Our Philosphy
Why sustainability matters
More than 60% of all clothes in circulation are made from unsustainable synthetic fabrics such a polyester, nylon, acrylic, polyamide, which are all essentially plastic and they are all made from fossil fuels.
The production of these fabrics is incredibly damaging to both the environment and the people who produce them in more often than not unsafe and hazardous conditions. And these fabrics are even dangerous for you – several independent studies have found toxic and unsafe levels of unregulated chemicals residue on final products available in fast fashion stores such as clothing or even toys.
Given that our skin is our biggest organ, the negative effects synthetic fibres have on our well being from all points of view cannot be ignored.
Second most polluting industry
of waste in landfills and incineration centers every year
a conservative estimation
Let's break it down
The fashion industry is the world’s second most polluting industry, as it generates MORE CO2 than international flights & maritime shipping combined, only topped by the oil industry.
One full truckload of textiles goes to landfill or incineration every second. About 10.5 million tonnes of textiles are discarded every year, equivalent to 37 kg per person, making it 2150 pieces thrown away per second. What is not incinerated is shipped off to countries in the Global South and dumped, destroying thousands of beaches, creating deserts full of fast fashion textile waste and affecting the livelihood and quality of life of millions of people.
It is estimated that there are over 100 Billion new items produced every year, however given than H&M alone produces 3 billion and it’s estimated that Shein produces about 49 billion clothes every year, it is highly likely that number is still too small. Currently there are only 8 billion people living in the world.
Sustainability at Loud Bodies
It is undeniable that the fashion industry is currently wreaking havoc on the environment and negatively affecting the lives of millions of people, most of all the people who are making our clothes. It is a huge driving factor of climate change and we under no circumstance wish to play a role in that. While we are aware that no new item produced is 100% sustainable, clothing is a necessity and we make no compromise in ensuring we are constantly aiming for the most ethical and sustainable way of production we can attain.
Loud Bodies is my labour of love and my love letter to People and Planet. We’re working everyday to create a space where everyone is not only welcome, but cherished and a business that operates from a place of respect and care both inwards, so towards my team and outwards, towards our clients and Planet, as all businesses should.
Patricia Luiza Blaj, founder of Loud Bodies
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when all major brands were abandoning their sustainability goals to save profits, we went all in. In the summer of 2020 we pivoted to using certified sustainable fabrics exclusively and haven’t looked back since.
We look at sustainability through an all encompassing lens and it is a value we stay true to in everything we do, starting with our production, which happens all in house in our little atelier in Cluj Napoca, Romania, the fabrics & accessories we use, waste management, packaging, shipping emissions and every other aspect of running our company.
Our fabrics
We work with certified natural and sustainable fabrics exclusively. Our current fabric selection is comprised of 40% GOTS Organic Cotton, 15% LENZING Tencel/Lyocell, 15% ECOVERO Viscose, 5% EASTMAN NAIA and 15% EU FLAX Linen. We do not use conventional cotton, viscose or any other fabrics that are only halfway better options than synthetics, since if not produced responsibly, they are still very resource intensive and require toxic chemicals to be processed. All our fabrics carry the most esteemed and rigorous certifications available for their respective compositions to ensure their traceability and responsible production both when it comes to the environment and the people involved in making them.
Since 2024, we’ve also proudly incorporated deadstock fabrics into our collections. But what exactly is deadstock? It’s not about compromised quality or damaged goods—far from it. Deadstock refers to leftover fabrics that go unused, often because brands overestimate their needs or abandon orders altogether, leaving suppliers with rolls of pristine material. In most cases, these are luxury fabrics that would otherwise go to waste. By rescuing and repurposing them, we prevent them from rotting in landfills or being incinerated.
Using deadstock aligns with our sustainability ethos. No matter how carefully new fabrics are produced, every new item takes a toll on the environment. By opting for what’s already made, we drastically reduce the demand for new resources and avoid contributing to the immense waste the fashion industry generates. It’s the most sustainable choice we can make—using what exists, instead of creating more.
