Making Sustainability Sexy

Making Sustainability Sexy

BY SAMANTHA KRUSE

PHOTOS BY PROVIDED

With a deep appreciation for the earth, sustainable clothing brand Wolven was born. Kiran Jade is Wolven’s founder and CEO, and being raised by a Hindu Indian father and a Pakistani Muslim mother taught her the beauty of diversity. Jade had a love for fabrics and textiles at a young age because of her mother’s influence, as she would go to fabric markets for her outfits. With Jade’s partner, Will Ryan, she created a brand that embraced different “shapes, sizes, cultures, [and] identities,” according to Wolven’s website.

Wolven’s passions and beliefs are in sustainability, diversity, body positivity, and artistic appreciation, the website reads. The founders have taken these beliefs and put them into art, as they craft patterns on canvases before putting them into designs. Inspiration is found in places like the founders’ cultures, family members’ henna designs, plants, and the wild.

Wolven is a transparent brand, as it displays how its production is certified. The company tests every garment for harmful substances, and that is proven by the STANDARD 100 by the OEKO-TEX label. Wolven also abides by Intertek’s Workplace Conditions Assessment program, which shows the transparency of the brand through both the supply chain and health standards, and holds the company responsible for environmental and business practices, the website informs. “The Global Recycle Standard sets requirements that ensure accurate claims for recycled materials and responsible social, environmental, and

chemical practices throughout production,” according to Wolven’s Transparency page on its website.

Alongside those standards, Wolven has invested in carbon offset initiatives. According to the brand’s website, it is partners with Climate Neutral and measures its “greenhouse gas emissions footprint [yearly], purchase[s] carbon credits to offset that footprint, and implement[s] plans to reduce [the brand’s] emissions moving forward.” Wolven’s carbon-neutral products and carbon credits support projects like rainforest conservation and landfill methane capture, the website notes.

Wolven is distinct in the way it has split its production by ethically making garments in both China and Los Angeles. Activewear and swimwear are made in China, as they are ahead of the U.S. in environmental sustainability by creating initiatives like “clean energy production and recycled fabric manufacturing,” according to Wolven’s website. The brand’s products have a smaller carbon footprint because they are produced in China. There, the

back of the closet fabric is made versus imported. Tees and dresses are ethically made in Los Angeles; all modal styles are cut and sewn by small, female-owned sewer Vilma and Vilma’s team.

The brand uses recycled PET fabrics, which is a versatile fabric made by “breaking down discarded plastics and recycling them into textiles and apparel,” according to Wolven’s website. Producing this type of fabric generates fewer carbon emissions, and reducing these emissions is important to reduce climate change. Wolven’s

products are even softer than cotton, as the brand uses a cellulose fiber from beechwood pulp that is sustainably harvested. Not only are the garments ecofriendly, but so is the packaging. Hemp twine wraps the items, then placed in “reusable, 100% recycled poly mailer[s] or biodegradable paper box[es],” Wolven’s website states.

Acknowledging that “11 million tons of plastic waste enter the ocean” every year, Wolven has made a tribute to the oceans by collecting one pound of trash for every order. It shows support for the German association One Earth – One Ocean (OEOO), which created a concept to “free waters from plastic, oil, and chemicals,” Wolven’s website explains.

Wolven’s mission is to “make sustainability sexy” by fighting for the planet while helping customers look amazing. By creating initiatives and acknowledging its responsibility to reduce its negative environmental impact, the brand has set out to change the activewear industry for the better.