SIL

The Sil coll­ec­tions are desi­gned in the Bel­gi­an Sil ate­lier. This is also whe­re the pat­terns are drawn, small runs of clo­thes and some of the samples are made. Most of the clo­thes are made by spe­cia­li­sed rea­dy-to-wear ate­liers in Pol­and. Fabrics are pro­du­ced in Ita­ly, Greece, France and Belgium.

Becau­se pro­duc­tion takes place in Euro­pe, the­se work­shops must com­ply with Euro­pean labour laws and regu­la­ti­ons. This allows us to assu­me that the clo­thes are made in ethi­cal con­di­ti­ons.

Sil is a Bel­gi­an clot­hing brand and is part of the ​‘I buy Bel­gi­an’ plat­form. The brand also wants to work with Bel­gi­an retail­ers as much as pos­si­ble to sup­port local retail.

Sil uses dif­fe­rent mate­ri­als in their coll­ec­tion. The brand only works with fabrics pro­du­ced in Euro­pe. Howe­ver, this does not gua­ran­tee that they are sus­tainable mate­ri­als. Sil often uses unsus­tainable mate­ri­als such as poly­ami­de, con­ven­tio­nal cot­ton and poly­es­ter.

Other mate­ri­als are sus­tainable though, main­ly the natu­ral ones. For exam­p­le, Sil uses linen from a Bel­gi­an pro­du­cer, recy­cled cot­ton from Ita­ly and Ten­cel. Ten­cel is a sus­tainable vis­co­se from the com­pa­ny Lenzing. This mate­ri­al is sus­tainable becau­se it is made in a clo­sed-loop pro­cess from wood from sus­tainable forestry.

To ensu­re the­re are no che­mi­cals pre­sent in the clot­hing, Sil makes sure all fabrics have the OEKO-Tex Stan­dard 100 cer­ti­fi­ca­te. This cer­ti­fi­ca­te checks for the pre­sence of che­mi­cals in the pro­duct, so you can be sure it is com­ple­te­ly safe!

Sil uses various natu­ral mate­ri­als such as linen and cot­ton. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, the­se mate­ri­als are mixed with poly­ami­de or poly­es­ter in the clo­thes. This makes the clo­thes very dif­fi­cult to recy­cle after use. 

To redu­ce was­te, Sil uses their pro­duc­tion scraps to make new pro­ducts. For exam­p­le, you can find cute bags in the coll­ec­tion that were made in the Sil ate­lier with lef­to­ver fabrics from the collection.

Moreo­ver, the brand col­la­bo­ra­tes with Dressr so you can also rent the clo­thes ins­tead of buy­ing them!

Most of the clo­thes are pro­du­ced in Pol­and. Sil designs the coll­ec­tions in their ate­lier in Erpe, near Ghent. Final­ly, the brand only uses mate­ri­als pro­du­ced in Euro­pe. As a result, Sil has a short sup­p­ly chain.

Most of the Sil coll­ec­tion is vegan, mea­ning it con­ta­ins no mate­ri­als of ani­mal ori­gin. A few garm­ents incor­po­ra­te silk or wool. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, no infor­ma­ti­on is known about the­se mate­ri­als, so it is not pos­si­ble to assess ani­mal welfare.

Sil designs accor­ding to slow fashion phi­lo­so­phy, in small coll­ec­tions and wit­hout sales peri­ods. Each coll­ec­tion con­sists of seven designs, often available in a few colour opti­ons. This way, the coll­ec­tions are always easy to mix across seasons.

The designs are tim­e­l­ess and sty­lish. They con­sist of neu­tral colours with an eye-cat­cher here and the­re. Sil makes clo­thes you can enjoy for a long time, so you can wear it for years with style and com­fort. The brand aims to empower women and empha­si­s­es your natu­ral look thanks to its clean lines and com­for­ta­ble fits.

In addi­ti­on, Sil also has a small coll­ec­tion of basics. In this coll­ec­tion, cal­led ​‘Sil vous plaît’, you will find hoo­dies, T‑shirts and jum­pers with embro­ide­red let­ters. The basics are made of sus­tainable mate­ri­als and are pro­du­ced in ethi­cal con­di­ti­ons. The Sil vous plaît coll­ec­tion con­sists of some light colours ran­ging from white to light blue.

Final­ly, Sil also has a bridal coll­ec­tion. The dres­ses are always uni­que and are com­ple­te­ly cus­tom-made for the bri­de. The­se dres­ses are hand­ma­de in the Sil atelier.

Sil pro­vi­des infor­ma­ti­on about their design pro­cess and col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with Polish pro­duc­tion work­shops, but does not go into detail. The brand did share the names of seve­ral sup­pli­ers with COSH! Which means it still scores well on transparency.