Opaak

The coll­ec­tion is desi­gned in Düs­sel­dorf, Ger­ma­ny, by a small design team. The manu­fac­tu­rer is based in Roma­nia and run by women. What’s more, the com­pa­ny employs main­ly fema­le workers.

Opaak has an estab­lished rela­ti­onship with their manu­fac­tu­rer and the­r­e­fo­re regu­lar­ly visits them on site. In this way, Opaak has a direct influence on the pro­duc­tion pro­cess and working con­di­ti­ons. Moreo­ver, the manu­fac­tu­rer is a mem­ber of the BSCI (Busi­ness Social Com­pli­ance Initia­ti­ve), an initia­ti­ve of com­pa­nies com­mit­ted to impro­ving working con­di­ti­ons in their glo­bal sup­p­ly chain.

Opaak also holds the GOTS (Glo­bal Orga­nic Tex­ti­le Stan­dard) cer­ti­fi­ca­te. This cer­ti­fi­ca­te veri­fies the use of orga­nic cot­ton throug­hout the pro­duc­tion pro­cess. In addi­ti­on to the strict stan­dards on envi­ron­men­tal impact and che­mi­cal use, this cer­ti­fi­ca­te also sets requi­re­ments for working conditions.

Opaak only uses mate­ri­als sourced from Euro­pean manu­fac­tu­r­ers. The brand says it main­ly uses recy­cled mate­ri­als and GOTS-cer­ti­fied orga­nic cot­ton. Only a small part of the coll­ec­tion uses cot­ton and it’s always orga­nic cot­ton, mea­ning no pesti­ci­des and insec­ti­ci­des are used. Also, less water is nee­ded for it to grow and the fib­re is har­ve­s­ted by hand to emit less CO2.

Howe­ver, most of their designs are made from syn­the­tic mate­ri­als such as poly­ami­de, elas­t­a­ne and poly­es­ter. The­se mate­ri­als are unfort­u­na­te­ly made from petro­le­um in a che­mi­cal manu­fac­tu­ring pro­cess. The­re is also a high risk with the­se fabrics of micro­pla­s­tics being released while the clo­thes are being washed. You can pre­vent this by using a Gup­py­fri­end, a laun­dry bag that coll­ects micro­pla­s­tics during washing.

Due to Opaak’s clo­thes com­bi­ning dif­fe­rent mate­ri­als, they are more dif­fi­cult to recy­cle after use. This is detri­men­tal to the bran­d’s circularity.

The­re are, howe­ver, good reasons to mix dif­fe­rent mate­ri­als, such as elas­t­a­ne and poly­ami­de. The elas­t­a­ne makes the fabric more stret­chy so you can move around in it, and makes the lin­ge­rie com­for­ta­ble. The­r­e­fo­re, Opaak is doing as well as it can to be sus­tainable while desig­ning com­for­ta­ble lingerie.

Opaak’s sup­p­ly chain is short. Both the design and pro­duc­tion of the under­wear is done in Euro­pe. Even all the mate­ri­als used come from Euro­pean sup­pli­ers and manu­fac­tu­r­ers. This way, Opaak ensu­res that their pro­ducts don’t have to tra­vel long distances to get to you.

Opaak’s pro­ducts are made to last. That is why the brand only uses high-qua­li­ty mate­ri­als from Euro­pean sup­pli­ers. This way, the brand aims to gua­ran­tee the lon­gest pos­si­ble lifespan.

Opaak’s lin­ge­rie is both sen­su­al yet spor­ty, and com­for­ta­ble yet beau­tiful. The mini­ma­list designs make the brand tim­e­l­ess and adapt­ed to any out­fit and any occasion.

To ensu­re your purcha­se does not lose its shi­ne, Opaak also pro­vi­des con­su­mers with care tips. For exam­p­le, it is bet­ter to wash the lin­ge­rie at a low tem­pe­ra­tu­re and avo­id the tumb­ler dryer.

In terms of their pro­duc­tion loca­ti­ons, Opaak is fair­ly trans­pa­rent. The pro­duc­tion count­ries are known, as are the ori­g­ins of the mate­ri­als. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, becau­se Opaak does not go into fur­ther detail, they score 50% on transparency.