SUSTAINABILITY : OUR COMMITMENT

Our decision to use these natural and sustainable fibres with traceable sourcing for the brand’s collections underlines the serious commitment towards both the environment and the community. 

Hand spun, hand-woven, hand-embroidered, and handmade from start to finish, a cruelty free signature Sanyukta Shrestha Gown has a unique personal journey and it is made with love and respect, ensuring the protection of the skin and the highly comfortable feel. Every design reflects many hours of meticulous work, and pays tribute to the Nepalese Craftsmanship, creating a luxurious, sustainable and ethically made “one of a kind” gown. The brand embodies the traditions of Sanyukta Shrestha’s heritage and her way of connecting worlds by sustainably preserving the cultural characteristics to redefine what luxury means. Luxury with a conscience.

Traceability

Traceability is connected with the ability of our brand to track the product’s lifecycle down to where the raw materials came from, who makes them, how they make them and what factories/studios were involved in producing it. For us, the traceability of products is divided in three stages of our tracing process: “Field to Fashion”, “Fibre to fashion” and “Fabric to Fashion”. For the past ten years, we are continuously tracing our supply chain although our producers and suppliers are carefully selected. The supply chain of a fabric is the foundation of the entire supply chain and the transparency of its life cycle plays a significant role in the sustainable approach of the business. It is vital for us to know where and how our fabrics reached us, not just for monitoring our carbon footprint but for protecting our planet and taking care of people as well.

Preserving Ancient Craft

The core beauty of any Sanyukta Shrestha gown is its handspun and handloomed organic fibres that preserves Nepalese craftsmanship which has existed for over 1000 years in Nepal. By setting the artistic value of these ancient techniques as a foundation to create distinctive and aesthetically unique bridal designs, we preserve an over a century old exquisite way of working on a garment. We are proud to promote a cultural and sustainable model that not only will define the role of our cultural heritage in the new millennium but will also empower local female artisans through our sustainable projects.

Giving Back Community

We are proud that 50% of the fabrics we use in our collection are hand spun & hand loom in Nepal empowering women through sustainable projects and ensuring that Nepalese craftsmanship of hand-spinning & looming will pass down from one generation to the next across centuries.

Zero Waste

Zero Waste Fashion is all about successfully creating a circular system that will produce no waste. We recycle materials and/or cut our patterns in a way that results in no textile waste, and utilize cutouts to make small gift accessories to suit the gowns. Our approach: Zero Waste Design: We use special pattern-cutting processes to reduce or eliminate  textile waste. Zero Waste Production: We reuse excess remaining fabric leftover from bridal production for smaller accessories like headpieces or millinery, scarfs, hand carved couture pieces of boleros. Beyond creating no new waste, we reduce existing waste by using existing materials like leftover deadstock that has been discarded by garment factories otherwise dumped to the landfill, or other recycled materials for their collections. We use sustainable and waste-free packaging: such as recycled compostable hand carriers, paper boxes, recycled and cloth bags made from upcycled fabric. We also use renewable energy ‘human power’ (as our artisans are equally skilled men and women) : Throughout our production from fibre to fashion as most of our products are hand spun, hand weaved, hand embroidered and hand finished.

Low Water Consumption

We are taking into serious account the negative impact that textile processing can have on natural resources and our business is following the best ways to conserve our planet’s water supply. We are working with mills that use minimal water for the production of our fabrics and we are buying organic materials, so the residual water isn’t contaminated with pesticides. We are constantly working towards offering more fabrics with smaller water footprints such as organic cotton, organic silk, linen, Tencel, lyocell, Newlife and recycled synthetics.

Supporting Fairtrade

Each and every Sanyukta Shrestha product is made under fair trade conditions. Most of our suppliers have a WFTO or FLO certification. For the past 10 years we have been collaborating with a fabric producer that is a certified Fair Trade Group Nepal  and a WFTO Guaranteed Member. We work closely with Mahaguthi, an organization that supports more than 1,000 Nepali artisans working in 150 workshops. Mahaguthi’s parent organization was founded in 1926 by Tulsi Meher Shrestha with the objective of making the poor self-reliant. The founder was exiled to India and worked with Mahatma Gandhi before returning to Nepal to do rehabilitation work with deprived women and their children. Mahaguthi began marketing crafts in 1984 to support a program for destitute women and children. Most of the artisans are working remotely and among them 85% percent are women who use their traditional craft skills while staying in their home. The Ashram’s focus is to secure the well-being of the artisans, provide employment and embrace the principles of fair trade. All the artisans receive medical and education allowances, paid leave and maternity leave.

