Sustainability
All our collections are as responsible and sustainable as they can be, so we are always looking for the best way to go — especially when it comes to our fabrics and materials. This page is the long version: what we use, who makes it, and what we do with what is left over. What a piece really costs is on our Transparency page.
Sustainable materials
Organic and recycled cotton
GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) is a textile processing standard for organic fibres, with both ecological and social criteria. We believe organic is one of the best answers: for our future, to protect the earth, to be sustainable, and to be kind to your skin.
You will find that 40% of the pieces in our collections are made with organic cotton. Every time you see the GOTS logo at the end of a product page, you can be sure the piece was made with certified fabrics that came from places like India, Portugal, Turkey and Germany.
We also use recycled cotton in yarn, for our macramé pieces and some knitted tops.
Lyocell
Lyocell is made from wood pulp, normally eucalyptus trees, which grow fast and reach full maturity in about seven years. It is a regenerated cellulose fibre — an organic compound, and a renewable bio-based fibre.
Apart from growing very quickly, eucalyptus requires no artificial irrigation or gene manipulation. The trees are grown in fully licensed, sustainably managed forests, and some producers are currently exploring options to become organically certified. Lyocell is fully biodegradable and will degrade within six weeks on an aerated compost heap.
We use lyocell in 20% of the current collection, because we love the touch of it and because of everything above. Ninety per cent of our Tencel™ fabric is deadstock from Portuguese factories; the remaining ten per cent comes from one of our best suppliers, also in Portugal.
Upcycling — a new life
One of our biggest focuses is waste. We try to be as close to zero waste as we can. We can always improve, but we can say that approximately 80% of our collections are made from reclaimed materials — deadstock from fabric suppliers, or off-cuts from manufacturing factories and from our own studio.
We always look for the best way to cut our garments, so that waste is kept to a minimum. When the leftovers are big enough we make other products with them, like bags or tops, or our iconic scrunchies when the space is small. When they are not big enough for that, we keep them for machine tests or to use as ties — very handy. And we keep a lot of them for a future project that we dream of.
We also use old fabrics that were on their way to the bin — old sheets, towels — for our mock-ups, when we test the prototypes. That way we are not wasting good fabric and we are giving a new life to damaged ones.
For our Glacier and Blue Noise collections we rescued small off-cuts from a Portuguese manufacturing factory and used them for all types of pieces, from jeans to dresses and jackets. Instead of putting more material into production, we gave life to fabric that another company considered waste.
Since the Glacier Fall collection we have used deadstock from Portuguese factories in every collection. It means we buy the last roll of a fabric — sometimes there are not many metres on that roll, and that is one of the reasons our pieces are limited editions even when they are not made from off-cuts. For some these are just DEADstock; for us they are TREASUREstock.
Even using only deadstock, off-cuts and organic fabrics, we still felt the need to go further: 90% of our pieces are made to order. We only hold stock on specific occasions — a return, or what is left after a pop-up store or a market. Made to order is a great way to reduce waste, because the fabric stays on the roll and is only cut for the piece and the size that is needed, when it is needed. If a piece does not sell well, we can still use that fabric in a future one, instead of having five or ten shirts in stock that may never find an owner.
Vegan, approved by PETA
One hundred per cent of our pieces are made of vegan materials, such as organic cotton, lotus, hemp, lyocell, linen, upcycled denim and other fabrics.
As an animal-friendly clothing brand we proudly use the PETA APPROVED logo, which assures you that our products are verified as vegan. You will find the logo at the end of every product page from our new collection.
In good hands — our production
All our products are fairly produced. Being sustainable is really important to us, but people matter even more. Our production is local, which means that from the designing to the shipping it is all done in Portugal — in Setúbal and Lisbon, to be more precise — in our atelier or in small ateliers nearby. For a few years, 90% of the pieces were made in the closest of those ateliers, a five-minute walk from our studio.
If you buy a piece from SIZ you can be sure that everyone involved in making it worked in fair conditions and was paid a living wage, or more. We guarantee that our seamstresses have good conditions in their workspace.
Our garments are slowly made, not made in series in a factory. A large part of them is made to order. When they are not, they are made in small batches — for stores or for pop-ups — with realistic deadlines, discussed and agreed with the seamstresses, so that they have fair time to make quality pieces.
All our garments are made locally in Portugal by people who care and love what they do. We know all our seamstresses — at the moment we work mainly with Manuela — and you can know them too, because every product carries a card with a photo of who made it and where.
Some pieces are also made in our own studio, by us, Raquel and Sofia. We make the patterns, do the mock-ups, and we cut and sew. On other occasions we only cut the pieces before handing them over to our seamstress.
