Our promise is to prioritize people over profit, shaping our business model around sustainability and shared prosperity. While sustainability requires generating wealth, it's essential for us to ensure that everyone involved in the creation of our clothing benefits from a mutually rewarding partnership. Our focus is on fostering a win-win scenario for all parties engaged in business with us.
If you're interested in learning more, explore how we implement this approach in every stage of our process:
The Sustainability Cycle
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The Sustainability Cycle Ⓢ
1 Create
Sustainable fashion goes beyond simply using a few eco-friendly materials. We're committed to reimagining the entire fashion business model. From the get-go, we prioritize durability, disassembly, recycling, and biodegradability in our designs. We create small, timeless collections and steer clear of the fast fashion industry's trend-driven model, which often leads to excessive production and consumption. Here's how we do it:
2 Make
Raw Materials:
Fabrics: We place special emphasis on the sourcing of our primary material, fabric. We take pride in exclusively sourcing upcycled fabrics from circular projects in Guatemala.
Their manufacturing process is entirely chemical-free and dye-free, with a focus on minimizing water and energy usage. They exclusively utilize natural fibers, completely avoiding synthetic materials like polyester, nylon, and acrylic. Their commitment lies in crafting products that are 100% natural and compostable, adhering to a circular model.
Additionally, the leftover materials from their upcycling process are repurposed. They are passed on to coffee growers in Guatemala's highlands to be used as compost. This upcycling initiative reintroduces waste into production systems, transforming it into a reusable and valuable resource. Ultimately, it nourishes new organisms, contributing to a sustainable and regenerative cycle.
Buttons: Our buttons are 100% vegan and dyed using vegetable-based dyes. By choosing corozo buttons, we're directly contributing to rainforest conservation. Corozo palms exclusively flourish in tropical rainforests, where they are nurtured by towering trees. The seeds within the fruit of these palms undergo months of drying, transforming into robust materials ideal for creating jewelry and buttons. Harvesting these seeds supports the income of local farmers, who thereby ensure the preservation of the natural plant ecosystem.
Manufacturing:
We proudly produce in Guatemala with people we've known and worked alongside for many years. We compensate per piece, far above the local rates. Currently, our production quantities are small, so we can't yet claim to fully provide substantial living wages. However, our aim is to expand our production capacity, enabling us to provide them with more consistent and better business opportunities. This is where our collaboration with you comes in—we can work together to create positive change for others as well.
Waste:
Have you ever considered that redefining waste starts long before a product reaches your hands? We meticulously focus on every detail during the manufacturing process to minimize fabric waste. Whatever remnants remain after production, we diligently collect them. With larger fabric pieces, we're actively exploring ways to create new products. However, we face a challenge with smaller fabric scraps that aren't suitable for this purpose. We're open to any ideas you might have to give these fabric remnants a new lease on life!
3 Market
Packaging & Distribution
Logistics and transport involve many complexities, but as a small brand, we have the advantage of closely monitoring and managing the entire process. Here are some details:
Labels & Packaging: We are committed to avoiding plastic at every stage of our product creation and distribution, especially in packaging. Therefore, we exclusively use paper bags produced locally in Germany from sustainable forestry through climate-neutral production. These bags are 100% environmentally friendly, FSC®-certified, reusable and recyclable.
We aim for all components of our products to either be reusable or easily compostable. Our inner labels and ribbons are made from cotton, and our hang tags are crafted from recycled paper.
Additionally, we are working on partnerships with other businesses to use only repurposed boxes for our online orders, aiming to eliminate waste and avoid single-use packaging.
Transport: Since we produce in Guatemala and sell in Europe, we are conscious of the carbon footprint involved. While local manufacturing might seem like the best solution, we believe in the value of global trade and production. This issue is complex, but it also offers a chance for creative solutions. Currently, we handle cross-Atlantic deliveries with small production runs. As our operations grow, we are preparing to offset our carbon footprint in other beneficial ways.
We ensure that all end consumer shipping is CO-2 neutral by exclusively collaborating with partners who offer carbon neutral initiatives.
Retail
With our timeless collections and limited productions, we aim to reduce excess inventory, sales, or discounts. We challenge the conventional retail model, where large brand stores reap most of the profits while makers receive minimal compensation. By minimizing intermediaries, we lower the final product cost. Our prices, however, reflect our commitment to fair compensation for everyone involved in the process. This includes design expenses, high-quality materials, fair wages for production, marketing, administrative and personnel resources, taxes, shipping, sales expenses, and a profit margin to support our mission.
4 Use–Care–Repair
Taking responsibility in this step of the lifecycle of your garments is where you step in to uphold a circular approach. When you acquire a piece of sustainable clothing, you are already contributing to positive change. Nevertheless, what you do after buying the piece is what really matters. Here are some of our suggestions in how to do your part as a sustainable consumer:
Use: Wear it as often as you like. If you decide to take a break, store it away. After a few seasons, you'll likely find it appealing again—we speak from experience!
Care: We believe in second chances! Consider gifting it to a friend, sibling, daughter, mom, or anyone who will appreciate and wear it as much as you did. If you don’t find someone close who wants it, keep it in circulation by selling it to a second-hand store, listing it online, or organizing a swap party. You might make someone else's day by exchanging it for another pre-loved item.
Repair: Does it need some TLC? Learn basic sewing skills or ask a friend, relative, or a local seamstress to help fix it up. Remember, imperfections add character and tell a unique story.
What other ideas do you have? We'd love to hear them! Reach out to us with any thoughts on how we can collaborate to maximize the life of a piece together.
We prioritize the quality and sustainability of our materials, considering their entire lifecycle, including their eventual disposal. By using a single type of fabric in each piece, we ensure easy disassembly, allowing us to reuse the materials in new products. We exclusively select materials made from natural fibers that can ultimately be composted.
Why do we have so little info on this phase?
Like the rest of our business, we are developing with close attention to every detail, step by step. Although we don't yet have a clear plan for creating a system that achieves true "Circular Fashion," we are actively researching, building connections, and envisioning ways to make this dream a reality together.