by Cherie Birkner

Doubling the useful life of clothing from one year to two years reduces emissions over the year by 24%. Let’s think about how not only quality but also design plays into our use of clothing. When we buy trend based pieces the time-span of its ‘useful life’ has an expiration date. At Son de Flor dresses are made to become your long term companion, as Vaida one of the two founders put it in her own words: “One good thing is enough”.

I had the pleasure to meet part of the Son de Flor team here in Berlin. They hosed a beautiful vegan & vegetarian dinner which started off with a heartfelt speech from Vaida.

When Son de Flor was founded it was not their intention to be a sustainable label, only later as questions came up and the topic became popular did they realize that they in fact were approaching their work with what we understand as a sustainable mindset today. As Vaida put it, they were walking the talk - only they hadn’t been talking about it. The designs are inspired by the dress which Vaida’s mother wore each year for Christmas ever since she and her sister could remember, and they asked themselves “Why no one makes such dresses anymore?". So it was made. Only today this dress is not thought to only be worn on occasion, but to become your everyday companion. Here are their sustainability standards:

1. FAIR & ETHICAL: They know who works in the fabric production company, as well as in the production process which is not done in their own laboratory. Some manufacturing is outsourced to local producers “complying with EU regulations, respectful working conditions and salaries. In fact, we love working with a company hiring women with hearing disorders.”. “We can assure absolutely fair production and Oeko-Tex® 100 certification”.

2. FABRICS: All dresses are made of locally sourced linen, which is not only low in CO2 emissions, but also needs Flax is a rare product which represents less than 1% of all textile fibers consumed worldwide¹. “Our linen comes from a local producer with all the yarns being raised in EU. We know who works in the company and we can assure absolutely fair production and Oeko-Tex® 100 certification”

   • Each year one hectare of flax retains 3,7 tons of CO2².

   • Flax cultivation has positive effects on eco-system diversity and offers a welcome environmental pause for soil quality, bio-diversity and landscapes³.

   • Linen is known to only require natural percipitation, which means there is no irrigation needed, and it can live off of natural rain falls, where as cotton will need an average of 7000l of water for one pair of jeans, and twice the amount of pesticides⁴.

   • 650.000 millions cubic meters of water would be consumed if flax cultivation was replaced by cotton cultivation⁵.

   • Linen is known to be the world’s strongest natural fiber. It is thicker and more durable than cotton, making it the perfect material for timeless design.

   • Over time the fabric becomes softer.

3. LOCAL SOURCING & PRODUCTION: Son de Flor linen comes from a local producer in Lithuania. The garments which are not produced in the Son de Flor laboratory, are outsourced to local producers.

4. SLOW FASHION: With their timeless designs and throughout their social media channels Son de Flor promotes the slow fashion approach by showing numerous ways to wear one dress and advocating for the #30wears concept created by Livia Firth.

5. VEGAN: All products are vegan.

6. PACKAGING: during the event we all got to know the team on a personal level as well. Ugnė, the IT guru of the team, is currently challenging herself to have a 100% zero waste lifestyle, and she is not alone with this. The entire Son de Flor team is really pushing towards a zero waste lifestyle. Implementing a variety of zero waste approaches in their office as well as with the packaging of orders. Son de Flor is using no plastic for wraping and delivery of their garments.

7. CERTIFICATIONS: Son de Flor has no certifications. Why? “We do not have Oeko Tex certification yet, because we are still a small company and financially it's a big investment, however, I am sure we could easily get it (and it's in our plans) because of allignment to all the rules and regulations which we follow naturally to be valid for Oeko Tex certification. Our linen supplier is a comparatively big company in Lithuania and the linen we are making our clothes from is Oeko Tex certified. We closely cooperate with sewing houses our dresses are made at and they either have Oeko Tex certification or we simply know their working conditions.”

CRITIQUE: Many visitors at their NEONYT stand asked if the material is organic - which it is not. This means there are pesticides being used in production, however at a much lower rate than we find in comparable materials such as cotton. The brands main reason for not using organic flax is that they really believe in the local aspect of production. The fabrics are Oeko Tex certified and purchased from a local producer which makes them able to track back every step of their production chain, and save emissions on transport.

Sources:

¹http://www.mastersoflinen.com/eng/lin/1-la-filiere-de-proximite, ²http://www.mastersoflinen.com/eng/lin/3-ecosysteme-lin, ³Advisory Commission Report to the European Parliament, Brussels, May 20, 2008, ⁴https://www.treehugger.com/style/summer-is-coming-bring-on-the-green-linen.html, ⁵European Audit Commission, 2007/Report of the European Parliament Advisory. Commission, Brussels, 2008 / LCA of a linen shirt, Bio Intelligence Service, 2007,