Lady vintage

Ser­gio, a for­mer chef, star­ted Lady Vin­ta­ge with a loan from his gran­d­mot­her. Ini­ti­al­ly ope­ra­ting from a mar­ket stall and a spa­re bedro­om, the brand quic­k­ly expan­ded. Vic­to­ria, a cla­ssi­cal­ly tra­ined pianist, joined Ser­gio in buil­ding the brand. They laun­c­hed the bran­ds’ web­si­te offe­ring wor­l­dwi­de ship­ping, and saw rapid suc­cess, with the­ir first col­lec­ti­on sel­ling out quickly.

Lady Vin­ta­ge relo­ca­ted manu­fac­tu­ring to Lon­don to enhan­ce quality con­trol, redu­ce pro­duc­ti­on times, and uphold local gar­ment manu­fac­tu­ring tra­di­ti­ons. This stra­te­gic relo­ca­ti­on led to sig­ni­fi­cant brand growth, leading Vic­to­ria to join full-time and move clo­ser to the fac­tory for bet­ter over­sig­ht. Lady Vin­ta­ge can direc­tly liaise with the wor­kers and per­so­nal­ly ensu­re that the­ir dre­sses are of the hig­hest quality.

With its UK-based pro­duc­ti­on, the brand uphol­ds strict UK quality and ethi­cal stan­dar­ds.

At Lady V’s UK headqu­ar­ters, all dress and print desig­ns are cre­ated in-house by Ser­gio and Vic­to­ria. The manu­fac­tu­ring of the­se desig­ns is car­ri­ed out in Lon­don, UK. Howe­ver, the brand has not dis­clo­sed any deta­ils regar­ding the sour­cing of the­ir materials.

Lady Vin­ta­ge, pre­do­mi­nan­tly uses mate­ri­al blen­ds of 97% conven­ti­onal cot­ton and 3% elas­ta­ne, or 95% polyes­ter and 5% elas­ta­ne for the­ir dre­sses. The blend of natu­ral and syn­t­he­tic fibres poses issu­es in ter­ms of recy­cla­bi­lity and end-of-life dis­po­sal.

Other envi­ron­men­tal con­cer­ns inclu­de the sig­ni­fi­cant water and pes­ti­ci­de usa­ge asso­ci­ated with cot­ton pro­duc­ti­on, des­pi­te it being a natu­ral fibre. Addi­ti­onal­ly, elas­ta­ne, as a syn­t­he­tic fibre, con­tri­bu­tes to micro­plas­tic pol­lu­ti­on during washing.

Fur­t­her­mo­re, the brand has not pro­vi­ded spe­ci­fic deta­ils regar­ding the che­mi­cals used in pro­duc­ti­on and fini­shing pro­ce­sses, nor infor­ma­ti­on on the­ir pac­ka­ging mate­ri­als and tran­s­por­ta­ti­on met­hods. This lack of tran­s­pa­ren­cy makes it dif­fi­cult to ful­ly assess the ove­rall envi­ron­men­tal impact of Lady Vin­ta­ge, par­ti­cu­lar­ly in are­as like che­mi­cal mana­ge­ment, was­te reduc­ti­on, and car­bon foot­print asso­ci­ated with tran­s­por­ta­ti­on and packaging.

Lady Vin­ta­ge’s appro­ach to sus­ta­ina­bi­lity does not align with the prin­ci­ples of a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy model.

The bran­d’s use of mate­ri­al blen­ds in the­ir dre­sses com­pli­ca­tes recy­cling and reuse, as the­se blen­ds are har­der to bre­ak down and repurpose. 

The brand does not offer repa­ir ser­vi­ce, which means that exten­ding the lifecy­cle of the­ir gar­ments thro­ugh men­ding is not an opti­on they offer, which is a key aspect of cir­cu­lar fashion. 

The lack of use of recy­cled mate­ri­als in the­ir new pro­duc­ti­ons indi­ca­tes a missed oppor­tu­nity in redu­cing vir­gin reso­ur­ce consumption. 

They do ope­ra­te an outlet, which hel­ps in moving unsold stock and redu­cing waste.

Lady Vin­ta­ge’s pro­duc­ti­on pro­cess is short and effi­ci­ent beca­use the­ir design team, fac­tory, and main offi­ce are all clo­se toget­her in the UK. 

Howe­ver, the bran­d’s lack of tran­s­pa­ren­cy regar­ding mate­ri­al sour­cing and ship­ping met­hods makes it dif­fi­cult to ful­ly assess the­ir sup­ply chain.

Lady vin­ta­ge does not use any ani­mal mate­ri­als, so they are the­ore­ti­cal­ly a vegan brand unless they use ani­mal deri­ved pro­duc­ts in the chemicals.

Des­pi­te Lady Vin­ta­ge’s cla­im of embodying slow fashi­on with the­ir vin­ta­ge-ins­pi­red desig­ns and unique prints, the­ir low sco­re in sus­ta­ina­bi­lity sug­ges­ts a gap betwe­en the­ir mar­ke­ting and actu­al prac­ti­ces. The brand focu­ses on time­less style and inclu­si­vity in sizes, but this does not nece­ssa­rily equ­ate to sus­ta­ina­ble pro­duc­ti­on met­hods or mate­ri­als.

More­over, pro­vi­ding only a basic washing and care guide is a mini­mal effort towar­ds gar­ment lon­ge­vity, and does not ful­ly align with the prin­ci­ples of slow fashi­on, which emp­ha­si­ze com­pre­hen­si­ve sus­ta­ina­bi­lity and ethi­cal prac­ti­ces in every aspect of production.

The brand pro­vi­des some tran­s­pa­ren­cy regar­ding the­ir pro­duc­ti­on loca­ti­ons and pro­ce­sses, as well as mate­ri­ality. Howe­ver, we would love to see more deta­ils abo­ut the­ir pro­duc­ti­on part­ners and the­ir ethi­cal natu­re, mate­ri­al sour­cing, tran­s­por­ta­ti­on, etc.