VOWING TO MAKE A CHANGE

LOUDBODIES is fully sustainable

A quick update at the beginning of 2023

We’re currently working on revamping our site and updating our sustainability pages, however it is a bigger overhaul and while we were initially planning to have it all done at the end of January, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. So while we keep working on everything else, I wanted to share a quick update to know where we stand now. 

OUR TEAM

Currently behind everything you see at Loud Bodies works a team of 9 people. All my employees are paid a living wage – the starting salary for someone joining our team is more than twice our country’s minimum wage, which according to the workers & suppliers, it is greater than a living wage. It is my greatest accomplishment to be able to offer my team good, living wages and a safe environment to work in. We give raises at least once per year, holiday bonuses, birthday bonuses and my goal is for everyone to be paid more than three times the minimum wage by the end of 2024. As we grow as a business, that growth has and always will be shared with my team. 

Besides living wages, we prioritise our team’s mental and physical health and do everything in our power to ensure this is the best workplace they’re ever had – a place where their needs are respected and their presence cherished. Nobody has a fixed schedule, everyone can choose their hours and the lunch break is on me – they’ve got a 30 minute lunch break + as many bathroom/snack breaks as needed all within the 8 paid hours they spend at the atelier. At the end of the month, those add up to at least 10 extra hours they would normally be spending at work and wouldn’t be compensated for. Everyone has 20+ paid vacation days per year and unlimited paid sick leave. 

As for working conditions, no dark, cold, unsafe factory here – we rent a small house in the city that gets plenty of natural light, we’ve got heating/cooling systems for every season. We offer free filtered water, unlimited free coffee and tea and everything needed for the well functioning of the atelier is provided by us. 

OUR FABRICS 

Since 2020 when we first took the plunge, we have only been using natural and certified sustainable fabrics. All our cotton is organic and carries the GOTS certification, we only use Ecovero viscose certified by Lenzing as well as Tencel/Lyocell exclusively certified by Lenzing. We source our fabrics as close as possible, so seeing as we are based in Romania, our fabrics and accessories come from Portugal, Germany and France. We pay great attention to all details, so even the accessories we use are sustainable: zippers from recycled materials, interlining from cotton or viscose and buttons from glass, metal or shell. Our thread is made from either cotton or recycled polyester. 

OUR PACKAGING 

We are proud to say that there is no plastic whatsoever involved in our packaging process. From hangtags, to stationery, to wrapping paper it is all all made from paper or recycled paper and the parcels are tied with organic cotton thread. Orders are shipped in compostable mailers made from corn starch, PLA (synthesised from corn) and PBAT (Polybutyrate Adipate Terephthalate)). We pay extra for each shipment in order for DHL to offset the carbon emissions for our shipments. 


ANIMAL WELFARE 

None of our items contain any animal components, we do not use leather or fur or even silk. We are a categorically vegan brand, as we love animals dearly (we’re all either cat or dog moms) and would never use any sort of fabric or component that has brought harm to animals. On the contrary, we feed all local stray animals every day at the atelier. 

Sustainability • LOUD BODIES: Inclusive, Ethical, Sustainable Fashion

THE NEW COLLECTION

WHY SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS

People like to brush off fashion as superficial, which is an easy thing to do when it doesn’t affect your life on any level. Or at least it seems like it doesn’t affect you. 

When you are able to walk into any shop & express yourself, your personality, your ideas, your beliefs – who you are with the clothes available there, fashion can be just an afterthought, a means to an end. 

But sometimes, for some shopping is in itself a terrifying and often humiliating experience. Fashion is an almost forbidden land, a limiting experience, a language so rich, from which you are allowed to only utter a few words. For some, fashion is frustrating, is longing, is telling us we do not belong. When brands would rather make dog clothing than clothing in your size, it’s not something that you can dismiss or overlook – because it impacts your life. It robs you of the incredible process of getting to tell the world a bit about who you are and what you love, it kills the joy in dressing up, it squashes your creativity and ability to self express. 

The fact that fashion is liberating for some, but constrictive for others makes it impossible to be superficial. 

