Impossible to Choose? At TWOTHIRDS You Don’t Have to!
We are often asked how TWOTHIRDS is different from other brands: What makes us sustainable? Why should our premium eco clothing products be trusted over others?
The truth is that no sustainable fashion brand can ever give a one-line answer to these questions. To create a brand that is in tune with the needs of people and planet it takes years of hard work, dedication, and innovation, both at a business model level and product development level.
Having said that, we can boil the TWOTHIRDS approach down to 5 powerful sustainability principles, all of which form the unshakeable foundations of our eco fashion business. They enable us to pursue our mission: To spread the joy of the ocean and protect it for future generations.
Now that you’ve voted for the one you value most, allow us to give more detail about how TWOTHIRDS goes about abiding by each principle. Who knows, by the end you might change your mind about which one matters most.
1. Zero Overproduction - PRE-ORDER: We Only Produce Products you ask for
TWOTHIRDS started out just like any other eco-conscious clothing brand, producing garments made from the lowest impact materials possible, while supporting good causes along the way. Things we still do by the way 😉 But it quickly became obvious that we needed to do more…
“Up to 30% of all new clothing globally is never worn and is sent to landfill or incinerated.”
Worried about becoming just another brand that mass produced its clothing to drive down costs, while ramping up environmental impact, our founder Lutz Schwenke decided to pioneer a different way of doing business. In 2016 PRE-ORDER was born. The service still exists today, whereby customers pre-order new collection pieces in advance, allowing us to only source the raw materials we truly need, thus only creating the premium products that you, the customer, demand. In this way we lead the industry in reducing overproduction and waste to between 0%-3% each year.
2. Zero Waste - Deadstock Limited Edition Collections: No Thread Goes to Waste
While PRE-ORDER eliminates waste for TWOTHIRDS in-house, we also worry about waste being created by other brands in our local community. Catalonia and Spain are renowned for their textile manufacturing, but often the brands that contract suppliers here are too willing to throw away excess luxury-grade rolls of fabric or yarn spools.
Taking umbrage with such needless waste, we decided to do something about it. We now cooperate with a network of local suppliers who contact us as soon as fabric or yarn is due to be thrown away. We then work with the supplier in question to produce Deadstock Limited Edition Collection pieces, some of which have tiny production runs. The margins are tiny, but we do it anyway, because it’s the right thing to do.
If there’s still something left, we’ll go even further, to craft some artisan sun hats or scarfs. When we say “No thread goes to waste” we mean it!
3. Conscious Consumerism - Timeless Styles, 4 Annual Collections, Eco Designs Ensure Longevity
True slow fashion can only ever be SLOW! Our PRE-ORDER service embodies that approach, but that’s not enough on its own. Everything we do goes against the fast fashion grain:
- Our designers produce looks and styles that are timeless, unwedded to fleeting trends. They want your clothes to look good season-after-season, year-after-year.
- Just 4 collections each year. For a long time we produced 6 annual collections. In 2024 we decided to reduce that number to 4, in tune with the seasons and our slow fashion principles.
- Eco designs that last! We always aim to craft eco clothing that is “made to last a lifetime”. Too often recycling is touted as a route to true circular fashion. We disagree. While recycling will always play an important role in creating true sustainable fashion, we believe the true key is garment longevity.
“Recycling on its own will never bring about true fashion circularity. Only a change in consumer mindset, driven by durability that’s desirable, can make it happen.”
4. Made in Europe: Hyper Localised Supply Chain. Bonds With Loyal Family-Run Suppliers. Supporting Local Communities.
Courtesy of ECODICTA
All our clothing is 100% made in Europe. It’s the backbone of everything we do. It enables us to run our PRE-ORDER service efficiently, in partnership with trusted suppliers who understand how our unique business model works.
Our hyper localised supply chain stands out in an industry where brands long ago upped sticks and offshored their production overseas, where workers rights are diminished in order to create bigger profit margins. If the recent floods in Valencia have taught us anything, it’s that local communities will be more important than ever, as the effects of climate change begin to impact the daily lives of everyone we know and love.
5. Low Impact Ethical Materials Guaranteed
Last but by no means least: sustainable fashion fabrics and yarns! Despite promising to do the opposite, fast fashion and ultra fast fashion brands are actually increasing their use of high impact synthetic materials. That’s why it’s more important than ever to double down on our promise to only use organic, botanic, deadstock, and recycled materials to create our ethical clothing.
In 2023 we used 92% eco-friendly fabrics and yarns, with the remaining 8% largely being accounted for by our use of deadstock materials, which would otherwise be burnt or sent to landfill had we not salvaged them. Any wool we use is guaranteed to be mulesing-free, our yarns sourced locally in Europe.
Crowdfunding: Another Way to Support Local Businesses
If the 5 sustainability principles we stand by align with your own, then why not join the eco fashion revolution we’re driving, by supporting our first ever crowdfunding campaign! Head here for more information.
