Surround Sound

By Narayan Saimbi

Fast fashion is killing our planet. Let’s not beat around the bush here. Every day, hundreds of thousands of one-wear clothes are thrown out of people’s wardrobes and straight into landfills. The Shein, Oh Polly, PLT and Temu hauls might be fun in the moment, but they are causing a climate crisis right before our very eyes. 

I am currently on a trip around Australia and during my time in Melbourne, I had the pleasure of talking to some independent boutiques and retailers who are making it their mission to combat fast fashion, the first of which being women’s clothing store called Kuwaii. Founded by Kristy Barber in 2008, Kuwaii has been one of Melbourne “slow fashion brands”, having a brand ethos of both “environmental accountability and empowerment”.

I spoke to Melanie, the retail manager of the Cathedral Arcade store, to learn a little more about the brand, its origin and its overall mission. 

What sort of goes into the designs? What gives Kuwaii its own signature?

Melanie: “Our designer and founder Kristy started this brand when she was quite young and she had the idea for many years. I think the idea is [to make] timeless and elegant designs using really beautiful fabrics.

Everything is [made] as sustainably as possible, everything is really thoughtfully made, [they are] pieces that are meant to last you for years and years, basically, and [are] something a little special. Something you can wear every day but you don’t feel like you have to save it for your best- you can actually wear it.”

This brand-wide emphasis on sustainability is commendable, especially considering the other sustainability projects and exhibitions Kuwaii has put on as well. At this year’s iteration of the Melbourne Fashion Festival, Kuwaii partnered with artist Sarah Parkes to create the “Knot a Scrap of Waste” exhibition. This involved utilising leftover materials from Kuwaii designs and repurposing them into hand-crafted rope. An exhibition with a message entrenched in sustainability, Kuwaii is fighting against the plague of fast fashion both in-store and on the metaphorical big stage.

The second business I spoke to was the retailer Purpose Precinct. Initially meant to be a “one-stop-shop for smaller local social enterprises” in Melbourne, the retailer stocks a variety of Melbourne-based products, including clothing from the brand Homie; a brand who uses all of its profits to help young people faced by “homelessness and hardship”. 

Senior Retails Assistant Ivy recounted to me the overall brand ethos of Purpose Precinct and how they ended up working with other social enterprises and clothing brands in Melbourne:

“We wanted to be a store that’s really accessible for those tourists to buy locally and support local businesses whilst at the same time, buying something that is actually Australian to take back home.

We were originally founded by a different social enterprise which was called Good Cycles- they were over a decade old…They were well known in the social enterprise world so they had some good insight in how to run a business like this. 

They were already friends with brands like Homie and Street- we’re now owned by Street. They’re also a larger hospitality social enterprise, but pretty much it was born from a business that was already doing that kind of stuff, so we already had all of those connections.”

Ivy also told me about some of the community projects that Purpose Precinct does, fighting for sustainability in Melbourne as a whole, not just on the fast fashion front:

“Next door we have our moving feast kitchen, where we collect fruit waste from the fresh fruit market and we take it to the kitchen and we make it into stuff that you can keep on your shelves for longer, like jams and pastas. 

We also have our Be Alternative team over there. Instead of all of these food trucks around here having single-waste plates and cups, instead our Be Alternative team has bought rice husk plates and real crockery to supply to all of these food vendors. And then they have their bin fairies and dishwashing team in there, they disinfect and wash all the dishes to tackle the single-use problem here with all the cups and everything. And we also have a cafe all the way down the end, that’s like our parent company’s main business”

Whilst Ivy was adamant that Purpose Precinct was “definitely not the leading” social enterprise in Melbourne, the work that the brand has done to both combat fast fashion and increase sustainability efforts in the Melbourne City Centre as a whole is truly impressive. Purpose Precinct is a breath of fresh air, especially compared to the global conglomerate of fashion companies that are killing the planet little by little, with their corporate attitude of overproduction and overconsumption. 

What Kuwaii and Purpose Precinct can both show us is that it is possible to purchase fashion sustainably, without having to resort to overconsumption and climate-damaging spending. There’s always a choice when we shop. I do understand that if you just need a cheap sports T-shirt, or some new socks, these boutiques and independents are most likely not where you’ll be heading. But if you are looking for something stylish or long-lasting, these Melbourne-born businesses have demonstrated that there are more options to shop at than Shein or Temu. Even if these businesses are nestled away in some small stall in a city market, they’re there. You just need to look for them.