Intro
Story Wear is a Taiwan based zero-waste fashion brand, specifically tasked with tackling Taiwan’s discarded clothing problem!
The estimation is that more than 70,000 tons of used clothing are thrown away in Taiwan annually. This is nearly 500 pieces per minute, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year! Scary facts indeed!
Story Wear’s founder, Kuan Chen, started the brand in 2014, and it has been growing in leaps and bounds ever since.
The brand actually emerged out of the lack of content about sustainable brands in Chinese.
Kuan Chen started a blog to translate English sustainable fashion industry articles into Chinese, due to the above-mentioned lack of available content.
The blog started to probe the industry’s clothing waste issues as well as offering practical advice to shoppers. This advice ranged from where to buy organic cotton to shining the light on local brands that were kinder to the planet.
While researching recycling centers throughout Taiwan, Kuan also discovered that denim made up the second largest amount of fabric waste. This caught her interest as denim is one of the most resource intensive fabrics out there.
Story Wear now produces clothes, bags, and accessories that are made of 100% recycled textiles.
We find this really unique! By creating Chinese content on sustainability, a zero-waste brand was born.
Story Wear is committed not to produce any waste. Story Wear also works with social welfare organizations in ensure the brand embraces circularity.
While researching Taiwan’s clothing waste industry, Kuan came to know Taiwan’s large community of seamstresses and tailoresses.
Many of them had lost their jobs due to the fact that Taiwan is no longer a “go to” destination for apparel manufacturing, the increased demand for fast fashion, as well as personal circumstances.
Kuan realized that committing to circularity, meant she could not to let their skills go to waste!
Story Wear now only employs women from the disadvantaged backgrounds mentioned previously. These women are an integral part of Story Wear, just as much as the recycled and remixed denim items the brand designs.
This is truly empowering stuff. It’s great!
Vision
“Story Wear wants to continue promoting the concept of sustainable fashion and educate consumers about what is good for the environment, and also change the concept of mass production by using a social enterprise model. Story Wear is also 100% committed to circularity, which can be seen in everything we do”
This is a fantastic vision, for the following reasons.
- Education
- Using a social enterprise model. This keeps things local, which is a major contributor to more sustainable outcomes. Story Wear have increased the value of this model, by employing previously disadvantaged women.
- Disruption of the “Mass Production” concept. We have always loved disruptors for good!
- The strive for circularity.
Apparel
For all their apparel, Story Wear;
- Purchases raw materials from non-profit organisations.
- Uses women from vulnerable groups to produce all products.
- All products are made from recycled jeans and clothes.
- All tags are environmentally friendly made from paper pulp and seeds.
- All production is custom-made, which means no inventory.
- All apparel and accessories are handmade.
- Everything is designed and manufactured locally.
What this brand is doing is amazing!
To find out more about Story Wear, click here!.
We are sure you’ll agree that their product is extremely unique, with an off the chart coolness factory.
Michael Eisman
Heather Williams
