Eco Fashion

At Rapanui we make our clothes a bit differently, we use Natural, Organic fabrics, Renewable Energy powered factories and Ethical, Fair labour: Better for our environment, our climate and our people.

We are a responsible, sustainable business and our sustainable business model transcends fashion; Founders Rob and Mart Drake-Knight introduce Eco-Fashion at Rapanui in the video below.

Video Transcript
(Translate: Fr | De | Es )
The reason why eco fashion is so relevant to sustainability is that fashion is like no other medium - you actually drape yourself in what you believe in. There is no other medium like it. 80% of the environmental impact of clothing happens post purchase, after you have bought the clothes. The idea behind Rapanui is to inform and educate people as to where clothing comes from and how it is made and turn "eco" into trend to influence wider lifestyle choices. Rather than focusing on the 20%, which can be helped by using organic cotton, renewable energy powered factories or fair-trade, it's about effecting that 80%. Eco-Fashion has the greatest potential to be the medium that brings about sustainable change through its unique power of influence.

The majority of our eco fashion range comes from India, and we use quite a famous factory there which is powered by Vestas wind turbines via a wholesale power purchase agreement at the factory. The factories subscribe to Fair Wear Foundation's Code of Labour Practices, meaning that everyone in the factory gets a fair wage and clean working conditions. Down the road is the organic cotton plantation, the fields are hand worked, then the cotton is put on a camel and goes up to the factory, there it is spun and turned into a jersey. Then it is embroidered and put into a container on a truck. We never air freight stock so we ship it to London.

I don't think we are going to be some kind of world saving company that is the solution to the 21st century sustainability crisis, but if we can inspire people to make wider lifestyle choices in going green, and to spark a change in the industry or inspire some sort of wider change in the industry, then I think we have done our job in making a significant contribution towards sustainability.

965 people found this Page Useful. Me Too 3 Questions Answered

Q - Nat(April 27th, 2010) Asked...

“that isn't something anyone can do, to exhibit the company's ethics in one site. Today is the first time I looked at it and just love what rapanui is all about now.”

A - (Rapanui)

Q - Lakshminarayana udupa(June 4th, 2010) Asked...

Well, I am speechless! well done guys..but i wanna know if the colours you use in the fabrics are also natural? thanx and all the best

A - (Rapanui)

The factory we use is OEKO-TEX 100 standard certified, which means there are no harmful inks, dyes or chemicals resident in the fibre of the garment. A three-phase (reverse-osmosis) water filtration system cleans the water and means that 90% of the water used in the dyeing stages can be reused. This system is closed-loop. (This helps prevent harmful inks or dyes escape the factory circuit into local waterways.) This also is true of the 100% organic products - these systems meet the Global Organic Textile standard and Soil Association Certification criteria set out for these products. Click these links for more info on Organic Cotton or Ethical Labour

Not all colours and dyes are natural, some are synthetic but the net effect on the environment is minimal - we assess the holistic environmental impact of the whole product and processes before making decisions.
There is much more information on our supply chain and manufacturing categorised on the right.
Hope this helps

Q - Jeni(June 15th, 2010) Asked...

This is rare, to be sure. Many have tried, many have gotten stuck somewhere around 75% transparency. It might be all sunshine and rainbows… until you get to the fine print. Anyway, I don’t do this too often, but I wanted to take the opportunity to recognize Rapanui Clothing for your excellent environmental stewardship and retail ethics! I wish you the very best of success

A - (Rapanui)

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