The sustainable fashion dilemma

A huge part of the work behind the soon-to-be-launched (once I get my costing done!) FRAGMENTS MAKE ONE WHOLE collection is over. Or should I say, it has only just begun? Creatively and artistically, the baby steps of Su by Hand as a brand has taken root, and will be evolving, becoming.

Commercially though, it is as good as zero since this begun really, as a result of my passion for craft, textiles and I hesitate to use the word, 'fashion’. Fashion no longer makes sense to me, but meaningful, beautiful clothing does. In not naming this as a SS19 or FW19 or resort or xxx-timeline collection, I hope to embody a sense of a timeless continuity. The clothes we buy, should hopefully be timeless or at least made and designed to last a few seasons, a few years, and in the case of intricately crafted pieces, generations, like beautiful vintage clothing.

It took me years of complex internal struggle as a believer of 'sustainable fashion’ to even tinkle with the idea of starting a brand, let alone make a collection.

Firstly, fashion is a tough business as SO MUCH WORK goes into making clothes to fit the body. Maintaining it commercially also takes the fun out of creating. Importantly though, the whole idea of sustainability runs counter to starting a brand and making more clothes, more ‘fashion’, given the amount of options already available on the market.

But I do believe that fashion can be different. And I realised that if one has a belief and a message to spread, then one needs something to show for it. As a trained designer, my skills lie more in designing and product development than story-telling or any other form of service creation - for now. 

Madam Lan who has almost 70 years of sewing experience hemming the neckline binding of INMA top by hand.

For this collection, only dead-stock fabric was used. But I will not claim sustainability credentials for using dead-stock fabric as the truth is, dead-stock fabric isn’t fabric that mills will discard or incinerate anyway. Some use will always be found for it. So there is a lot of greenwashing behind brands that base their sustainability credentials on that. Dead-stock fabrics is just an amazing solution for small indie brands! We get great qualities at low prices because the yardage left are usually too small for big commercial brands that do not produce 5, 10, or 20 pieces of each style, but rather, hundreds or thousands of pieces per style.