Acerca de

Keeping it green..

Keep scrolling to find out more details in how we are doing are our bit to be sustainable, but here is a quick overview:

Use dead-stock fabric
NEVER put textile waste in the bin
Use recyclable paper, swing tags and packaging
Avoid pattern matching to reduce fabric scraps
Work with ethically conscious suppliers
Work with small businesses
Use organic GOTS certified cotton
Print using water-based inks
Support fare wage pay
Only order the required amount of fabric
No single use plastic!
Vegan af - no animal products used here.

Every designer has an obligation to create responsibly.

At Seref it is part of our core ethos to make wearable art that does not damage our planet.
Each aspect of Seref, from the design process right through to packaging your orders, is thoroughly researched and considered to make it as ethical and sustainable as possible.

Nothing new can be produced without some amount of carbon footprint, but here at Seref, we are completely transparent with how our clothes are made, what we do to positively impact the environment and how we plan to do even better in the future.

SUSTAINABILITY

Dead-stock fabric is small amounts of materials left unsold by factories and fabric mills. They may have made too much and didn't sell it all quick enough, or the designer who ordered it may have changed their minds due to something such as the colour not being the shade they wanted.

This fabric is pushed aside while they carry on producing more and more new textiles. Once the factories have ran out of storage space, it has been common practise for them to discard of this excess fabric in unsustainable methods.

The textile industry contributes an alarmingly high amount of waste that ends up in landfill or gets burnt in an incinerator. Both options are extremely damaging to the environment and our eco system.

By sourcing and using dead-stock fabrics I am helping to reduce the level of textile waste being destroyed. It can be a challenge to use these fabrics as they take longer to find than mass produced fabrics. You also don't know exactly what you are going to find, which is very exciting but is difficult if you have a specific fabric composition in mind for a garment.

They also come in very limited lengths which restricts what can be made out of it. This is why mass market fast fashion shops wouldn't be able to use them.

Sometimes I purchase dead-stock fabric that is only a few metres long. This will only be enough for one garment! The dead-stock items available to buy for Seref are either one of a kind or very limited quantities because I only have so much fabric!

I also keep all of my offcuts and fabric scraps and these will be repurposed into something new in a future project - I NEVER throw textiles into the bin.

See the video below of me on BBC News talking about using dead-stock fabrics..

T-shirts

When researching into t-shirt designing, I searched for hours upon hours to find the best and most ethical companies, materials and processes available.
I vow to only work with businesses that have strong ethical and sustainable ethos' that align with my own.
I also wanted to make sure quality and style were at the forefront of any potential choices.
I have chosen to share this information with you to be transparent with how sustainable my garments are.

The company I source my t-shirts from only use 100% GOTs certified organic cotton and recycled materials. They closely monitor where their cotton is grown and every process it goes through and support fare wage pay, releasing a detailed sustainability report each year to assess what they are doing and how they can improve.

The t-shirts that I have chosen for this collection are an oversized fit and come in the cottons original colour shade. No bleach, no dyes. This leaves small flecks of cotton seed particles throughout the fabric that give a natural and slightly rustic feel to the t-shirt that really gives it a unique touch.

When it comes to printing onto the t-shirts, I again did plenty of research to find not only the most conscious way of printing but to find the best team to do it.

The print is transferred using the DTG method, one of the most environmentally friendly ways to do so due to producing zero water waste. This prints directly to the fabric using plastic-free, water based OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 certified inks. These inks are eco friendly, and are approved for use on GOTS certified garments. They contain no animal products and are not tested on animals.

It leaves the t-shirt soft to the touch and the design long lasting, with no plastic or vinyl print that would crack and peel over time.

I work with a small, women run studio in the UK who choose to only work with ethical garments and low waste print processes. I'm proud to be sourcing my products from a small business who also cares deeply about the impact they

have on the environment.

What we're working on

As a small, one-person led business, there's only so much I can take on at once.

I originally wanted to make all of my swing tags out of old cardboard, hand-painted with eco paints - but I had to have a little talking to myself that it's not so doable alongside all of the sewing and admin that comes with running your own brand.

I've done HEAPS of research into where I source everything and the processes I use to make them as environmentally friendly as possible. There are a few things I know I could be doing better on, but that weren't possible during my first launch.

My printed fabric uses eco friendly water based inks and dyes, meaning no harmful chemicals are being released during their printing process. Unfortunately though, they are printed onto polyester which is produced from plastics.

In future collections I want to solely use natural fibres and fabrics and I am actively researching to find somewhere that supplies this.

Got any more questions to ask about what I do to be sustainable?
Feel free to reach out!

Seref.

conscious design ~ hand-made ~ one of a kind

Acerca de

Keeping it green..

SUSTAINABILITY