Struggling to decide what to blow your pay cheque on this month? How about investing in some kit that will have you looking stylish while keeping your eco credentials in tact.
Rapanui Clothing is a new organic and sustainable clothing company based on the Isle of Wight. From thread to coat hanger, all products are produced using renewable energy and only natural fabrics.
Set up by 20-something surfing brothers Rob and Mart Drake-Knight, Rapanui is a clothing company that aims to use fashion to influence environmental change. After becoming ill from surfing in polluted waters, the brothers decided to use their knowledge of renewable energy engineering and love for surf to create a clothing company with a difference.
All Rapanui garments are manufactured in Fairwear Foundation audited factories – ensuring that at every stage of the manufacturing process workers are guaranteed a fair deal. All of their energy needs are supplied by renewable energy and all workers are even provided with bikes to encourage them to ride to HQ!
The garments themselves are made of sustainably coppiced bamboo, organic cotton or convergence cotton. All are Oeto-Tex Certified, guaranteeing that they are free from any substance harmful to the environment and the products meet both the soil association and global organic textile standard.
The fabrics on offer are softer, more breathable, hypoallergenic, biodegradable and recyclable. While 17 teaspoons of chemicals end up in the soil for each high-street cotton tee, Rapanui releases none. “We hope to inspire customers to become part of our brand; to change their lives in a way which helps them to become integrated with nature,” says Rob.
Rapanui also pays a self-imposed ‘earth tax’, with 5% of profits donated to conservation charities. “Rapanui offers consumers the opportunity to buy into an ethos, to take the first step in ‘going green’ or to continue their ‘green’ lifestyle in their fashion-wear,” explains Rob.
Take a look at the full range and get ready to flex your credit card on the Rapanui Clothing website.
