OMNES needs its clothes to be extra than simply lovely on the skin, it was arrange with the … [+]
Notting Hill is known for its vibrant homes, vibrant markets and vibrant characters. So it’s acceptable that in a single nook of this west London enclave is headquartered a brand new vogue model that’s all about daring print patterns and vivid designs.
However OMNES needs to be extra than simply lovely on the skin— it was arrange with the precise goal to make sustainable and moral vogue accessible to the plenty. The corporate was based with the precise mission to provide “vogue that doesn’t price the earth” and is local weather constructive and extremely clear.
Regardless of launching in 2020 in the course of the peak of the pandemic, OMNES has constructed a big word-of-mouth following and is anticipated to succeed in £6m in gross sales this yr – all via its web site.
Followers embody Bridgerton star Florence Hunt; Irish comic, actor and author Aisling Bea, who performs alongside Paul Rudd in Dwelling With Your self; and British TV presenter Holly Willoughby.
Founder Jordan Razavi spoke to me from Nice Western Studios, the inventive 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 vogue 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 vogue being bought and the truth that responsibly made sustainable vogue was so costly. I felt that there was a possibility to do issues higher, for there to be a model that folks can be ok with shopping for from.
I’m initially from Cheshire, north west England, studied enterprise and political science at Trinity School, Dublin and since then I’ve labored in a spread of economic companies. I needed to fuse my expertise in enterprise with the creativity that comes with vogue. I had been placing collectively the infrastructure to launch OMNES for a couple of years, and through lockdown seized the chance to launch the enterprise in the direction of the top of 2020. Making an allowance for the difficulties brought on by Covid in recent times, fortuitously we have now discovered the market to be extremely receptive to what we’re doing and our philosophy, attaining exponential progress since launch.
Marquis: You say you’ve got achieved the Holy Trinity of vogue retailing— fascinating, inexpensive 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 might be fascinating, sustainable and inexpensive all on the identical time, for everybody, and in addition make the world a greater place. So it’s baked into our DNA: we set out from the begin to have a complete 360 strategy to sustainability with none greenwashing.
It signifies that we put the processes in at first 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 folks and the planet are as necessary as earnings and if at instances it’s troublesome to fulfill all three, then it’s the margins that give.
Sustainability and transparency usually are not issues which have been retrofitted into the enterprise with a couple of 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 troublesome and takes huge quantities of assets – particularly if it is throughout borders, how do you do it? Your web site experiences your provide chain is so clear that customers may even drill all the way down to see how a lot vacation pay employees get. Are you able to present extra particulars on that?
Razavi: It took practically two years to search out the companions we needed to work with in making OMNES a very sustainable model. Proper from the start we have now labored onerous to make sure each course of is researched and punctiliously monitored to make sure that each merchandise is made to the best environmental requirements.
We begin by increase the highest line insurance policies for our companions and collaborators, after which work with organizations to ensure that they’re policed and utilized. All suppliers should work to our partnership coverage which is revealed on our web site.
For instance, with regards to suppliers we predominantly look to Sedex, the British based mostly non-profit group that audits and scores factories in accordance 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 known as Earthly, to offset our carbon footprint. The corporate invests in initiatives 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 are able to publish every little thing on our web site to indicate complete transparency all the way 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 totally different? How will you show that? What are the onerous and quick guidelines you reside by, that others could compromise?
Razavi: When it comes to greenwashing, as a result of there are not any present laws within the trade, we’re making our personal guidelines and laws to make sure we follow the strictest requirements of sustainable vogue. 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 folks and they don’t seem to be going to compromise. Earthly offsets our carbon via 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 crew additionally audits what we do and is all the time trying to enhance our processes. For instance, one in every 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 vogue model so clearly we need to produce garments that you simply look good in however simply as importantly we would like 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 vogue retailer, that’s a major monetary sacrifice to make in the course of the occasion season. We’re additionally within the strategy of changing into B Corp licensed, which can be a reassuring stamp of authority.
One thing that I’m additionally pleased with is that we’re a Honest Dwelling Wage employer. For us, sustainability isn’t nearly vogue, it’s the sustainability of your crew and international community of employers — so being a Honest Dwelling Wage employer was a precedence.
Marquis: There’s plenty of discuss in regards to the round economic system, how do your garments match into that? May you give an instance of how one in every of your merchandise might 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 enthusiastic about as a model. Which means from the primary levels of design to the top of the life-cycle of the garment, we ensure that we shut the loop as a lot as doable via eliminating waste and protecting merchandise in circulation. We do that in 3 ways; via incorporating deadstock again into our collections, our charity affiliations, and our recycling program.
This yr, we have launched our first ever deadstock assortment, not solely does this assist cut back textile waste but it surely additionally provides our prospects a novel capsule assortment within the sense that the deadstock garment won’t be in manufacturing once more and it is produced in decrease portions, that means what they get is actually one-of-a-kind.
We’ve all the time labored with charities on our finish of life product, and for the time being we’re forming a partnership with two new charities, Costume for Success and Sensible Works, that empower girls to attain financial success and thrive within the office via offering them with improvement 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 via 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 company dedicated to measuring and bettering social and environmental sustainability impacts.
Marquis: Your organization web site says that 80% of a garment’s environmental affect is decided on the design stage. It’s a captivating and refreshing declare. Are you able to clarify how that works? Do you’ve got any exterior trade sources to verify this?
Razavi: I consider this originates from an EU eco-design directive report. For us, it’s about fastidiously contemplating the material alternative 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 selections surrounding our provide chain are each clear and accountable. We try to make use of probably the most sustainable, revolutionary supplies to make sure we’re not solely creating lovely, high-quality, accessible merchandise, but additionally that we’re decreasing our environmental affect as a lot as doable.
Marquis: Your garments are priced barely larger than some so-called quick vogue retailers, do you suppose shoppers can pay the additional and why? Many shoppers profess wanting to buy responsibly however the info don’t all the time bear this out. Firms like Shein and Boohoo go from energy to energy with extraordinarily low cost throwaway vogue. Do you suppose that may change or are your prospects utterly totally different to those that purchase quick vogue?
Razavi: Our costs can at instances be marginally costlier than a number of the high-street manufacturers, however typically we consider we match them, excelling in high quality over quick turnaround.
Our audience is a world 20 to 35 yr previous girl who cares in regards to the world they stay in and needs to purchase higher. We consider that there’s a shift. Prospects have gotten extra savvy, wanting extra funding items that may final a very long time and are accessibly priced, OMNES isn’t a quick vogue model.
I’d be mendacity if I stated all of our prospects are utterly totally 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 in addition they keep away from that nagging guilt that goes with low cost throwaway vogue.
Marquis: Sustainable vogue is changing into extra of a crowded market with the likes of even H&M attempting 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’s not one thing we have now retrofitted and it’s throughout the entire enterprise, not only a few product traces. We’re studying quite a bit 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 folks can be ok with shopping for from.