Renewable Energy

We are using human power. Our artisans are using techniques such as hand spinning, hand looming, hand dying, hand printing, hand stitching and hand embroidery for creating our signature design.

Ethically Produced

Garments that are ethically made have come from factories that have signed our code of conduct ensuring the highest ethical standards are met. Our code of conduct includes living wages, safe conditions, regulated working hours and strictly no child labour. We are proud to have all our artisans are like a one big family working towards the same sustainable goal.

Cruelty Free

Our brand is committed to strictly not using any leather, fur and exotic skins. We offer a variety of plant and fruit-based eco-friendly fabric options, including organic cottons, hemp, nettle, banana, soy and bamboo. For our Silk Designs we offer Peace Silk options which allows the month to emerge from the cocoon before processing.

Supporting Local Producers

We are working with hand embroidery local artisans, fabric weavers and village female artisans to support their skill and celebrate Nepalese craftsmanship.

Biodegradable

Biodegradable fabrics are made of natural fibres and have the quality of being decomposed by living organisms into nontoxic substances, avoiding pollution. We use the widest range of natural fibres in our collections like hemp, silk, bamboo, nettle, soya, banana and cotton meaning that when these garments end up in landfill, they will biodegrade much faster than a garment made with synthetic fibres. Additionally, natural fibres are free from releasing dangerous chemicals when breaking down.

Low Carbon Mileage

We are committed to our low carbon mileage efforts for achieving less impact on the environment. Our products have only travelled from Nepal to the UK, where more than 50% of our fibres are locally produced in Nepal, ensuring we minimise our carbon footprint.

Craftsmanship

For our brand, craftsmanship is an intelligent use of materials that embrace function with beauty and heritage with technology. Craftsmanship shows us new ways to use materials and save them from becoming waste. It is also a way to empower communities by providing job opportunities, embracing their wellbeing, creativity and supporting them to be active participants of society. For us, craftsmanship is the only way of doing business: we know the people behind our products, we know the meticulous work they put in and this is how we rebel against fashion that is not conscious. We are strong believers of the emotional value of our love for traditional craftsmanship as well. We encourage a deeper, long-standing connection between the consumer and the clothes: the things we make with love and care are made to be loved and cared for by those who wear them

Vegan

We offer 100% Vegan options. The only animal products we use are milk which is a byproduct & ethically sourced silk and only ever peace silks, which allows the moth to emerge from the cocoon before processing.

To consider : We are proud to have 100% vegan options in our dresses, shirts and accessories.  For our Vegan Clients we recommend the following fabrics: plant based sustainable fabrics like Hemp, Organic cotton, Bamboo, Nettle, banana or Lyocell, Modal, Tencel or Recycled nylon and non animal based repurpose fabrics.  

To avoid : For our Vegan Clients we recommend avoiding the fabrics like Acrylic, Elastane (aka Spandex or Lycra), Nylon, Polyamide, Polyester and Polyurethane although they are generally available in the market as vegan options however many of these are made from black fossil fuel oil and they are severely harmful for the ecosystem than many animal derived products (non animal products doesn’t mean they are not harming animals). We imagine if you care about animals, you would care about the planet too. All of these fabrics will release plastic micro-fibres when you wash them, polluting our waterways and ocean. We recommend only purchasing recycled, repurposed or upcycled products of these types unless there’s no alternative available.

Organic

We are committed to support organic fibres and work with suppliers that do so as well. By organic we refer to the production methods that are followed and respect both the planet (soil, plant, animal) and humans.

Recycled

In our collections we feature recycled materials from old garments, scrap fabrics and plastic waste that has been used in the production of a garment that would otherwise end in landfill. Recycling increases the lifecycle of raw materials for usually one or two more uses. The material from products sent back to us is recycled and redesigned into new items of clothing. The cycle itself is renewable, which means our products can be returned and remade again and again and again.

Upcycled

Our collections are following a timeless aesthetic that allow us to embrace circular fashion. We are upcycling waste or other by-products into new goods, thus increasing both the functionality and lifecycle of the raw materials used in the original product.