As the past few years caused us to slow down we became even more acutely aware of every person’s impact on our beautiful planet. We have really brought into focus what we can do at Apolina to improve our ways and lessen our impact. We are big believers that each small step makes a difference – being mindful with our choices and striving for continuous improvement is key. Our sustainability efforts are very much ongoing, but we are pleased to share some positive changes we have made, and are making.

 

FABRICS

~ Increase in organic cotton within the range

~ Use of sustainable linen, which is a kinder crop and has less impact on the land 
~ Working with local artisan weavers in India to create our stripe, checks and jacquards in a responsible manner, supporting the traditional craft methods
~ Sustainable natural Corozo buttons

PACKAGING MATERIALS

~ Degradable / compostable garment protection packaging
~ Sustainable paper mailer
~ Recycled paper products

MANUFACTURING

~ Smaller, more continual, production runs, rather than a focus on two set ‘seasons’ – This allows our workers stability and continual employment.
~ Working with a sole factory is rare in this industry (most brands use a variety of manufacturers/vendors).  This allows us to build strong relationships, to reduce our waste fabric, and gives us easier transparency.
~ Focus on utilising local traditional craft handwork skills.
 
REUSE OF EXCESS FABRICS

Patchwork is a long-time love of ours. At the heart of Apolina is the love of craft and patchwork has appeared in our collections since AW18. When looking at all the possible solutions for using up the small amounts of our leftover cloth, this one seemed perfectly us! We continue to save production leftover cloths in order to incorporate in future capsule ranges.

 
THANK YOU PROJECT

Chatting with our right-hand lady in India, we came up with the idea to donate our production rejects to our hardworking ‘aunties’ (the group of women responsible for all our hand smocking and hand stitch finishes). Production rejects are typically held for two years and then our factory is able to remove branding and sell on these pieces themselves in India.
We decided it would be a lovely gesture to give these pieces to the team at a funded party to celebrate completing the collections. Many of the aunties have children and grandchildren, and it’s so lovely to see them wearing these pieces. 

 
CHARITY

We have an ongoing relationship with 'Goods for good'. At the end of each year we collate a package of clothing to send to vulnerable communities around the world.
 
After a season of sales, plus a further year in outlet we typically collate the small amount of surplus stock along with any slight faulty customer returns to donate. 
 
Previous years we have been able to send boxes to an orphanage in Zambia. We were delighted to receive a message recently from Goods for Good CEO Rosalind Bluestone:
 
'We were thrilled to receive this photo with great thanks from a children’s orphanage in Zambia, where your donated clothing was sent to. These children never receive new clothing, so you can imagine their excitement to receive these lovely garments.'