OUR PHILOSOPHY

"When in 2015 I realized the huge social and environmental impact of the textile industry, I decided to launch my own fashion brand taking a stand to promote sustainability. With a philosophy to fight against poor quality and fast fashion, I was keen to work on a local scale with artisans manufacturing our garments with great care, and use the most sustainable fabrics available: natural wool, linen, hemp and organic cotton sourced exclusively with local partners. I have 3 kids and my goal is to make sure they can live on a planet that we are preserving.”  Julie- founder of L'Envers.

L'Envers Sustainable Brand - Julie the founder signature

We know that as we make improvements we will always encounter new challenges, and though this road is unending it will forever offer us room to change and improve. We are committed to never stop questioning ourselves, innovating and developing new solutions to keep being even more environmentally and socially responsible. We still have a lot to learn to be 100% sustainable.

One thing we will never change for sure:

WE MAKE IT SLOW TO MAKE IT LAST

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OUR VALUES

PIECES DESIGNED TO LAST

We design timeless, authentic, simple beautiful pieces. We believe in forever and we want you to wear our pieces for years to come. That’s why we source the finest materials for our pieces to stand the test of time, and partner with the best ateliers.

Learn more about our materials

REDUCE OUR IMPACT

We launched L'Envers with the ambition to build an ethical, sustainable but also a human brand that gives pride of place to the artisans who make each of our pieces. Since our beginning in 2015, we have only collaborated with local partners to build personal relationships with them and limit our C02 impact.

Learn more about our artisans

MADE TO ORDER & FAIR PRICE

We don’t want you to purchase something you don’t need and won't wear. This is why we knit our pieces on demand and have small batches produced. Contrary to the pace of regular and seasonal launches with a limited lifespan, L’Envers’ ethos lies in the offer of a simple and sustainable garment at the antipodes of that of fast fashion which is quickly produced, quickly consumed, and quickly forgotten.

We offer a fair price all year long, reflecting the continued quality of our raw materials. Selling at a discount would mean offering a lower quality and our goal is to create sustainable pieces that you will wear for many years. Our name sums up what we stand for - L’Envers means in reverse in French. We do things in reverse, we are opposed to the modern fashion industry which is a fast and furious one. We don’t want to take part in this incessant rhythm of discounts, this vicious system that gets consumers used to permanent low prices where we then find quality products too expensive.

SUSTAINABLE AND CRUELTY FREE FABRICS

In light of our ethics and the values we believe in, the choices for our raw materials focus on environmental friendly and humane fibers: non-mulesed wool, organic cotton, French linen and upcycled hemp.

All our materials are carefully selected from our mills in France, Italy and Spain, which allows us to control the manufacturing conditions of our yarns and fabric, to guarantee the quality of non toxic-materials, safe for your health and the environment, and make sure our animals don't suffer.

L'Envers Sustainable Brand - Mohair Wool Cruelty FreeL'Envers Sustainable Brand - Spanish Merino Wool Museling FreeL'Envers Sustainable Brand - Organic Cotton

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OUR SOCIAL IMPACT

SUPPORT OUR ARTISANS

We attach the greatest importance to our manufacturing and working conditions. All our pieces are individually knitted & sewn by our local partners not only to limit our ecological footprint, but also to build personal and lasting relationships with them.

We are keen to preserve the local confection of our ateliers who have been suferring for the international delocalisation to Asia.

Our desire is to continue to grow by their side, help them preserving their know-how and savoir-faire traditions. In 2019 we launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to buy our artisans a more modern knitting machine. In 2020 we also helped them finance the purchase of a new knitting machine. 

WORKING CONDITIONS

We work with family workshops, with a human scale, and on the basis of a lasting relationship - we have been working with the same workshops since the creation of L’Envers in 2015.

We visit them regularly (beyond our weekly calls, we visit our main workshop once a month), in order to get to know each other better, understand everyone's expectations, ensure good working conditions and guarantee the quality of our raw materials and the making of our pieces.

On our website you will find all of the workshops we work with - because we are happy and proud to work with them, and every job well done deserves to be shared. Discover more about our artisans.

All our workshops are based in Spain, France and Italy, countries with strict laws and minimum wages that cover the basic needs of their employees. We pay our workshops the rates they give us, without negotiating - all work deserves to be paid for for what it’s worth.

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WHAT WE NEED TO IMPROVE

Sustainability and ethical production is a never-ending journey. We are a small company and we do the best we can, but we value transparency and acknowledge we are not perfect. However, as this is something we are truly passionate about and feel a conviction for, we are striving towards these initial goals:

Leave a positive environmental impact with our logistics methods

Some alternatives we are considering vary from planes to trucks, electric vehicles, bike deliveries for the last miles, and even sailing boat shipping (then you will habe to be very patient as sometimes there is no wind to move the sailboat)!

Become a 0% plastic brand

We like clothes that last. For this, we favor 100% organic cotton and 100% pure natural wool, however synthetic fibers are sometimes added in small quantities for technical constraints. This is the case of our mohair wool. We are currently working algonside our spinning mill in France to switch from polyamide to recycled polyamide, and hopefully soon we can have 100% pure mohair wool on all our pieces!

Partner even more local

Ideally we would like to reduce the radius of our providers, materials, workshops, all within a 500km radius. However we won’t be able to be 100% local because some materials don’t naturally grow in Europe such as organic cotton or alpacas. Despite this, we are trying to work the most we can with local workshops and yarn mills, and are even open to opting for locally grown fabrics.

More tracability

The fashion industry is very fragmented and sometimes it is hard to obtain full information and transparency. We recently found out the yak provider of our French yarn mill was not very cooperative in giving us full transparency on its sourcing. This is why we want to work directly with a yak based shepherd in Mongolia; to improve our chain of production transparency and cut out the middle men. Hopefully we can travel there soon!

Compliance & certification

Obtaining widely recognized labels, to keep improving transparency and maintain high industry standards.

Uphold fair trade policies

We want to create healthy and happy working conditions. We would like to keep improving how we work with our partners.

Resell preloved pieces  

We are looking into providing an eco-friendly and sustainable way for our pieces to last their full lifecycle. Our aim is for you to be able to shop preloved pieces and help our designs to go full circle.

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