Loop Swimwear

31/07/2024

⛅️ Here's monthly recap of the eco news we Loop Swimwear have highlighted every 🧠WISDOM WEDNESDAY🧩 in July.

🚮 7.3 – EU issues a complete ban on the destruction of any textile and footwear waste in line with its Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR)
✈️ 7.10 – What is a Digital Product Passport (DPP)
💰 7.17 – Why has overproduction and destruction of unsold goods by luxury brands like LVMH, Gucci and others remained a mystery
📦 7.23 – The overlooked impact of consumer returns – a billion-dollar problem that require sizable operations to manage

👇🏽Read more in the link below!

A Dose of Eco Wisdom Every Wednesday ☀️ Dear Loop fam, on this last Wednesday of July, here's a recap of our weekly 🧠 WISDOM WEDNESDAY🧩 posts for the month. We hope these will help you make informed purchasing decisions for the upcoming summer sales. 07.03 All through May ...

24/07/2024

👉🏽 SWIPE >> Another 🧠WISDOM WEDNESDAY🧩, another billion dollar problem! As we continue to unearth the real magnitude of unsold merchandise by fast fashion and luxury brands, we want to talk more about a category of unsold merch that often dodges the spotlight - CUSTOMER RETURNS.

While your initial reaction maybe - oh, what’s the big deal about returns? Brands can simply resell. Ummm…they might not! Swipe to see what happens to returned items, the sizeable operation required to manage them, the main reasons for returns, and actionable steps for brands.

🛜 In the early days of eCommerce, brands offered free returns to compete with brick-and-mortar retailers and it worked! Shoppers embraced this perk with open arms and still expect it today. 75% of returns in 2023 were for clothing and accessories as online shoppers are three times more likely to return their clothes as compared to people who shop at stores.

📦 The massive costs of return packaging, processing and transportation are easy to imagine, but what many don’t realize is that majority of returned goods don’t get resold at all. Often, it’s cheaper for the seller (especially the likes of Temu and Shein) to simply throw the item away than to inspect the damage, repackage and resell.

💰 As such, apparel brand returns represent a $218 billion per year problem and this clothing either ends up in landfills or reaches the second-hand market with damaging (environmental) effects because of the sheer volume of it. For instance, 15 million used/returned garments arrive in Ghana every week.

17/07/2024

Imagine sitting on 3.2 BILLION EUROS worth of unsold goods from last year and you and your shareholders don’t sweat it because it’s just 4% of your total revenue for the year. How did luxury brands like LVMH get here when the whole premise of luxury is based on how rare something is? 🤯

With our focus this month on EU’s ban on the destruction of unsold merchandise, this 🧠WISDOM WEDNESDAY🧩 we want to shift the conversation from big fast fashion brands to big luxury brands.

🇪🇺 EU is home to some of the world’s most coveted brands like LVMH, Gucci, Prada, Chanel… and while you might think it’s a luxury therefore it must be rare, think again. These iconic fashion firms face a paradox - to satisfy shareholders they must keep expanding and maximize production efficiency even if it risks overproduction. Yes, you read that right. It is more expensive to produce smaller quantities and luxury brands also overproduce.

🔥 While these brands are just as likely to contribute to waste, we may not see this end up in landfills around the world as they are far more likely to destroy their unsold inventory. The main reason behind this is that donating these items or even selling them on continuous discounts would impact the perceived value of their goods.

💶 According to a recent Business of Fashion report, LVMH’s unsold inventory rose to 3.2 BILLION EUROS in 2023 and this figure represents a mere 4% of their total revenue for the same period. There’s a reason why and how the head of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, surpassed Elon Musk as the richest man on the planet!

Yet another reason why government action like the ban that’s been our focus this month and the Digital Product Passport (DPP) are all steps that enforce a better commitment to circularity and sustainability by ALL big brands. Read more in the link in bio.

17/07/2024

Imagine sitting on 3.2 BILLION EUROS worth of unsold goods from last year and you and your shareholders don't sweat it because it's just 4% of your total revenue for the year. How did luxury brands like LVMH get here when the whole premise of luxury is based on how rare something is?

With our focus this month on EU’s ban on the destruction of unsold merchandise, this 🧠WISDOM WEDNESDAY🧩 we at Loop Swim want to shift the conversation from big fast fashion brands to big luxury brands.

🇪🇺 EU is home to some of the world’s most coveted brands like LVMH, Gucci, Prada, Chanel… and while you might think it’s a luxury therefore it must be rare, think again. These iconic fashion firms face a paradox - to satisfy shareholders they must keep expanding and maximize production efficiency even if it risks overproduction. Yes, you read that right. It is more expensive to produce smaller quantities and luxury brands also overproduce.

🔥 While these brands are just as likely to contribute to waste, we may not see this end up in landfills around the world as they are far more likely to destroy their unsold inventory. The main reason behind this is that donating these items or even selling them on continuous discounts would impact the perceived value of their goods.

