Summer arrives with ever-so-familiar signals; knit jerseys are folded and tucked away as we unfurl and press our cottons and linens to hang loosely in our wardrobes. The breezy fabrics offer a reminder of the season’s lighter touch.
A lighter touch that invites us to slow down, relax and reflect upon the year, resolving ways to carry the season’s lightness into our actions throughout the year to come.
Just as we make resolutions for transformation, the businesses we support do the same.
Three New Zealand fashion brands - Kowtow, Standard Issue and NOM*d - share their resolve to have a lighter touch on the environment, through their sustainability journeys and their current sustainable design and business strategies, all of which are celebrated in the looks of their latest summer collections.
Kowtow
For Kowtow, a leading label in environmentally conscious clothing design, the thought of having a lighter environmental touch sparked the business’ establishment.
Founder Gosia Piatek says she was intrigued by the idea of true beginnings, the inception of the materials they use.
"Which is the idea of a cotton seed; who made it, was it made fairly and did it work in harmony with nature?"
Spending seasons captivated in awe of Central Otago scenery, her sustainable business conceptions took root.
“I was just in awe of nature, I though this is so beautiful, you know? I spent a bit of time in Otago, in Ohau and Cardrona, living in the valley, and you just get gobsmacked by nature and you think why would we not want to preserve this? It feels so right, and the way that we live, sometimes feels really against it and not with nature. So I thought ‘what if we made something that was with nature?’"
As its collections expanded, the label’s journey remained true, guided by its sustainable value system and supported by an ethical, transparent supply chain that produces a minimal amount of waste.
Kowtow’s consideration of a light touch on the earth has found further articulation with the label’s journey towards being a 0% plastic business, alongside the recent release of its 2022-24 sustainability strategy. The strategy highlights the alignment of Kowtow’s actions with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, available to view in-depth on its website.
The announcement of the revised sustainability strategy goes hand-in-hand with its summer collection. It’s a Fairtrade organic cotton collection that partners protest and play, announcing the label’s urgent advocacy for the natural environment, while exuding the playful spirit of summer through nature, referencing compositions of colour, print and silhouette.
“We've brought in joyful colours, with the idea of nature, and the idea of looking after your backyard."
The summer collection inspires a community of wearers to find joy in preserving the natural environment, with knowledge that the smallest seed of a thought can generate a tree of positive impact.
PHOTOS: SUPPLIED
NOM*d has gone for off-beat humour in its summer collection.
NOM*d
Emerging in 1986, Iconic Dunedin-based brand NOM*d has since clothed a nation in subversive, utilitarian designs, offering an enduring approach to sustainability.
Creative director Margarita Roberston says it is about creating garments that are long-wearing.
"It is not throwaway fashion ... we've been creating NOM*d since 1986 and I still hear from many of our customers that they have garments from back in that time, [from] the 80s or 90s, and also buy us in recycle stores. So I suppose that's sustainability, which is something that has been part of the brand since its inception, without actually having a title put to it."
Also present since the brand’s inception is its commitment to the nation’s fashion industry work force, ensuring their collections are all made in Aotearoa New Zealand.
“I think New Zealanders have been very supportive of any brands, too, that are actually produced here."
An effortless amalgamation of timeless design and local production form NOM*d’s approach to environmental sustainability, while a sense of collaboration and humour within its workroom supports the longevity of the design house.
“We have a great team and the great thing is that we all sort of think the same, so it’s not just about me. It’s actually the whole team, in the design process too, where we come up with these shapes and ideas and that left-of-centre approach."
The offbeat humour is in evidence in its summer collection, MISFITS, which teases, challenges and provokes through clashing checks, skewed silhouettes and mismatched ensembles. NOM*d deftly recognises that a lighter touch to the environment emerges from mindset, hosting a light, witty, yet informed and long-lasting design ethos.
Standard Issue
Established in 1981, timeless clothing label Standard Issue holds an enduring aspiration to work in balance with the land. Owner Emma Ensor says a childhood spent on a Marlborough farm instilled values of regenerative care for the land, sustainable principles that now infuse the clothing and knitwear company.
“I look back and rely heavily on my upbringing, when I think about sustainability ... growing up on a hill country farm in Marlborough and working and being passed the land and living and breathing the ethos, shared or passed down to me by my family. That really started with this feeling or concept of being custodians of the land, versus land ownership.
“Our role was to work to improve it for the next generation. That means setting up for the future, and that future won't exist if you don't consider how you can preserve and protect and work with what the land has you, rather than trying to do something artificial to it."
“We design for something that will be a piece that you can wear in your wardrobe all year long and treasure and love. We then push the boundaries in how we make it, to make it as zero-waste as possible, utilising technology. It all starts from design."
It is a design ethos made tangible in the label’s summer collection, which includes seamless, timeless, zero-waste tulle cotton and merino layers, alongside layer-worthy, natural fibre designs in a succulent, sea-and-sun inspired palette.
Guided by steady principles of sustaining the land, Standard Issue takes into account the impact of the life-cycle of its garments, offering a full-circle service, the Care For Life programme. This service follows the steps of renew, reuse, repurpose.
Wearers are supported to renew their clothing through repair, reuse their clothing through gifting or donation or to repurpose their clothing through return to Standard Issue, who work in collaboration with a New Zealand textile recycling company to repurpose materials into household or commercial textile products.
