SUSTAINABILITY & RESPONSIBILITY

Circular Fashion

Since we launched Usisi-Sister two years ago, sustainability has been at the forefront of our business. During conversations, which have taken place with the women in our community all over the world, we resolved to make responsible fashion a pillar of our business.

For both of us, the most positive way for fashion to be sustainable-aiming is to operate in a circular way. That means using cupro and FSC-certified viscose, reevaluating the way we produce collections from season to season, investing in organic materials, and moving to a more esoteric model where we design with the aim of having a season-free focus.

Who says it’s waste?

Offcuts don’t need to begin and end on the atelier floor. That’s why our Christmas capsule line this year is made entirely from deadstock fabric. To be honest, this is what we’ve done since our first year of business. We also use new fabrics that are made from old discarded materials — that includes Cupro — a plant based fabric often made from discarded cotton and FSC certified viscose, a much more ecologically sound way to use this fabric.

London designed and London made

This one is really important to us. London has always played a big part in us starting Usisi-Sister, so it’s important to us that not only all of our designs are created in our atelier in London, but that some styles are made in North London too.

Plastic Free Packing

We’re sure we’re not the first or the last people to be disappointed by the amount of packaging that shopping online creates. Getting your order from us shouldn’t come with a load of guilt over the bulky, difficult to recycle packing it’s delivered in. 

Because of this, we’ve made sure all our packaging is 100 percent biodegradable as well as being marine safe. Our garment bags are made from cornstarch so they dissolve in hot water and our paper mailers and packing tape use materials which are FSC regulated, which is the most recognisable proof of sustainability in the industry.

Clean Air

We got in touch with Offset Earth, a pioneering company who are committed to diverse methods of reforestation across the world, from planting mangrove fields in Madagascar to local reforestations in Bosawas, Nicaragua. 

Today and 24 months into our partnership with Offset Earth, and it makes us very happy to say that we’ve contributed to a global carbon reduction of 21.76t by planting 450 trees across the world — we’ve worked out that was 20 a month, and counting — we look forward to developing our partnership with Offset Earth. One of the reasons that underpins our partnership with this company is that they know that in comparison to tropical rainforests, mangrove trees capture over ten times as much carbon by acre, which is why mangrove tree plantation is such a big part of their strategy. We will continue to partner with Offset Earth as we grow Usisi-Sister, increasing our contributions as the business grows.