OMNES needs its clothes to be extra than simply stunning on the surface, it was arrange with the … [+]
Notting Hill is known for its vibrant homes, vibrant markets and vibrant characters. So it’s applicable that in a single nook of this west London enclave is headquartered a brand new style model that’s all about daring print patterns and vivid designs.
However OMNES needs to be extra than simply stunning on the surface— it was arrange with the precise goal to make sustainable and moral style accessible to the plenty. The corporate was based with the precise mission to provide “style that doesn’t value the earth” and is local weather constructive and extremely clear.
Regardless of launching in 2020 in the course of the top of the pandemic, OMNES has constructed a big word-of-mouth following and is predicted to achieve £6m in gross sales this 12 months – all by way of its web site.
Followers embrace Bridgerton star Florence Hunt; Irish comic, actor and author Aisling Bea, who performs alongside Paul Rudd in Residing With Your self; and British TV presenter Holly Willoughby.
Founder Jordan Razavi spoke to me from Nice Western Studios, the artistic hub the place its 22 designers and workplace employees are based mostly, to search out out extra about this daring new enterprise.
Christopher Marquis: Please share a bit about your background in style and the motivations for establishing Omnes?
Jordan Razavi, Founding father of OMNES
Jordan Razavi: OMNES was born out of a frustration on the quantity of quick style being offered and the truth that responsibly made sustainable style was so costly. I felt that there was a possibility to do issues higher, for there to be a model that individuals can be ok with shopping for from.
I’m initially from Cheshire, north west England, studied enterprise and political science at Trinity Faculty, Dublin and since then I’ve labored in a spread of business companies. I needed to fuse my expertise in enterprise with the creativity that comes with style. I had been placing collectively the infrastructure to launch OMNES for just a few years, and through lockdown seized the chance to launch the enterprise in the direction of the top of 2020. Taking into consideration the difficulties brought on by Covid in recent times, happily now we have discovered the market to be extremely receptive to what we’re doing and our philosophy, reaching exponential development since launch.
Marquis: You say you’ve got achieved the Holy Trinity of style retailing— fascinating, reasonably priced and sustainable garments. How did you do that when a lot bigger manufacturers have failed?
Razavi: OMNES is Latin for ‘all’ and we needed from the very begin to present that garments could possibly be fascinating, sustainable and reasonably priced all on the identical time, for everybody, and likewise make the world a greater place. So it’s baked into our DNA: we set out from the begin to have a complete 360 method to sustainability with none greenwashing.
It implies that we put the processes in in the beginning and collaborated with suppliers and producers to attain them. Putting in a partnership coverage which ensures all our factories are audited for equal pay, truthful working situations and a spread of different employee rights was important for us. We’re a enterprise so we should be viable – however individuals and the planet are as vital as earnings and if at instances it’s tough to fulfill all three, then it’s the margins that give.
Sustainability and transparency should not issues which were retrofitted into the enterprise with just a few product traces and a few advertising. It’s within the model DNA and has been constructed into the corporate from the beginning, on the very coronary heart of the enterprise mannequin.
Marquis: For a brand new firm, discovering and sustaining good and moral provide chains and accountability is extremely tough and takes huge quantities of sources – particularly if it is throughout borders, how do you do it? Your web site studies your provide chain is so clear that buyers may even drill right down to see how a lot vacation pay employees get. Are you able to present extra particulars on that?
Razavi: It took almost two years to search out the companions we needed to work with in making OMNES a very sustainable model. Proper from the start now we have labored exhausting to make sure each course of is researched and thoroughly monitored to make sure that each merchandise is made to the best environmental requirements.
We begin by build up the highest line insurance policies for our companions and collaborators, after which work with organizations to guarantee that they’re policed and utilized. All suppliers should work to our partnership coverage which is printed on our web site.
For instance, in terms of suppliers we predominantly look to Sedex, the British based mostly non-profit group that audits and scores factories in line with the United Nations Guiding Ideas and the conventions of the Worldwide Labour Organisation.
On our carbon footprint, we use a British clean-tech start-up referred to as Earthly, to offset our carbon footprint. The corporate invests in tasks that defend, restore and re-establish essential eco-systems like forests, peatlands, mangroves and seabeds. We’re on a journey and utilizing these companions means we will publish the whole lot on our web site to point out complete transparency right down to the variety of holidays and wages that employees get.
Marquis: You say in your web site that you’re local weather constructive and offset 10 per cent extra carbon than you produce. How does that really work? Why 10 per cent extra? What practices does the corporate do to scale back additional its carbon footprint? Many manufacturers declare to be sustainable however are sometimes accused of ‘greenwashing’. How are you completely different? How are you going to show that? What are the exhausting and quick guidelines you reside by, that others might compromise?
Razavi: When it comes to greenwashing, as a result of there aren’t any present rules within the trade, we’re making our personal guidelines and rules to make sure we observe the strictest requirements of sustainable style. One instance of that is with our use of deadstock materials. We be sure that all of our suppliers signal a contract guaranteeing that any deadstock materials we use are greater than two years previous.
When it comes to offsetting our carbon footprint, we’re really altering this to 25 p.c, an initiative that may launch with our sustainability report in August. We needed to begin with 10 p.c as that was an achievable determine for a brand new enterprise, now we’re able to ship extra.
