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Based in the United Kingdom, the namesake of its founder and designer, Edward Mongzar is a ready-to-wear womenswear label that specialises in luxury, hand marble dyed pieces, encompassing the belief of unfading elegance, effortlessly. Edward prides himself upon creating pieces that are gentle, ethereal and poised, using marbling as the medium to translate his vision.
The best thing about most independent brands is that they are built from the ground up with strong ethics and with sustainability at their core. It puts us in a position where we are easily able to pivot during crises like this pandemic as every level of the label is resistant due to the purposeful nature of each process. We don’t have any wasted resources, unlike much larger companies. This gives us indies a far greater flexibility. Here are four ways we have pivoted during the pandemic to better the fashion industry after Covid-19.
Firstly, we believe that all labels should make ethics and sustainability the norm from the beginning. Luxury brand's can primarily focus on their products being well made, handcrafted or created with love by artisans. When you have truly beautiful and desirable products, there is no need to make sustainability and ethics your selling point.
By all means shout about all of the positive things you’re doing, we still need to educate and bring others along for the journey of course, however, it doesn’t need to be the main focus of any brand. In this way, we are encouraging sustainability and ethics to become the norm, not something special. Don’t take our word for it, take the word of the founders of Fashion Revolution, who state that this kind of approach is exactly what they want to see. I mean, if we aren’t making well made pieces anyway, then what’s the point of ethics and sustainability? In a way, focusing solely on being ‘ethical’ & ‘sustainable’ actually undersells a lot of brands on just how special their pieces are.
Secondly, we believe that fashion has to justify its worth going forward. We need to move away from fast fashion and mass produced pieces and instead focus on creating special, unique and limited run pieces that are truly individual. We, as independent designers in particular, have the advantage inbuilt because, without all of the huge production chains and strictly set PR stories of big brands, we are easily able to change things up and continually evolve our designs and approaches to suit the time. We have a unique opportunity to seize on this now and ensure that we are constantly creating well made, quality and long lasting pieces that don’t centre around one imaginary ‘season’ (and let’s face it, seasons mean very little in a country where rain is 24/7!).
No independent designer we have come across is making cheap or poor quality pieces. This is the time to use the skills we have already showcased including high quality craftsmanship, artisanal skills and creating our own unique designs.
Lastly, we believe that we independent labels have a chance to rise up and take on the challenge of rebuilding the retail landscape in the UK and transform it for the better and create lasting change. We believe that independent labels have always led the way on sustainability and ethics as trailblazers. This isn’t the time to mourn our high street, it’s time to recreate it for the future.
Independent brands often are more high quality and artisanal-made, innovating all the time. We are so excited to see what we indies can do when we work together for change and there’s never been a better time. Everyone supporting independent brands will be part of this exciting, new fashion industry.
We have all long heard how the fashion industry must change or is changing to become ethical, sustainable and fair for all and perhaps Covid-19 is the last push that the industry needed to make a lasting change. We look forward to seeing it and continuing to be a part of building a better fashion industry.
