Sustainable Fashion

apenisanaitini
Nov 11, 2020
2 min read

Is it even a thing? According to Green Strategy, Sustainable Fashion is partly about producing clothes, shoes, and accessories in environmentally and socio-economically sustainable manners, but also about more sustainable patterns of consumption and use, which necessitate shifts in individual attitudes and behavior.

With developed countries all looking for sustainable ways to live, so do the fashion industry with how we consume clothes, shoes, accessories, and other textiles.

Being a fashion illiterate myself, I did not even know there was such a thing called sustainable fashion, and if it was relevant or practiced in Fiji.

The term I do know well is ‘RECYCLE’. Growing up and living in the islands in the 90s early 2000 every item used in the house was either going to be reused or recycled and after reading up on sustainable fashion it follows a similar concept.

“Sustainable fashion is part of the growing design philosophy and trend of sustainability, the goal of which is to create a system which can be supported indefinitely in terms of human impact on the environment and social responsibility” - The House of Koila (HOK) Creative Director – Adi Koila Ganilau

The HOK inaugurated in 2017 has 7 forms of sustainable fashion that it follows.

1. Green & Clean - HOK uses eco-friendly water-based paints which are 100% solvent-free by Colourmakers Company and it's approved by the Global Organic Textiles Standards (GOTS). HOK tries to use a lot of deadlock stock fabric from suppliers that sit on their warehouse shelf and have lost its elasticity.

2. Good Quality & Design – HOK prints are exclusive to their brand and hand-drawn then screen printed, which gives their garments more durable long-lasting pieces as many tend to have it as a keepsake.

3. Fair & Ethical –HOK believes in traditional methods of production such as screen printing & weaving of their accessories. HOK also believes in fair wages and capacity building for its staff.

4. Repair, Redesign & Up-Cycle – The team also repairs old garments keeping the story behind the garment alive. Redesigning old patterns and reducing the price is an art HOK also loves with two pieces of this was worn during the launch of the upcoming event.

5. Rental – Did you even know you could rent outfits from local fashion designers? I always thought it was just lent out to our local ‘socialites’. However, HOK has introduced its rental services for those that cannot afford retail prices and are limited to certain items.

6. Pre-love & Vintage – Thrift shopping is almost a custom for us in the pacific and this is where HOK finds these treasure pieces that still have a little life and quality. With a little TLC and HOK prints, these lost treasures a remade and resold.