Having an out of doors firm like Earthly auditing us means there may be nowhere to cover. This new eco-system of corporations round sustainability has been created by very passionate individuals and they aren’t going to compromise. Earthly offsets our carbon by way of BAM which stands for Bosques Amazonicos, which is an organisation that protects and improves rainforests in Peru. Not solely that but it surely helps the native Brazil nut trade that gives employment and livelihoods.
We’re equally as passionate and our sustainability staff additionally audits what we do and is all the time seeking to enhance our processes. For instance, certainly one of our largest makes use of of carbon is the necessity to fly samples to and from our suppliers and we hope to scale back this with extra digital based mostly design processes. We’re additionally excited that we’ll quickly begin manufacturing a part of our assortment within the UK, which may even go a way in decreasing our carbon footprint.
We’re a style model so clearly we wish to produce garments that you just look good in however simply as importantly we wish to be ok with making them and for you to be ok with shopping for them. Final Christmas we decided to not produce any clothes with sequins as a result of we couldn’t supply a sustainable high quality of fabric, so we simply didn’t do it. For a style retailer, that’s a big monetary sacrifice to make in the course of the celebration season. We’re additionally within the strategy of changing into B Corp licensed, which can also be a reassuring stamp of authority.
One thing that I’m additionally happy with is that we’re a Truthful Residing Wage employer. For us, sustainability isn’t nearly style, it’s the sustainability of your staff and world community of employers — so being a Truthful Residing Wage employer was a precedence.
Marquis: There’s loads of speak in regards to the round economic system, how do your garments match into that? May you give an instance of how certainly one of your merchandise may have many lives? Many recycled merchandise use extra vitality of their manufacturing than model new materials, how do you assure that isn’t the case?
Razavi: Transferring in the direction of a round economic system is one thing we’re captivated with as a model. Which means from the primary levels of design to the top of the life-cycle of the garment, we guarantee that we shut the loop as a lot as doable by way of eliminating waste and maintaining merchandise in circulation. We do that in 3 ways; by way of incorporating deadstock again into our collections, our charity affiliations, and our recycling program.
This 12 months, we have launched our first ever deadstock assortment, not solely does this assist scale back textile waste but it surely additionally affords our prospects a singular capsule assortment within the sense that the deadstock garment won’t be in manufacturing once more and it is produced in decrease portions, which means what they get is really one-of-a-kind.
We’ve all the time labored with charities on our finish of life product, and in the mean time we’re forming a partnership with two new charities, Gown for Success and Good Works, that empower ladies to attain financial success and thrive within the office by way of offering them with growth instruments {and professional} apparel. We all the time guarantee any extra clothes that we maintain keep out of the landfills and sometimes put to good use by way of our clothes donations to them.
To acquire our supplies, we work with material mills which have signed up as a part of the Sustainable Attire Coalition – a corporation dedicated to measuring and bettering social and environmental sustainability impacts.
Marquis: Your organization web site says that 80% of a garment’s environmental influence is decided on the design stage. It’s an enchanting and refreshing declare. Are you able to clarify how that works? Do you’ve got any exterior trade sources to verify this?
Razavi: I imagine this originates from an EU eco-design directive report. For us, it’s about fastidiously contemplating the material selection and the design particulars of the product from the start. At OMNES, we take into consideration the garment’s life cycle from the outset, making certain all levels of the creation course of and choices surrounding our provide chain are each clear and accountable. We try to make use of probably the most sustainable, progressive supplies to make sure we aren’t solely creating stunning, high-quality, accessible merchandise, but additionally that we’re decreasing our environmental influence as a lot as doable.
Marquis: Your garments are priced barely increased than some so-called quick style shops, do you suppose shoppers pays the additional and why? Many shoppers profess wanting to buy responsibly however the information don’t all the time bear this out. Corporations like Shein and Boohoo go from energy to energy with extraordinarily low-cost throwaway style. Do you suppose that may change or are your prospects utterly completely different to those that purchase quick style?
Razavi: Our costs can at instances be marginally dearer than a number of the high-street manufacturers, however typically we imagine we match them, excelling in high quality over quick turnaround.
Our target market is a worldwide 20 to 35 12 months previous lady who cares in regards to the world they reside in and needs to purchase higher. We imagine that there’s a shift. Clients have gotten extra savvy, wanting extra funding items that may final a very long time and are accessibly priced, OMNES isn’t a quick style model.
I’d be mendacity if I mentioned all of our prospects are utterly completely different and that everyone purchased our garments as a result of they needed to save lots of the planet, many purchase them as a result of they’re effectively made nice designs, however additionally they keep away from that nagging guilt that goes with low-cost throwaway style.
Marquis: Sustainable style is changing into extra of a crowded market with the likes of even H&M making an attempt to maneuver into the area: aside out of your nice designs, what’s your distinctive promoting level?
Razavi: Our strengths are our complete transparency and that we constructed the corporate from scratch with sustainability and equity on the very coronary heart of the enterprise mannequin. It isn’t one thing now we have retrofitted and it’s throughout the entire enterprise, not just some product traces. We’re studying so much on this journey and my ambition is for OMNES to proceed its growth, by no means relaxation and be the sustainable excessive avenue model that individuals can be ok with shopping for from.