💶 According to a recent Business of Fashion (BoF) report, LVMH’s unsold inventory rose to 3.2 BILLION EUROS in 2023 and this figure represents a mere 4% of their total revenue for the same period. There’s a reason why and how the head of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, surpassed Elon Musk as the richest man on the planet!

Yet another reason why government action like the ban that’s been our focus this month and the Digital Product Passport are all steps that enforce a better commitment to circularity and sustainability by ALL big brands. Read in link below for more 👇

https://brandingforum.org/general/the-luxury-dilemma-billions-in-unsold-inventory-challenge-high-end-brands/

10/07/2024

💡 What is a Digital Product Passport (DPP) and what should it look like? Should it just be a QR code or something more elaborate like Peter Gorse’s fashion nutrition label 👆🏽? We weigh in on 🧠WISDOM WEDNESDAY🧩.

This week we take a look at the Digital Product Passport (DPP), a requirement of EU’s Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) we reviewed last week.

📱A DPP – most likely accessed by scanning a QR code, is a digital record that provides comprehensive information about a product and its entire value chain. This includes everything from the origin of the product, materials used, labor involved, environmental impact, performance, repair, resale, recycle and disposal recommendations.

The DPP’s main purpose is to close the gap between the transparency demanded by consumers and the current lack of reliable data on product journeys. The DPP will also help track unsold inventory that ends up in landfills and in holding brands accountable for, quite literally, producing trash. 🗑️

💡It demonstrates why government support is an absolute must for implementation of policies that force for-profit companies to clean up their acts. After all, even the food nutrition labels, now commonplace, were only implemented once governments around the globe made the health of their citizens a priority considering the rise of ultra-processed foods.
🩵 We at Loop also feel that the DPP shouldn’t just be a QR code that people ignore to scan because their latest fashion purchase was “SUCH A GOOD DEAL!” We believe it is something that should be a physical tag, much like a food nutrition label, with as much of a preview as possible for the consumer not to miss it (like this one designed by Peter Gorse).

Read more about his fashion nutrition label and DPP in the links in bio and let us know what you think it should look like.

PS - In a surprise to absolutely no one apparel brands tried to invest in Gorse’s label just so they could keep more information off it than on 🤓

10/07/2024

For this week’s 🧠WISDOM WEDNESDAY🧩 we take a look at the Digital Product Passport (DPP), a requirement of EU’s Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) we reviewed last week.

📱A DPP – most likely accessed by scanning a QR code, is a digital record that provides comprehensive information about a product and its entire value chain. This includes everything from the origin of the product, materials used, labor involved, environmental impact, performance, repair, resale, recycle and disposal recommendations.

The DPP’s main purpose is to close the gap between the transparency demanded by consumers and the current lack of reliable data on product journeys. The DPP will also help track unsold inventory that ends up in landfills and in holding brands accountable for, quite literally, producing trash. 🗑️

💡It demonstrates why government support is an absolute must for implementation of policies that force for-profit companies to clean up their acts. After all, even the food nutrition labels, now commonplace, were only implemented once governments around the globe made the health of their citizens a priority considering the rise of ultra-processed foods.

🩵 We at Loop also feel that the DPP shouldn’t just be a QR code that people ignore to scan because their latest fashion purchase was “SUCH A GOOD DEAL!” We believe it is something that should be a physical tag, much like a food nutrition label, with as much of a preview as possible for the consumer not to miss it. Peter Gorse, an industrial designer in England helped design one during the pandemic (see image below).

Read more about his fashion nutrition label and DPP in the links below and let us know what you think it should look like.

PS - In a surprise to absolutely no one apparel brands tried to invest in Gorse's label just so they could keep more information off it than on 😬

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2024/01/16/digital-product-passports-are-coming-heres-how-fashion-companies-can-prepare/
https://www.voguebusiness.com/story/sustainability/show-me-the-ingredients-the-story-behind-fashions-first-nutrition-label

03/07/2024

This 🧠 WISDOM WEDNESDAY🧩 we want to spotlight a government action in Europe that aims to combat the fashion industry’s waste problem with long-term systemic changes. After talks last year, the EU has issued a complete ban on the destruction of any textile and footwear waste. This ban will take hold for all big brands in two years and for medium and smaller brands in six years. It is aimed at reducing waste and cracking down on the impact of 'fast fashion', encouraging sustainability and circular economy practices within the industry.

🚮 Products destroyed by retailers, brands, or manufacturers even before they are ever used highlights the inefficiency of current linear production-consumption systems. The EU's action, a part of Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), reflects a growing awareness and commitment to environmental conservation and responsible consumption.

♻️The measure sets rules regarding substances that inhibit circularity, recycled content, remanufacturing, recycling, and environmental footprints. The regulation also mandates the inclusion of a Digital Product Passport – something we are most excited about and will talk more about next week!

“It’s time to terminate the ‘take, make, dispose’ paradigm, which poses significant harm to our planet, health, and economy” – Alessandra Moretti, Member of the EU Parliament. You can read more about it in the link below.

EU policymakers have recently decided to introduce a direct ban on the destruction of textiles and footwear with some exemptions for small, micro and medium-sized companies. In this briefing, the EEA provides an overview of what is currently known about the volumes and destruction of returned and un...

