Fluidified

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A Step Forward

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SustainableCouturewith Louise

Louise Xin Couture was founded in 2020 in Stockholm by self-taught couture designer Xand artist Louise Xin. She launched as the first rental-only non-sale couture brand in Scandinavia and the world. in Focusing on working with as much up-cycled fabrics possible. Her goal is to create wearable art for every women in a sustainable way. SWEAR sat down with Louise Xin herself and asked her about the techniques being used, and the process of being a sustainable designer in such a fast-moving industry.

Could give me a background on how you started your brand?

I started the brand two years ago as the Scandinavia’s first rent-only known couture brand. Everything is handmade, the dresses are mostly for special occasions, and galas. And I’ve always wanted to do something creative.

I didn’t want to create another mass production brand and I just didn’t really know how I can do it in a way that I can stand for it, such as my values, and my moral grounds. It was actually during the pandemic, where I was stuck in Japan and I think everyone got their own wake up call in different ways.

For me, it was really like we need to mind how we live our lives if we want to care for climate change and a world towards a more sustainable future. It was a humble attempt to change customer behaviour and customer shopping patterns.

84 What is the branding behind being a non sale and rental only couture brand?

Basically, couture is very special in niche areas so normally it is made to measure. The idea is that you will have the same experiences as if you would go to any high fashion houses where you either pick something off the runway or they create something for you but the only difference is what happened to the garments after you’d be using it. When it comes to couture as women, we know that we will never wear something like that more than once in our life. Those dresses take up the whole closet so instead anyone can come and rent and we do adjustments and the sizes can be an extra small up to a size large. The same garment can fit into different body types and also can be adjustable so you can customise in your own way and make it special for each client. What is the concept of your work?

Yes, because I use a lot of up-cycled or dead-stock fabrics so I try to minimise the use of newly produced fabrics, it’s really hard, since you need 60 metres of each, for one dress.

I’m trying my best to find the solutions but the goal is really to reach zero new production. So we do not sell but we rent and each client gets their special occasion where they wear the dresses, and afterwards, we clean them and customise them to the next client. Also, I believe that for me, I want my job to empower women and I want them to feel that no matter what body shape you are, you should be able to still look amazing.

Is the fabric sourced or found?

I travel a lot so the places I have been collecting the fabrics have been everywhere from, second-hand shops in Tokyo where I had found some traditional handwoven fabrics. I can find great secondhand shops in Stockholm where I can find many metres of secondhand silk or organza so like it’s literally from everywhere and also, the bigger the amount of fabrics that I buy from deadstock, the different kinds of depth that there is in stock.

How do you perceive sustainable fashion in such a fast moving industry?

I think everything is about timing and for me, I feel very lucky because I think I started as a brand at the perfect timing and maybe a little bit early because there’s still a lot of things that people aren’t really used to. It’s really like a trying out phase where people are very interested in shopping and they’re very excited to explore the idea but a lot more still have the old mindset and I really want to own my dress so I can buy it and of course, that takes time and I think it comes down to being very sure about where you stand and what values you want to contribute for your brand.

You have such strong photoshoots. How do you choose your collaborators?

I’m very lucky I have such amazing creative people around me like there are a lot of great people in that area. We always have a lot of ideas on what to do creatively so I would definitely say I’m very lucky to have great people surrounding me that are creative as well.

What inspires you to create a collection?

I will say my biggest inspiration is nature. I spend a lot of time in nature and I’m a secretly introverted person. I talk a lot to people like you and do interviews because you have to do that in this industry but in between meetings and public speaking occasions, I spend a lot of time in nature and so I take a lot of inspiration from the colours of the flowers to the leaves, and the emotion of the structure.

Culture is another one of my inspirations. I love travelling around the world and meeting people from dif-

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ferent kinds of cultures and observing their traditional garments. Those treasures really excite me and really fascinate me so I try to use as much dye as possible in my emotions to showcase the beauty from different people and different cultures.

Do you design according to your stocks available? I have a lot of fabrics in stock, I just find a fabric and then pull them out when I create the dresses. It’s a very creative process, I would say it’s just like a painting for me when I work with my dresses, it’s more like drape, and a lot of reimagining.

Your social media has vivid imagery of women empowerment and women from different cultures. Why is it important for you to project this in your brand?

