Rapanui Blog

Rapanui is an Eco-Fashion company from the Isle of Wight, that makes Organic, Ethical clothing using Renewable Energy with award-winning traceability. Rapanui is about making eco-fashion cool.

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Win a Cotton Monster

Category: Customer Care

WIN A one-of-a-kind Rapanui Cotton Monster. GRRR!

It's important to know where your clothing comes from and how it was made, because if you don't know, you can't make good choices about what to buy. As well as Traceability, we should think a lot about what to make the clothing from and how much energy is used across its lifespan.

The way to make clothing with the least impact is to not make it at all of course - to not dispose of it to start with, and instead to continue to use it - but the reality is that most clothing in today's world is thrown away then replaced, for a number of reasons that are deeply engrained.

Therefore it's important for 'sustainable clothing' to have considered where the clothing goes to at the end of its life, and work towards a goal where the lifecycle of clothing, including disposal, is improved.

The disposal stage is something we're only just getting started on. There are many routes - first, we could try to make clothes that last forever. We could also make clothes from materials that are perpetually recyclable, cradle-to-cradle style. Or we could make clothing that fully biodegrades in the ground, going back into plants. Luckily by using more natural and organic materials, it's this route that we're probably closer to than most. Alternatively we could find a good use for the waste stream, like making t-shirts into shopping bags or... monsters.

The reality is that there's no golden bullet to solve the problem - good design, using biodegradable or recyclable materials, making things that last, and if there is waste from this economy, finding a suitable use for it - it's all worthy work for companies trying to be more sustainable. It's about getting a bit more of all of these things. Sustainability, after all, is about working towards a better future.

Okay, now how do I win the monster?

When we were doing some research on waste recovery, we stumbled upon Cotton Monster - a site by Jennifer Strunge. She's an artist / maker and creates monsters from recycled clothing and linens. Each monster is proper scary, unique and handcrafted.

It's a great example of what you can do with a t-shirt, rather than throw it in the bin, and Jennifer has managed to build a small business around what most companies consider a waste stream. Reclaiming, recycling and turning fabrics into long-lasting gifts. We sent her some scrap fabric and tees to see what could be done with our old fabrics and a month later, this came back. Totally awesome.

Meet Murray. He's the nastiest recycled monster in the land. He lives under beds and is awake at night.. in the darkness.. and only interested in one thing - eating little children.