Little things we’re proud of, but we have a long way to go...

We recently turned 2 this month and as we worked our way through the crisis, adjusting to the new normal, we have always treasured our relationship with you, our community, and wanted to make sure we did the best to help you through this while staying true to our vision. Through our various platforms, we have always been vocal about sustainability, the state of the fashion industry, its downfalls, the solutions and bright side of it all. However, we know that actions speak louder than words and we try to let ours always assure our green heart-ers that nothing is more important to us than our planet and people.

We wanted to let you know just how we have been doing so with a quick look at the past 6 months. Here are some figures our team put together of all the little things we’re proud of:

Our most recent summer 2020 edit, ‘Tropical Sunshine’, which we have worked on the the past 6 months, includes 17 looks that are hand embroidered - you can check them out here.

Moreover, to create this recent collection, we collaborated extensively with two artisan communities:

• Bagru Textiles, a block printing community in Bagru, Rajasthan, where they printed 466 metres of fabric for our pieces.
• WomenWeave, a weaving community in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh, who handspun and hand woven 580 metres of organic cotton fabric for us.

(Seen here: WomenWeave workspace, left; block printing with Bagru Textiles, right)

We decided to make a big switch to artisan made fabrics because it helps us bring further transparency into our value chain while also supporting the crafts in India. By doing so we have managed to support 20 printers, washers and more from Bagru Textiles; 10 dyers from Truetone Ink; and 60 workers from WomenWeave.

Experimented with fabrics such as Tencel, organic cotton knit, handwoven organic cotton, and Linen plus excel blend.

Our fits & feedback

• Our fits are designed and cut in a way to minimize as much fabric wastage as we can - as mentioned, fabric left behind is then saved to use for upcycled accessories and is also used to create new pieces like in our ‘Basic-ally Sui’ and ‘Basic-ally Sui 2.0’ collections.
• We design our silhouettes with a seasonless aspect, cool and relaxed for the summer but also easy to layer in the winter. Each season, we gather feedback from our customers, about the fits, the fabrics and the designs so we can perfect them further, such as the trousers we craft, which have gone through many rounds of sampling.

Our threadspeller team of 6 tailors have almost all been with us for as long as Sui has been around. We continue to support them, their skills, and their families. We have seen them grow in their craft as well as celebrated their own personal milestones such as Tahir’s recent marriage and Hanif becoming a father of two beautiful children. They are a big part of the heart and soul of the Sui family.

A continuing goal our whole team works on is to always educate ourselves to both widen our knowledge and make sure that we are also passing along the right information to you, our green heart community!

We call these the little things because if we are being honest, we still have a long way to go and a lot more we would like to learn. We’re a curious bunch, deeply passionate about the world we live in!

There are still parts of our process we are looking to improve, for example, processes such as herbal dyes have colour limitations and come with a cost, which is why for a few pieces we work with azo-free dyes. As a team, we’re still learning a lot more about herbal colours and plan to dig deeper over the next few months. We work with fabrics such as organic cotton, Tencel & linen that are provided by ethical vendors who have sustainable certifications. It's a good start but our goal is to be able to work towards gaining more knowledge about their source so that we are aware of their complete journey. Little things such as our embellishments, like our wooden buttons, and our threads are also a work in progress to make sure these are also sourced sustainably/ ethically.

These amongst others are many little goals we set for ourselves, each attached with a significant purpose. But being true to our mission, we believe in understanding the journey of each further, before moving ahead. So as the world slows down, amongst other things - we’ve come together as a team to set out our purposeful goals.

There’s no doubt that we are proud of what we have done so far but progress is constant and we want to be sure we are always working in the best interest of the earth and of you. An important pillar at Sui is education, within the team and via our content too - we are continuously researching, questioning & experimenting, to understand the why behind each process. As we grow, there’s one thing we know for sure - it’ll always be with a green heart.