Diversity is extremely important and I also want to have every girl growing up to see someone looking like them in advertisement or in a commercial because it is important to be inclusive. I don’t think brands really understand how much it is only in front of the camera, but also in decision making positions because if I didn’t have the people in my life, from different cultures and different backgrounds, and going through different kinds of walks of life, I wouldn’t be able to be the person I am today and taking those decisions I’ve been having today. And it’s just such a privilege to actually have people coming from different cultures to give a different perspective.

Does your page attract local or international clients?

Oh, yes, they are. They are and it’s everyone from, Bollywood in India to America, and Europe so, it’s amazing but also hard to figure out the infrastructure part of it so far. I have only 20% of my social media following based in Sweden so 80% is from people from everywhere else.

Why do you think brand transparency is essential in the fashion industry?

It’s very important because especially in this era, the customers are taking a lot more responsibilities, we want to know where we put our money, and we care a lot more. It’s crucial today to create buzz between customers and for the brands. I really believe that greenwashing wouldn’t work in the future, because the customers are too smart, they will figure it out, and also, if you want to create a brand that’s long lasting and sustainable, you need to do things right from the beginning. Everybody makes mistakes, after all they’re just humans behind all those brands and companies and to be able to have a very transparent conversation between customers and brands, and really talking through what is working what is not is very important.

What are hopes for a sustainable fashion industry in the future?

Oh, dear, I have a lot. I mean, one of things I’m passionate about is human rights. When I first started, I found out that one of every five cuts in a garment is tainted by weak or forced labour.

We cannot address the issue of sustainability without addressing human rights, racism or the exploitation of natural resources and deforestation because everything is interconnected. We need to understand that to be able to really create a sustainable solution, we need to look into all those aspects all together. Not everyone can do everything but, at least we can cut off the supply chain to reduce forced labour. I started studying a lot of science and history because we’ve looked at a past and we can examined how we arrived to where we are today because it’s really important to understand our past.

Slavery and exploitation are still happening and we cannot forget that because a lot of companies or countries get ahead on the costs of other people suffering. So if we know that this is not working, we need to do something else. So for me, most importantly, is to treat people we work with fairly so we close the gaps on those have and have nots.

Top Left & Right: Louise Xin Couture (photo by Emma Grann) Bottom: Louise Xin Couture (photo by David Lundin) Left & Right: Raw Pixel

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In 2012, Bert van Son founded MUD Jeans. He witnessed that life for factory workers is extremely demanding, and that the endless demands for material, due to exploded production, are ruining our planet so he wanted to do things differently.

Today, MUD Jeans has become a circular fashion company, focusing on recycling and leasing denim to customers. It holds the title of being the world’s first B Corps, consistently putting the circular economy principles into practice.

SWEAR sat down with a representative from MUD Jeans and asked some questions about the business model and the future of sustainability in fashion. Why is MUD Jeans different from other companies?

We deliver very beautiful jeans, affordable and comfortable to wear. Apart from that I think that we also sell hope. There is a big problem in this world and we will show them that in 10 years time we will always be there for them.

How do customers react to your branding?

Transparency is so essential for us as a company. We show all necessary information in all of our items. To be very transparent, we hope that consumers understand that we are transparent.

Is sustainability important for the world?

People were 50-50. They want to change their lifestyle so it is all about transparency. We call it the very dark green consumer. Not all individuals want to make a change in their life and live in a sustainable way. Every individual has the option to opt for what his/ her desires are.

What is the mechanism of returning jeans?

We look at them, wash them, and re-sell them again as vintage jeans. People buy items they don’t need solely to avoid losing out on bargains, resulting in massive amounts of trash. On Black Friday, under the theme of Nothing New, you can enter the livestream to see Team MUD providing personal fit advice and handpicking vintage jeans for each customer from the jeans returned by our customers. The price of each pair will be €29, with all earnings going to Justdiggit, a landscape restoration group.

How did the business model of MUD Jeans get created?

We founded the company in 2012 and by the year 2014 we started selling jeans. We make sure that the jeans that people buy last as long as possible. This resulted in consumers needing to buy fewer pairs of jeans. The first pattern that you can see is from the company “Use it, not own it”.

Transitioning from the notion of ownership to simply limited time use meant that companies can control the lifecycle of their products. Not only does this remove an extra hassle from the lives of consumers but this allows businesses to use these resources again with much less impact on the environment. What is the company’s marketing strategy?

There are different ways to market everything. Every jeans company can be cheaper. We were always here and will always be in the industry. Now it’s up to the costumers to choose which brand of jeans one wants.

with MUD Jeans

Questions by Nirayl Grech Left: MUD Jeans

leasing is the new buying

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