Transparency
We prioritise transparency so that you can make conscious and informed choices that meet your values before making a new clothing purchase from us.
CONSCIOUS MANUFACTURING
Offkut offers intentional, slower paced production to challenge overconsumption in the fast fashion industry. This approach means we operate small scale production and makes sure there is little waste or inventory lying around.
At present we manufacture 100% of our pieces in London. We regularly visit the family-run factories we work with and we have built amazing relationships with the staff who create our designs for you. Some items are made in house in our East London Studio by our talented seamstresses.
Plans for the future: Supporting UK manufacturing is important to us and it will always take priority above overseas. Yet, we recognise that certain overseas factories can offer garment technologies that the UK cannot. Regardless of location, factories we work with they must comply with the same environmental, social and sustainability standards.
REDUCING TEXTILE WASTE
As our name suggests, we care a lot about keeping waste from production to a minimum and finding ways to keep reducing it.
Any unusable scraps left from manufacturing (e.g. too small, damaged) are collected by a B Corp certified company who recycle and reuse the textile on our behalf. Although, this is an extra cost for us to implement, it is highly important that our textile waste does not end up in landfill. Every year we receive certification that Offkut Studio LTD is disposing of textile waste responsibly.
Whether deadstock fabric or a new material, we purchase fabrics intentionally. We want to be sure that what we make with it is going to stand the test of time, both in style and quality.
The manufacturers are highly skilled in lay-planning pattern pieces onto our fabrics in order to maximise usage and reduce waste when cutting.
Any pieces that don't pass our rigorous quality checks are either amended by the manufacturer or included in a sample sale at a discounted price if the garment is still deemed wearable and long-lasting. If the garment is damaged, then it is collected by the textile recyclers or we make it into something new.
We also sell our larger fabric remnants on our website and studio sales at affordable prices to ensure they are accessible to creatives.
Plans for the future: Keep doing what we're doing!
THE FABRICS
We source various fabrics for our designs, which is specified in each product listing.
1. The majority of our designs are made with locally source deadstock fabric of various fibre compositions. Due to the nature of deadstock it can be difficult to determine exact fibre compositions. Our supplier is usually able to identify the main fibre in the material. We run wear and wash tests to ensure each piece has the correct care instructions.
2. We also use a U.K. supplier to print our digitally printed materials. They have robust sustainability policies; such as using little to no water in production and using 95% less energy than traditional textile printing methods. Their fabrics are ethically sourced and their suppliers are vetted for labour and environmental standards, REACH and SEDEX accreditation.
3. Recycled and natural fibres are also incorporated into some of our designs.
4. We choose new fibres minimally and very selectively. We take careful consideration before choosing any new fibre for our products and ensure it is long lasting and used for timeless, season-less pieces in our collections.
Plans for the future: We are aiming to incorporate more natural and recycled textiles in our future designs.