Imperfectionists

Transparent and ethical production

What we like about Imper­fec­tio­nists is the level of trans­pa­ren­cy that they pro­vide. On their social media feeds and web­site, they open­ly share the ups and downs they encoun­ter while buil­ding their brand. One of their first and grea­test chal­lenges was fin­ding an ethi­cal manu­fac­tu­rer that ali­gned with their values. Their search even­tual­ly led them to a small ate­lier near Dilayla’s resi­dence in Istan­bul. The owners sho­wed them the work­place where they spoke with the wor­kers. They veri­fied safe wor­king condi­tions and fair and living wages. Also, female wor­kers get paid the same wages as male wor­kers. Dilay­la is also in close contact with the owners and because the work­place is near her house, she often drops by to make sure eve­ry­thing is ok. Ethi­cal pro­duc­tion: check.

Natural materials

The other impor­tant fac­tor that Imper­fec­tio­nists want to car­ry out is the use of natu­ral, orga­nic mate­rials. Because syn­the­tic fibers don’t break down easi­ly and are cau­sing a micro­plas­tics disas­ter, Oli­na and Dilay­la chose from the get-go to never include any syn­the­tic fibers into their gar­ments. They wan­ted to make sure that eve­ry­thing the brand pro­duces is com­ple­te­ly made from natu­ral fibers. To make sure that these fibers can be 100 percent bio­de­gra­dable they are cur­rent­ly in the pro­cess of tes­ting and ite­ra­ting these mate­rials. For their first gar­ments, they chose GOTS-cer­ti­fied hemp from Italy.

A lot more to come

It’s easier than ever to start a fashion brand, but most busi­nesses that do so take the short­cut. These buy bulk from sup­pliers which have esta­bli­shed and often unsus­tai­nable sup­ply chains. The­reaf­ter the brand owners pri­vate label (print, label, sell) the gar­ments. While there are more sus­tai­nable options offe­red via this route as well, this is not the route that Imper­fec­tio­nists have cho­sen. To main­tain control over sus­tai­na­bi­li­ty and qua­li­ty, Imper­fec­tio­nists figu­ring out how to build an ethi­cal and envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly sup­ply chain on their own. This shows that they are very serious about making tru­ly sus­tai­nable fashion.

Because of this pro­duc­tion method, the choice is very limi­ted though. The brand limits pro­duc­tion to only two items: a sweat­shirt with a logo and a sweat­shirt with a roa­ring tiger on the back. Not a lot of choice, but qua­li­ty over quan­ti­ty and two sus­tai­nable and ethi­cal pro­ducts that are made with high qua­li­ty and dura­bi­li­ty in mind. Keep an eye out on their web­site for more.