Paper Entry No.5 - #Revolution

Start with why.

Given its Fashion Revolution Week, we thought we’d delve into talking about why we do what we do and how we do it.

So let’s start with why;

Coreprêt was born out of the desire to inspire social change through the act of dressing. We firmly believe in wearing your values and the meaningful role fashion plays in our history and everyday lives; as individuals and as a community. By slowing down, refining our product and diversifying our services we’re challenging the notion of #businessasusual and reimagining what it is to be a designer in this modern world. We started Coreprêt with the notion of doing things differently, and we hope by sharing our learnings and downfalls along the way we can help build a community of disrupters to lead by example.  

From the beginning, we’ve always led with sustainability front of mind, but like most umbrella terms what does that mean for us? Well, we define a sustainable practice via the values we’ve laid out; 

  • Hold Integrity
  • Build Trust
  • Be Courageous
  • Be Authentic in your Actions
  • Champion Innovation
  • Always Be Responsible
  • Ensure Accessibility and Diversity
  • Cultivate Empowerment

If we act holding these values in mind, we know we can uphold our pillars of sustainable practice. We know that if we want to conserve and nurture our environment, advocate for equality in our supply chain and ensure no animals were harmed directly or indirectly, we can achieve this by acting out this list. We want to create, catalyse and nurture systems which are harmonious for all life – a big dream you say? Well, businesses can be a force for good and like one of our idol brands Patagonia, we’re also in the business of saving our home planet.

How do we do this?

Well not perfectly by any means, but each step taken is in the right direction. As fashion designers we have the opportunity at the start of the making process to imbed value into all of our products. We can commit to doing better business right from the beginning at the raw material stage to a garments end of life. What do I mean by this? Well, as the decision makers we can choose to source from regenerative systems, support the people in our supply chain through fair wages and clean agricultural practices, advocate for gender equality through engaging with organizations pioneering this in their communities, actively reducing our carbon emissions, reducing the use of plastic, eliminating the use of hazardous chemicals, the list goes on. So remember, before you even buy a piece of clothing, how many steps were taken to get it to that point and do you trust the people that brought it into existence?

Our commitments to you and our community; locally and globally

We’ve detailed our current production process on our website in our Responsibility section, so please do have a look and let us know if you’d like to know anything more about how we make our clothes. As we’re still in the process of developing a formal code of conduct and updating our animal welfare policy, I’m unable to share the full details of these, but I can put pen to paper and make these commitments to you as we move forward as a business;

 Animal Welfare

  • We will not, and have never used real animal fur. It’s not something we’ve ever participated in and we hope to see the fashion industry moving away from this cruel practice.
  • No animals will be killed for the purpose of textiles
  • No wild animals will be used for the purpose of textiles
  • We will always ensure traceability and transparency on any animal derived materials; this includes accreditation for best practice.

 Accessibility

We’re committed to building a brand where everyone feels embraced. We know we’re only at the start of this journey, and we need to start looking at our products through an accessible lens. For the immediate future, we’re ensuring all posts and communication has alt text either embedded or detailed and will prioritise diverse representation. We want everyone to have an equal experience of our brand.

Accountability 

We are deeply grateful and acknowledge the privilege we hold walking and conducting business on unceded land. We pay our respects today to the Traditional Owners of the country where we work, the Dja Dja Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. I pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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We pledge to continually practice allyship and to use our privilege to break down the systemic racism that exists in our world. It’s time for us non-marginalized white people to get uncomfortable - for far too long we have benefited and profited off stolen land and oppressed our First Nations People. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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We stand with Black and Indigenous people, here and around the world, and commit to taking the time to educate ourselves and question the role we've played in a system that oppresses and marginalizes BIPOC. While we sit in this moment of the biggest civil unrest we’ve ever seen, we commit to spending the time to question the values in which Coreprêt was built and visibly and invisibly take action as we move forward, remaining accountable and striving to never be complacent. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
As we move forward we are openly committing to developing a considered and heartfelt Acknowledgement of Country, committing to diverse and inclusive representation, paying it forward by transitioning to Bank of Australia who do not support the fossil fuel industry and 'Paying the Rent' as part of our triple bottom line. We will always seek supply chains that are supporting their communities, not destroying them. We know we can do better and we commit to maintaining the momentum. 

Environmental Conservation and Collective Action

We practice our values internally and externally of the brand. We prioritise time to advocate for our environment; we rally, we engage with communities outside of the fashion realm, we educate ourselves and we hold a deep appreciation for the natural world. This will never change, we want to see a future where every living thing flourishes.

We will always source renewable, recycled and organic materials whilst ensuring we can provide full transparency on their environmental and social impact.

 How we see the future post COVID-19

There’s no road map for this, we’re currently living through a defining moment in history, the only tools we have to navigate the road ahead is tapping into some deeper, more authentic values and leading with them.

One thing we can be certain of is there will be no returning to life prior to this pandemic. As much as we would like a return to normalcy, we must process our grief and move into acceptance to reimagine what our future will bring (a very hard task I know). We’re not entirely sure what the industry will look like on the other side of this, but for Australia this could be the catalyst we need to rebuild our industry and foster a new sense of value in Australian Made. In the meantime support businesses you care about because we’re all in this together.

The Coreprêt Paper