Sustainable packaging
We understand how important packaging is, and how important it is for packaging not to harm the planet. From our organic cotton labels and tags made from recycled paper to our returnable mailers, you will find several sustainable items in our packaging, and we have been improving it since the beginning.
We wrap the pieces in organic cotton tote bags — made in our studio and printed with natural ink — or in repurposed paper, and we do not use plastic in any way. When we send pieces to our wholesale partners we always use repurposed boxes and paper. We use craft tape when needed and compostable stickers with our logo, and all our flyers and catalogues are printed on recycled paper, in a conscious amount.
Monitoring and traceability
Suppliers are one of our biggest concerns. We look for quality and trust, and we ask our partners for the same transparency we practise. We have strong relationships with all of them, built on mutual trust and respect, and we have visited 90% of their facilities. If for some reason we cannot connect with a supplier, or do not feel we can fully trust them, we do not take that partnership further.
Our suppliers are now in Guimarães and Vila Nova de Famalicão, and our production happens in Sesimbra or Cascais. The pieces that are not made by us are made either in small ateliers a 20 to 35 minute drive away, or — 80% of the time — at our main seamstress's atelier, five minutes away on foot. That means we have complete control over production and can visit whenever we see fit: sometimes to test prototypes or discuss the early steps, sometimes just to see how it is going.
Chemicals
By using organic fabrics with GOTS certification, from trusted and certified suppliers, we know our fabrics are safe from harmful chemicals. When we use deadstock or off-cuts from other productions, those materials were not produced for us — we are only giving a new purpose to something that already existed and was not wanted any more. Some of them may have had chemicals used in their production.
Waste and the Take Back Program
We care a lot about waste, before, during and after the production of a piece. That is why we created the Take Back Program: after five years — and we hope it is much longer than that — a customer can send a piece back to us if they are not using it any more, whether it is damaged, no longer loved or no longer a good fit. We then use that piece to recycle or to reuse, and the customer receives a discount to use in our store.
We hope it brings some awareness about caring for your clothes, instead of throwing them away when they stop interesting you.
Water
By using deadstock and off-cuts we are lowering the amount of water needed to produce our fabrics, since we are using material that already existed, that had already required water, and that was discarded by others. Organic cotton and lyocell also use less water in their production, and that is one of the reasons they are among the best materials.
Microplastics
At SIZ we hardly use fabrics that are not natural. Only some pieces are made with up to 5% elastane (around 10% of the collection), and even our elastic band is made of organic cotton and natural rubber. Our pieces are made with natural fibres because we know how harmful microplastics are for the planet, for animals and for human beings — and we care about all three.
Climate change
Climate change is one of our biggest concerns. Our second collection was entirely inspired by it, and was a scream to raise awareness.
We know that as a small brand we have to think about the small changes we can make: changing our light bulbs, no plastic at all, repurposing everything, working outside to use natural light. But we try to make a difference with bigger steps as well. All our packaging is sustainable. We only use sustainable fabrics — organic ones, Tencel™, hemp, deadstock linen and cotton, or small denim off-cuts. And we keep our chain small and close to us: the fabrics and accessories all come from Portugal, and manufacturing is done in our own studio, at a maximum distance of 20 km, and 90% of the time within 450 m of our studio and showroom. That way we can walk instead of taking the car — unless we have to carry a roll of fabric. By manufacturing locally and not travelling far, we are reducing our CO₂ emissions.
Other sustainable efforts
Climate change is a serious global issue. These are some of the things we put in place at SIZ so that shopping with us works for you and for the planet.
Plant a Tree. Buy one piece, we plant one tree. You do not need to do anything — we take care of it — but know that you are taking part in an ecological action.
Take Back Program. Instead of throwing away your old SIZ garment, send it back to us and get a 10% code for your next order.
Sell 1, Buy 1. A free, sustainable and simple programme. Are you still wearing that white shirt? If the answer is no, that shirt can give you a discount on your new purchase.
Archive and samples sale. No clothing should be left behind without ever being used and loved. That is why you will find a selection of archive and sample pieces on sale, waiting for you to wear them.
100% eco packaging. Organic cotton labels, compostable mailers and shipping labels, in-house organic cotton tote bags stamped with natural ink, and hang tags made from t-shirt off-cuts.
Even if you think your action is insignificant, multiply it by seven billion and it makes perfect sense. Each at our level, we can act — and that is what we do at SIZ.
Want to know more?
Write to us at siz.geral@gmail.com any time, or follow the behind the scenes on Instagram. And if you want the numbers — what a piece costs us, step by step — they are on our Transparency page.