The quality and sustainability of TWOTHIRDS garments is made possible thanks to a system that results in zero waste. We’ll explain what it means for you, how it works, and why in this post.
You may already know that we release every collection early, placing all of our new designs on pre-order. You can then pick and purchase your favourite styles, allowing us to figure out exactly how much to make. If you don’t order it, we don’t make it, eliminating overproduction while slowing fashion right down to a realistic pace.
After you have ordered, we start to make the clothes, which takes from 2 weeks up to 2 months. This date will differ, and you´ll know when to look forward to receiving each garment on its product page!
The magic takes place in Northern Portugal, where our partner factories are based. The region has a long tradition of high quality craftsmanship, perfected by people who know how to transform beautiful textiles into amazing clothing. That way, the garments we produce are imbued with our ethos: that clothing should stand the test of time and that stitch by stitch, we can create items that mean more to our community. To guarantee this, we work closely with the very people who make our garments, another reason we produce regionally - and in the EU - rather than spread over many countries.
Pre-order offers an escape route from the cycle of consumer culture that pressures people to buy more and more, faster and faster. We hope that the space between ordering and receiving only adds to the experience of getting crafted clothing that you know has been made with love and dedication in real time.
This is very different to how fashion normally works. We have defined our own mission, our own method by refusing to be part of a flawed system.
Across the industry and almost without exception, clothing is pre-made in large quantities. Overproduction is considered an acceptable loss to keep fashion fast and fluid. Because if it’s pre-made, it will get to you quicker. But if it’s pre-made it may also never leave the warehouse.
Globally, more than 150 billion items of clothing are produced every year. While it´s not known exactly how much of this fails to sell, individual studies put the figure between 10% and 30%. Statistics like these point towards an environmentally damaging means of production. For a sustainable clothing brand, it would feel very wrong to truly minimise the impact of our garments, if we then have to throw away what we can’t sell.
Making only what you order means we’ll never waste dye, fabric, water, time, energy and labour on the designs we deem necessary to make. The ones that you have told us you want to wear. No excess stock means we also don’t have to compensate for losses, allowing us to give you the fairest price. The benefits are shared by everyone.
Sustainability will only come by carving a new path that is walked slowly, with purpose and the intention of savouring every detail on the way. That is the nature of pre-order - a slow revolution.