We do not stop at fabrics and all accessories and other parts needed to create a garment, from buttons, to elastics, thread or interlining are always the most sustainable option.
Access a detailed guide to our fabrics and components as well as their care guide here.
Besides using only certified natural fabrics and deadstock, our items are sewn with care and designed with intention so that they are as long lasting as they can be.
Fabric sourcing and traceability
All our fabric and accessories manufacturers are based in Europe – Spain, Portugal and Germany to be precise. We constantly try to find options for what we need to source as close to us as possible to ensure the least amount of CO2 is generated when they are shipped to us. Having providers in Europe means that our fabrics and accessories can be shipped to us via road trucks, so no need to employ maritime or air freight, which significantly reduces emissions.
All the producers that we choose to buy from are aligned to our own set of values and their factories have ethical codes of conduct in place (that we always request and personally check thoroughly) that comply with International Labour Organisation (ILO) Standards and they also hold production certifications to ensure the ethical treatment of their employees such as ISO 9001, ISO 45001, ISO 14001, SEDEX AND SA 8000/SMETA.
Ethical production
When it comes to determining what a sustainable brand is, the first and most important question to ask, for me, is who is this sustainable for? Who are we trying to save the planet for? We do not believe in sustainability models that are only fabric focused, that are not all encompassing and that do not have people at the heart of them. No amount of “organic cotton Tshirts” or “conscious lines” will make up for the fact that the majority of garment workers today are exploited.
It is our greatest pride and joy to be an ethical, living wage employer. We work tirelessly every day and make no compromise when it comes to creating a safe & enjoyable work environment fully in compliance with the International Labour Organisation Declaration on labour rights, including but not limited to no child or forced labour, appropriate working hours, paid annual leave, maternity leave, the right to collectively bargain, and the elimination of discrimination.
All our items are produced in house by a team of 7 women. Every member of our team is paid a living wage and above, in line with the national living wage for a decent life stated by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation România and Syndex România, which was determined using the The Anker Methodology for Estimating a Living Wage recommended by the Global Living Wage Coalition. Our starting salary is more than double the minimum wage in Romania and it increases first after only three month of working with us & then each member of our team receives at least one raise every year in accordance to our growth and to adjust to inflation. In 2022, despite it being a difficult year in which there was no growth, we barely broke even with a total “profit” of 40EUR, our team received two raises on top of 4 yearly bonuses. As we grow as a business, that growth has and always will be shared with our team.
I don’t want to live on a green planet full of starving people. Sustainability MUST start with people – the people making our clothes. True sustainability centers dignity, equity, and fair treatment for all.
- All our employees have undetermined work contracts which ensures job security, access to health insurance and pension paid in full by us, access to housing or other personal needs loans
- We do not have a norm in place, which is standard practice in the fashion industry. Norming is a disgusting technique for manufacturers to ensure they never have to pay their garment workers’ full salaries. In the vast majority of factories, garment workers have to finish sewing a certain number of items per day in order to receive their full pay. If they are not able to complete the number of items by the end of the month, their employers are legally allowed to dock their pay. These norms are most of the time impossible to humanly fulfil in 8 working hours, so it leaves garment workers stuck between two terrible choices: work overtime to fill the norm or have their pay docked. Either way, the company wins. We do not have any kind of norm or quotas to fulfil because we consider them inhumane and we allow our team to work at the pace that they are comfortable with.
- We do not condone time theft and do not require our employees to spend more than 8 hours at work to account for their breaks – all their breaks including the lunch break is spent on paid company time and included within the 8 hours. At the end of the month, the lunch and additional smoking/bathroom/snack breaks add up to at least 12 hours that would otherwise be spent at work, time unpaid, on top of the paid 8 hours.
- Our team has the freedom to choose their own work schedule and the creatives can work from home whenever they want.
- We provide 20 paid holiday days per year, unlimited paid medical leave and the flexibility to take off and recuperate working hours as needed.
- We give birthday, Women’s Day, Easter and Christmas bonuses every year.
