FROM US TO YOU
Since our launch in 2020 we have been finding our place in the Australian fashion industry. We launched with huge dreams and a grand vision of transforming the industry overnight into a more mindful, sustainable, and timeless platform. We quickly realised that we had so much more to learn, and that change doesn’t happen overnight. We also witnessed the fragility of the world around us with the arrival of Covid and the halting of global industry overnight – the Australian fashion industry being no exception. As we were so new and small we were afforded the luxury of flexibility and agility; we could turn our focus to finding a way to help our industry and wider community and from this WeWearAustralian was born.
We worked extremely closely with John and the Nobody Denim team on concepts as to how we could better our industry & they were a key supporter of the WeWearAustralian campaign from the very beginning. So when the time came and we were discussing launching a denim line on Showroom-X, Nobody was naturally our first choice.
“When the team at Nobody gave me the chance to help design my own styles specifically for our customer, I was so flattered and super excited. As my first foray into the design world, my aim was to capture the essence of Nobody Denim’s everyday effortless style and add to it an element of Showroom-X’s luxury via the elevated cuts and silhouettes.” - Kelly Atkinson
"There is no finish line with sustainability, only progress."
"Second to the ocean, soil is the largest carbon sink"
Creatively, for the shoot to tell the story of our collaboration we wanted to show a journey of discovery. A road trip to connect to the earth again, to oneself and back to basics. We wanted this campaign shoot to be as natural and honest as possible. There is no retouching on the imagery and almost everything was shot in or around 'magic hour' to get the sun's natural glow did all the heavy lifting – Nature at its finest.
While we have been working on the collaboration we have continued to educate ourselves with our Ethical Dictionary and our Musings so that we can in turn educate you, our wonderful Showroom-X community. From exploring fabrications to understanding the motivations of some of our favourite designers – we have endeavoured to continuously learn and to champion those doing amazing things in the sustainability space.
For our small team – this collaboration with Nobody Denim, FibreTrace and Good Earth Cotton is our opportunity to make a difference. By partnering with these captains of industry we can stand proud knowing that we are bringing to market a special 6-piece FibreTrace capsule collection of completely traceable denim garments made from cotton sourced from the world’s first carbon positive cotton farm, Good Earth Cotton, located in Moree, New South Wales.
“Soil is at the centre of everything we do at Good Earth Cotton®. To ensure we can sequester enough carbon than we emit, we must first have healthy soils to store and capture any C02e released into the atmosphere.” – Good Earth Cotton
Playing a pivotal role, their black alluvial soil is rich and naturally nourished. Providing an ideal environment for their cotton to grow but also homing a vibrant ecosystem of micro-organisms and earthworms. Their focus is squarely on soil health and biodiversity which they achieve by using regenerative farming methods such as zero to minimum tillage, crop rotation, multi species cover crop techniques, continued improvement of natural corridors and use of organic amendments with by-products of cotton.
From the soil - grows their cotton. From the field, seed cotton moves to nearby gins for separation of lint and seed and trash. The cotton first goes through dryers to reduce moisture content and then through cleaning equipment to remove foreign matter. It’s also at the ginning stage that the patented FibreTrace technology consisting of fully traceable luminescent pigments are permanently embedded in the cotton fibre. The pigments can be read and tracked at every stage of the supply chain and act as a digital passport for your garment, telling of its journey from farm to shelf.
The cotton is then compressed into bales in preparation for shipping. Good Earth Cotton grow over 50,000 bales of cotton each year and sequester over 420 kgs of carbon per 22kg bale of cotton (21 million kgs of carbon per crop).
Carbon Sequestration Explained Carbon Dioxide is the most commonly produced greenhouse gas. Carbon Sequestration is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric Carbon Dioxide. It is one method of reducing the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere with the goal of reducing global climate change.
From Moree we travel to Istanbul Turkey were Orta Anadolu spins the yarn. Founded in 1953, Orta has transformed from a spinning & weaving company into a denim manufacturer with generations of experience and expertise behind them. Orta is committed to transparency, working hand in hand with brand partners to improve manufacturing processes that focus on spinning better cotton for the earth and reducing waste output.
After the finest cotton has been selected, Orta spins a unique Good Earth Cotton yarn and incorporates elastane in the core of the yarn to ensure stretch and recovery of the fabric, ensuring the ultimate comfort. After spinning, the yarns are tightly wound around bobbins or cones and are ready for fabric forming. It is then woven on the loom or the weaving machine, lengthwise yarns called the warp form the skeleton of the fabric, then filling (better known as weft) yarns are interlaced width wise to form denim fabric. The denim is then shipped by sea to the Nobody Denim factory located in Thornbury, Melbourne.,
The denim fabric is laid out in stacks, as many as 30 payers thick. The pattern is placed on top of the stock and a high-speed cutting machine is used to cut the denim. Excluding rivets, buttons and zippers, a pair of traditional 5 pocket jeans contain about 17 different pieces, from the pockets to the leg panels, to the waistband and belt loops.
Nobody’s skilled makers then use machines to piece together the various parts by hand and create the basic outline of the jeans. Sewing is done in an assembly line fashion, with rows of industrial human-operated sewing machines with each sewer being assigned a specific function. Once the garment is fully assembled it’s off to the laundry to be brushed and washed.
From the Nobody laundry in Fitzroy, Melbourne the garments are fitted on dummies and special tools are used to wear the surface of the denim to give it a worn in look. The garment then goes through at least 2 washes. The first wash is called ‘desize’ which takes the shrinkage out of the garment. The garment is then put through a stone and/or bleach wash cycle to achieve the desired shade of indigo. After washing the garments are dried in industrial dryers. If required the garment is then further distressed with a Dremel tool, adding holes and giving a distressed finish. A final wash and dry then awaits the garment to remove any detergent and reveal the final finish. The completed garment is then professionally pressed using industrial steam irons. After which the garments travel back to the Nobody Denim factory in Thornbury to have buttons and rivets attached, and loose threads trimmed.
Swing tags and labels are the last addition and from here the pieces have made their way to us at Showroom-X and then on to their rightful home with you. With each purchase, know that each garment and its workers have been paid fairly, cared for greatly and have covered their footprint on this earth to make truly sustainable fashion.
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BY SHOWROOM-X
