MADE FOR LIFE
We’re extending the lifecycle of our clothes by focusing on longevity in our designs, fabrics, and manufacturing.
Longevity by design
The amount of time we keep our clothes is a big piece of the sustainability puzzle. Wearing a piece of clothing for an extra nine months reduces waste and water usage by c20-30%. Well cared for, linen should last you a lifetime. And it only gets better with age. There’s a reason why the world’s oldest woven garment is a 5000-year-old linen dress from Ancient Egypt.
Flax London harnesses linen’s durability and combines it with high quality construction that complements the fabric’s natural longevity. We study styles that have endured over the years, registering the key features and then injecting our own style.
REDUCING WATER USAGE
Water consumption is a huge issue in the fashion industry. We’re tackling the issue by using a fabric that only needs natural rainfall to grow.
Water-friendly fabric
The intensive irrigation required to grow cotton places huge stress on water resources, as shown so vividly by the near total disappearance of the Aral Sea – once the fourth largest lake in the world. By contrast, the flax plants used to make our linen are grown in Northern Europe and only need natural rainfall to flourish.
More generally, thanks to its natural wicking ability and anti-bacterial properties, linen doesn’t need to be washed as regularly as cotton. It all adds up. All our linen is made in Northern Ireland by Baird McNutt whose cold pad batch dying methods use minimal amounts of water to ensure the process is as sustainable as it can be, from start to finish.
PLASTIC FREE
We avoid all plastics in the making and shipping of our clothes.
Avoiding Plastics
Whether it’s polyester, nylon, or some other synthetic fibre, plastic in fashion is pervasive. The price you pay for not having to iron your shirt will be felt most heavily by the ecosystems affected by plastic pollution when your shirt reaches the end of its life. There’s also the issue of microplastics in our rivers and oceans – a side effect of washing clothes with plastics in them. Our shirts and jackets are made of 100% linen, with eco-friendly cotton labels, and urea buttons.
Of course, there’s also the issue of plastics used in shipping and packaging. We pick up our shirts at the factory by hand and send them in recycled cardboard boxes. We’re also looking into reusable packaging options to inject a bit more circularity into the process.