whatshotnewzealand.com
Q&A: Peri Drysdale
DYED IN THE WOOL What’s Hot Christchurch talks style and sustainability with Untouched World founder Peri Drysdale.
012 WHCHC
You’ve had a strong sustainability focus for a long time. What does sustainability mean to you? In a nutshell, working to protect the future of our planet and its people while meeting the needs of today. This has to be a holistic focus – environmental, social, cultural issues are all interconnected and can’t be solved independently of each other. What are the latest sustainable initiatives you’ve been working on? We have been on our sustainable journey for 20 years now, and over that time we’ve put a lot of work into finding and developing the most sustainable fabrics and fibres and walking the talk when it comes to best practice in terms of our design and manufacturing process. One issue that is still a biggie for us is all the plastic in our environment. It bugs us that we can’t find a genuinely better alternative to poly bags that we use to protect the garments in our warehouse from moths et cetera. We’ve looked at a huge range of alternatives from bags made from sugar cane to bags made from corn starch and while these ‘compostable’ bags sound nice, in reality they’re still not very kind to the planet. Last year we undertook a comprehensive three-month study into plastic bag alternatives. In order to make compostable packaging more flexible, stronger and water-resistant, a biodegradable binding agent such as PBAT is usually added. It is partially derived from a petrochemical, fossil-based agent that is still not fully renewable. The ‘compostable’ options currently available are not suitable to be
01 — Peri Drysdale
placed in kerbside recycling. If they find their way into the recycling stream, then they contaminate all the other material, meaning nothing can be recycled and it will all end up in landfill. Our study showed that there is no transparent, waterproof, insect-proof bag material that is better in our current environment with the available recycling and composting facilities than a poly bag, so it’s something we’ll continue to work on. When it comes to sustainability and sociallyconscious products, how important is it to pair them with good aesthetic design? Good aesthetic design inspires and feeds the soul. The uptake of environmentally and socially-conscious products is much, much higher when a product is aesthetically pleasing, so this is really important to us. It’s always been our mantra that you shouldn’t have to give up luxury and great design to be good to the planet.
What is the cornerstone of Untouched World’s design philosophy? Less is more. We believe in timeless design and by using luxurious, quality fabrics and fibres that are easy to wear and easy on the earth, our pieces become those go-to styles in the wardrobe that you’ll want to wear because they make you feel good. We design our pieces to dress up or down effortlessly, so they can take you anywhere and you don’t need as much in your wardrobe. Tell us about Untouched World Kitchen – what can people expect when they visit you? A light, airy, relaxed space where our friendly team serve simple yet nourishing and delicious dishes, catering for vegetarians, vegans and meat eaters, with plenty of options for those who are dairy or gluten intolerant. There’s also a cabinet full of irresistible treats to have with your coffee, many of them vegan.