Sustainability • LOUD BODIES: Inclusive, Ethical, Sustainable Fashion
Sustainability • LOUD BODIES: Inclusive, Ethical, Sustainable Fashion
Sustainability • LOUD BODIES: Inclusive, Ethical, Sustainable Fashion

THE NEW SUMMER COLLECTION

Sustainability • LOUD BODIES: Inclusive, Ethical, Sustainable Fashion
Sustainability • LOUD BODIES: Inclusive, Ethical, Sustainable Fashion
Sustainability • LOUD BODIES: Inclusive, Ethical, Sustainable Fashion

But besides the emotionally charged struggle of finding clothing you love in your size, that some might not relate to, fashion cannot be superficial, as it is the third most pollutive industry on our Planet. 

The fashion industry emits more carbon than international flights and marine shipping combined.

1.5 trillion litres of water are used by the fashion industry each year (most of which is thrown untreated into rivers & severely affects the flora, fauna and life of locals in developing countries) 

10.000 litres of water are needed to produce 1 pair of jeans! One!

70 million trees are cut each year to make clothes 

190.000 tons of microplastics end up in the ocean each year as the result of washing clothes that are made out of synthetic fabrics

 

Because of the way fast fashion brands have gotten consumers used to small prices and new collections released every year, people buy more and use less – while purchasing habits have drastically increased over the past decades, today 85% clothes purchased are thrown in after less than one year after purchasing. 

Sustainable fashion is not the perfect solution – there is no perfect solution. As long as we live and breathe, we will pollute. However how much you pollute does matter. Choosing to say no to fast fashion and go for a sustainable alternative does make a change. If every person who uses a plastic straw today would stop thinking “oh, it’s just one straw, what does it matter”, we’d probably have millions less plastic straws used every day.

HOW WE'RE MAKING A CHANGE

Sustainability • LOUD BODIES: Inclusive, Ethical, Sustainable Fashion

From the beginning of LOUDBODIES, I have had sustainability in mind. I refused to wrap our items in plastic, even though it would’ve been a cheaper and faster alternative. All our items are wrapped in recycled paper, we don’t use plastic not even to attach the clothing tags and the orders are shipped in mailer bags made from recycled plastic. 

We have kept all fabric scraps and waste that comes with making our items, turned them into pillows and donated them to puppy shelters. 

STEP BY STEP

Sustainability • LOUD BODIES: Inclusive, Ethical, Sustainable Fashion

We pay extra so every one of our parcels will have their carbon emissions offset by our shipping services provider, DHL. 

Even though I have done everything I could think of from the beginning of LOUDBODIES to run it as environmentally friendly as possible, I kept feeling that it was not enough. When I founded LOUDBODIES, I didn’t have the knowledge, the expertise, nor the contacts needed to be able to start is as sustainable as I would’ve wanted it, but at the end of 2019 I decided it was no longer a good excuse for me. I made the vow that by the end of 2020, all LOUDBODIES items will be made from sustainable fabrics only.

In the middle of a worldwide pandemic, while most brands have abandoned their sustainability plans, we took the plunge.

Little did I know that 2020 would bring a pandemic upon us that plowed like a hurricane all over my plans and carefully made calculations and for a while there, it was no longer a question of evolving LOUDBODIES, but keeping it alive. There were times when I thought we wouldn’t make it. Looking forward, some days I am still questioning whether we will. 

Everybody advised me against pursuing my sustainability goals – it’s not the time to take such a huge risk, to invest all your savings, to go into uncharted territory. 

I’m not a fan of leaps-of-faith – everything I have achieved has been through hard work, not lucky circumstances. I am terrified of how this will go, to be completely honest. 

But deep within me, I felt that we cannot go on like this. If there is one thing I want to do in this life is leave this world a better place – I want to help people. And damaging our planet with microplastics, synthetic materials that are a terribly polluting thing to produce do neither. Doing right by this planet is as important to me as doing right by its people. Sustainability is not a marketing gig for me. 

Whether going sustainable will be a step forward for LOUDBODIES or be a risk that becomes our undoing, I am at peace. I can put my head on the pillow at night and feel good with myself for doing the right thing, making the right choice no matter the consequences. 

Here’s to pursuing the right thing, no matter what adversities life throws your way. In spite of everything, we’ve made it happen. 

The sustainable fabrics that we introduced are OEKO-TEX 100 certified both in terms of fibre and printing, so besides them having been produced responsibly, no harmful substances are used for the printing process either.

Sustainability • LOUD BODIES: Inclusive, Ethical, Sustainable Fashion
Sustainability • LOUD BODIES: Inclusive, Ethical, Sustainable Fashion

THE
SUMMER21
COLLECTION

With dresses like this, who cares about a prince?

Starting at €80 in 5 beautiful sustainable fabrics.

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