- Our atelier is not situated within a factory, but in a house that we rent close to the city center, so it is easily accessible to our team via public transport. The space is well lit with central heating and cooling systems to ensure comfortable working conditions all year round. We also invested in quality office chairs to ensure their comfort as most of their time working is spent sitting down.
- We provide unlimited free amenities such as tea, coffee and water.
- We do not condone unpaid internships and we do not use any sort of uncompensated labour.
Our manufacturing team is small, but dedicated
Alina Turcu – Atelier Management, Pattern Making, Sewing
Andrei Novac – Drafting
Mihaela Barbos – Sewing
Claudia Opris – Sewing
Veronica Tomos is our visionary designer and creative director. An all-encompassing creative, she is passionate, determined and resilient, her vision playing a huge part in shaping Loud Bodies into what it is today and a catalyst for our innovation and growth.
And we cannot not mention our dear Ilinca Pristavu – our colleague who did not feel comfortable taking part in our team photoshoot, which is something we have of course respected and did not pressure anyone in our team to partake if it’s not something they 100% wanted to do. She is our little Atelier Fairy, who helps with diligently packing your orders, administrative tasks and the well running of our atelier.
Patricia Luiza Blaj, our founder, much like most other small business owners, dabbles a little bit in everything – from creative, to production, to administrative and social media management, she macro (and micro) manages every aspect of the business to ensure Loud Bodies runs smoothly. People say she is the best boss.
I hope you will feel the love and respect we put into all our items envelop your body and help you take a step forward on your way to cherish it.
On demand production and our output volume
One of the biggest ways in which the fashion industry pollutes is via overproduction – so producing a lot more items than they actually sell. In order to reduce waste and not participate in over-production, all our items are made on-demand, only after an order is placed. Besides using only certified natural and sustainable fabrics, our items are sewn with care and designed with intention so that they are as long lasting as they can be and our clients can truly wear them for years to come, not just for a season.
Currently we have a production capacity of approximately 150 items per month. We publish yearly transparency reports where we disclose how many items we produced and what our profit was because the fashion industry notoriously lacks transparency and it is affecting us all.
Animal welfare
At Loud Bodies we pride ourselves on being a cruelty free brand that treats the whole of the natural world with the utmost respect. Our items do not contain ingredients of animal or animal derived origin, whether we are talking fabrics, accessories, components, trims, packaging, dyes or glues.
The only exception and animal derived component present in some of our items are mother-of-pearl buttons, which are made from sustainably & cruelty free sourced shells. We are actively working presently on finding a replacement in order to become a fully vegan brand. The majority of our buttons are made from glass or metal.
Packaging
We look at sustainability through an all encompassing lens, therefore our packaging is something we have always paid much attention to in order to ensure an order from us does not leave behind waste that’s going to be littering our Planet for thousands of years. All our packaging is plastic free & compostable.
Hangtags, thank you notes and stationery
All complimentary stationary you receive with your order is not only plastic free, it’s not even paper – our hangtags and thank you notes are made from residual cotton waste gathered from the textile industry. The paper is not bleached and no toxic chemicals are used in its production process. They are printed with nontoxic dyes that are safe to return back into the soil – why safe to return in soil? Because they are not only compostable, but plantable. Plant them in soil and the beautiful wildflower seed mix they hold will bloom & bring life, not waste. The string used to attach the hangtags are made from organic cotton yarn and have a recycled polystyrene closure.
Instructions on planting the hangtags & thank you notes:
- Place the paper on a plate and cover it with water.
- It can’t dry out! If it dries out, it will not germinate again.
- When a few sprouts have grown, transplant the paper into soil.
Wrapping paper
The wrapping paper used is not plantable, however we went the extra mile to ensure is is home compostable, made from acid free FSC certified wood pulp (out of which 30% recycled wood pulp) & printed with soy based ink.
Mailer bags and shipping labels
Our mailers are 100% recycled, made from recycled plastics. The recycled mailer gives plastics already in circulation a second life, a better alternative to single-use plastic mailers. They also have a second adhesive strip so that the mailer can be reused once more easily, and once it has served its purpose, it can be recycled where soft plastics are accepted.
