Fashion Revolution Week

Fashion Revolution Week is an annual campaign of fashion activism, started after the collapse of the the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh in 2013, which killed and injured thousands of garment workers. The aim is to collectively reimagine and push for a fairer fashion system for people and the planet 👫🌎

We’re proud to be an ethical, transparent brand who manufactures in the UK with safe conditions and fair pay, so we’re excited to show you a bit more behind the scenes this week and introduce our amazing team who bring your beautiful pieces to life - answering the all important question of #WhoMadeYourClothes?

Part of #FashionRevolutionWeek is asking #WhatsInYourClothes? So let’s talk fabric! 🧵

All of our beautiful fabrics are completely unique to L.O.M for each new collection - it’s made in Italy and printed by one of the highest quality printers in the UK. The materials we use the most are Lycra, Poly Crepe De Chine, Fleece lined Jersey and Denim. The base of a lot of our fabrics is polyester - which isn’t the best for the environment - however, using these materials is for few reasons:

🎨 We’re a print design brand, and print colour/quality comes out significantly better on manmade fibres.

⏱ The quality and vivid colour lasts a lot longer on these fabrics, meaning the garment will last longer - more wears, more looks, a piece to treasure for longer!

🏋️‍♂️ The materials are durable while also being lightweight, so can handle any stresses they get put under at raves, festivals, (swimming in the case of lycra!) or even just repeated everyday wear.

✂️ Pieces being made-to-order and the measures we take in the studio means that we have very little wastage of fabric - almost every scrap is used! (more on this coming later in the week!)

🌱 Lycra grows with you! Buttery soft, thick stretchy fabric is much less likely to need replacing if you go up or down a size, elongating the wearability of a piece throughout life and body changes - lots of people even wear throughout pregnancy!

We don’t believe in fast fashion, disposable trends and fading fads - we consciously design and make pieces that transcend seasons and trends, to be worn and treasured for many, many years.

There’s been a big movement in recycled manmade fabrics over the last few years, but the reason I haven’t made the switch yet is because quality wise, I haven’t found anything that compares to what we’re currently using. The samples we’ve received of these fabrics aren’t quite up to standard for L.O.M yet - it goes see through, doesn’t have the same amount of stretch, and the retention is a lot slower. However, we’re always keeping an eye on the eco/recycled fabric market and as soon as a suitable alternative is available and matches the standards of our current offering, L.O.M will be there! ✨

We’ve spent a long time perfecting our high quality fabrics here at L.O.M and we want to shout about what makes our fave so great:

🤸 The stretch! Lycra is a 4 way (all way) stretch fabric, so moves with you length ways, width ways and on the diagonal. It’s figure hugging and accommodates many body shapes per size!

🎨 Our print colour and quality is super rich, vivid and doesn’t fade - our printing methods mean it doesn’t go white or see through when stretched either.

🏋️‍♂️ It’s durable while also being lightweight, so can handle any stresses it gets put under at raves, festivals, or swimming, or just every day wear - meaning a garment to be worn many times and treasured for many years!

🧈 Buttery soft, thick and smooth, with a slight sheen - a dream to wear!

The biggest question during @fash_rev week is #whomademyclothes?

Every single item of clothing you own has been through the hands of another human - every shirt, pair of jeans, T-shirt, and L.O.M piece you own has been crafted by another person for you ✂️🧵

Making clothing isn't easy - as anyone who has sat down at a sewing machine can tell you. And producing clothing isn't cheap, as anyone who has tried to sell what they make will tell you.

You want to look for quality in your clothing, but you also want to know that there is a good quality of life for the people who make them. This is one of the reasons we have always decided to produce in the UK, and now why we have all of our pieces made in our own studio, or our team members' homes. That way we can be sure they are working in safe, happy environments, and getting paid properly.

At L.O.M our team members are all paid above the National Living wage and above average for seamstresses in the UK, they have flexible schedules so that they can do other work, activities, spend time with family or work on their own projects around working for L.O.M, and are all given opportunities to grow within their roles.

Get to know our team more by reading out About Us page. ✨

 

 

#FashionRevolutionWeek is about making fashion fairer for the planet, as well as people - here’s some more eco decisions we make as a brand to do our bit in keeping our waste and footprint as low as we possibly can!

🤸 We recycle 80% of our studio waste

🎨 Our offcuts are made into scrunchies and recycle the rest

🏋️‍♂️ Design specific garments to use fabric offcuts - like our shoulder capes

✂️ Made to order pieces to reduce stock build up

🧵 Economic pattern cutting

💪  Using modern machines with energy saving modes

🌍 Using UK based suppliers (where possible)

🌺 Paper based packaging which is biodegradable and recyclable

🥇 Shoot samples and damaged items get sold on depop