From sass & bide to Sustainable Slow Fashion
Former co-founder and sass & bide creative, Heidi Middleton, has opened a pop-up of her new fashion label in Mosman. Having sold sass & bide to Myer in 2014, Middleton is free to pursue her love of art along with her revised approach to fashion production. Launched in 2018 the new business, ARTCLUB, has a strong sustainability ethos. It’s a label that produces locally made small runs from dead stock combined with her own vintage pieces.
Slow Fashion
ARTCLUB’s slow fashion ethos is built on the need to tread lightly on our Earth. The traditional business model for fashion and its negative impact on the planet that had been used by Middleton’s former label has been replaced. With fashion ranked as the second biggest global polluter in the world, there’s good reason!
ARTCLUB’s website explains. “Making, selling, using, and disposing of fashion, on repeat with little consideration of the negative impact on the planet is no longer tenable.” Instead, the brand produces limited edition pieces that “are designed to be loved, worn and re-worn, shared, swapped, borrowed, repaired and passed onto another pair of loving hands.”
Local Transparent Supply Chain
Everything is considered. The clothing is locally made. You’ll find the name of the woman in Sydney who sewed your garment stitched into the piece. Ninety five percent of the fabrics themselves are remnants from other fashion businesses. This allows waste from another brand to be transformed “into a precious resource that would otherwise be unused”.
Low Carbon Emissions
Carbon emissions are reduced by ensuring that everything is made within 10km of Middleton’s studio.
Eco Friendly Packaging
Single use plastics are out. ARTCLUB uses eco-friendly products in its protective packaging, wrapping paper and cards. Even the furniture at the studio is recycled and the sewing machines reconditioned. The whole operation is about conscious consumption and “making sure our processes and spaces abide by our ethos”.
Photos: Maree Turk
ARTCLUB on Instagram
This is ARTCLUB website
To see another sustainable Australian fashion label , go to Slow Fashion Made in Melbourne