Our shipping labels are made with FSC-certified paper and finished with non-toxic adhesive & are 100% compostable and recyclable.
Waste
Given our on-demand business model, our waste is significantly reduced by default. Since we do not produce stocks, we are able to take our time when we cut the fabric to use low waste cutting techniques which ensure the patterns are placed in a way that reduces fabric waste to a minimum. Larger pieces that fall off when cutting one item are used for components for a different item and we always take the care and time to ensure all off-cuts that can be used further are in fact used and not discarded. From smaller pieces we create accessories and the ones that simply cannot be used to create a new item, we collect and we use as stuffing with which we make pillows that we donate to animal shelters.
Given that our fabrics are natural & the rest of the components as well, most of our clothing is biodegradable and compostable so whether we are talking about fabric waste or end of life waste, we go the extra mile always to ensure that the waste that does inevitably occur will not litter our Planet for years to come.
We unfortunately are unable to recycle our fabric waste, not due to lack of intention on our part, but because no recycling facility is willing to work with us in our country because we do not have a big enough volume of fabric waste to be eligible to work with them. We are constantly on the lookout, however and we hope we will able to find a solution in the future. Until then we will continue to do our best to keep our waste at a minimum and make use of every piece of fabric that we can.
Accessibility
One of our proudest accomplishments is the fact that all our items are available in sizes XXS to 10XL, a size chart encompassing 15 sizes, one of the industry’s most inclusive offering. On top of that, we offer free of charge custom orders for anyone who is in any way not represented by our sizing chart – whether it is sizing customisations, length alterations, design tweaks or modifications needed for accessibility reasons. You can read more about our custom orders here.
When it comes to accessibility within the sustainable fashion industry, we know that size accessibility is not the only issue. Affordability is another barrier that is unfortunately in the way of many people who would want to shop responsibly made clothing, that is why we are constantly doing everything in our power to ensure we lift that barrier as much as we can. Our main initiative is our Affordable Line for which we design a few pieces in every collection with a price tag lower than 100EUR without compromising the quality of the fabrics used or the integrity of our production.
Our second initiative is our Fairy Godmother Program, through which we donate items 100% free of charge to people who would otherwise be unable to afford them. You can read more about the program and sign up to be considered here.
Besides our Affordable Line and the Fairy Godmother Program, we hold regular sales to enable our clients to purchase our clothing at a discount if needed, share special discounts for our newsletter subscribers and hold monthly giveaways on our Instagram page to give back to our community and create access that would otherwise not exist.
Carbon emissions
While our emissions are lowered by default due to our responsible production, we also have to take into account the shipping of our orders. All our parcels are shipped with DHL and we go the extra mile to pay an additional fee in order for each of our shipment’s emissions to be partially offset via their GOGREEN initiative.
Circularity
One of the things that we cannot pride ourselves with yet is circularity – we are a business that operates in unusual circumstances. While we are based in Romania, the majority of our clientele is based in the US and Western Europe. This geolocation disparity makes it very difficult for us to set up repair or resale programs, because they are based on the premise that the items are sent back to us. If an item has to cross the world to be repaired or resold, the emissions that would be generated defeat the purpose and the costs for international shipping would be unsustainable to both us and our clients.
We are however trying to find ways to do more about the end of life of our items and are trying to implement a donation program – we would like to partner up with local domestic violence or homeless shelters so when our client no longer wishes to keep an item, they are able to donate their clothes to a local shelter where it can be given a new life and hopefully improve the life of someone in need. We would reward the client with store credit in exchange for the donation. We have not been able to debut this initiative yet because on the one hand we are a very small brand – with barely 2000 items sold per year, the amount of donations wouldn’t be significant and we are also nervous because if the items are not returning to us to pass a quality inspection, it’s an easily fallible system and can be taken advantage of by people.
The circularity aspect is something we most definitely are working on developing in the near future.