26/06/2024

🌊 For the final of June we have published a blog post recapping all the eco news highlighted this month.

👉🏽 Scroll down for the headlines and read the full piece on our website (link in bio). You can stay in the Loop by signing up for our newsletter!

🐠 6.5 – World Environment Day and World Ocean Day highlight: UN Sustainable Development Goal No. 14, Life Below Water. It aims to reduce marine plastic pollution and we show how the fashion industry directly impacts the outcome.

🌿🪡 6.12 – Spotlight on Mara Hoffman, female founder of her namesake, completely sustainable brand that shuttered last month and what it tells us about the complexities involved in bringing about a genuine transformation in the fashion industry.

🌏 6.19 – How much over-production are we really talking about when we talk about fast fashion? Did you ever estimate it could be 1.5 MILLION styles a year by a single brand? Again, styles, not items!

Hopefully this archive will make it easier for all of us to refer and spread the word! Thank you for staying In the Loop! 🤝

19/06/2024

Hi all, our 🧠 WISDOM WEDNESDAY🧩 this week spotlights one of the biggest issues in our industry - overproduction. We have talked a lot about how many garments are produced, purchased, and finally, how many end up in landfills around the world each day. Following up on this and the recent closures of a slew of small sustainable labels we wanted you to find out how much overproduction are we really talking about?

🛍️ On average the most successful fast fashion brands like Zara will bring new items to their stores every Thursday evening for weekend shoppers and their average time for an item from design-to-retail is about 5 weeks. The new “Ultra-Fast Fashion” brands like Shein and Temu have completely upended this already unrealistic timeline. Clothes are now being made at an unprecedented rate - see below stats and infographic to assess the scale of the issue.

😨 Gap – 12,000 styles per year.
😰 H&M – 25,000 styles per year
😱 Zara – 40,000 styles per year
🤯 Shein – 1.5 MILLION styles per year

These are not the number of items produced, but just the number of styles (Nov 2023). Now multiply this with sizes and colors in each style to understand the volume of clothing being pushed down to the consumer with the narrative that it is, according to Temu’s Superbowl ad, helping us “shop like a billionaire!” 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

So, what is the answer to this problem of overproduction in an industry (and the world at large) that only values cash profits and not the longevity of products it creates? We have heard a lot about what consumers can do, but our co-founder, Heather Kaye, shared the idea of 📉 DEGROWTH ↘️ with us - a systemic change that can be applied to fashion companies and offers a chance for a full reset (link in bio).

19/06/2024

Hi all, our 🧠 WISDOM WEDNESDAY🧩 this week spotlights one of the biggest issues in our industry - overproduction. We have talked a lot about how many garments are produced, purchased, and finally, how many end up in landfills around the world each day. Following up on this and the recent closures of a slew of small sustainable labels we wanted you to find out how much overproduction are we really talking about?

🛍️ On average the most successful fast fashion brands like Zara will bring new items to their stores every Thursday evening for weekend shoppers and their average time for an item from design-to-retail is about 5 weeks. The new “Ultra-Fast Fashion” brands like Shein and Temu have completely upended this already unrealistic timeline. Clothes are now being made at an unprecedented rate - see below stats and infographic to assess the scale of the issue.

😨 Gap – 12,000 styles per year.
😰 H&M – 25,000 styles per year
😱 Zara – 40,000 styles per year
🤯 Shein – 1.5 MILLION styles per year

These are not the number of items produced, but just the number of styles (Nov 2023). Now multiply this with sizes and colors in each style to understand the volume of clothing being pushed down to the consumer with the narrative that it is, according to Temu’s Superbowl ad, helping us “shop like a billionaire!” 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

So, what is the answer to this problem of overproduction in an industry (and the world at large) that only values cash profits and not the longevity of products it creates? We have heard a lot about what consumers can do, but our co-founder, Heather Kaye, shared the idea of 📉 DEGROWTH ↘️ with us. A systemic change that can be applied to fashion companies and offers a chance for a full reset. Read our piece below to understand more and we will see you next Wednesday with a round-up of everything wise this June!

https://loopswim.com/blogs/news/is-it-time-for-the-fashion-industry-to-shrink.

12/06/2024

This week ’s 🧠 WISDOM WEDNESDAY🧩 is an ode to a bastion of sustainable fashion and founder of eponymous label, Mara Hoffman, who is shuttering her brand after 24 years. Founded in 1999 Mara Hoffman’s namesake brand of brightly patterned swim and resort wear was one of our earliest inspirations for Loop.

♻️ In 2014 she pivoted the label towards being completely sustainable and brought fully recyclable and fair-trade garments to the frontline of fashion. As a female founder with an incredible work ethic who was never shy of making tough choices, she went from being an inspiration to a role model for us at Loop. In 2023 she won the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Award for Environmental Sustainability following powerhouses like Patagonia and the United Nations for her contributions to sustainable fashion. The news of her closure a mere six months after the win has laid bare the weight and complexities of bringing about a genuine transformation in our industry.

🧩 One of the biggest pieces of the sustainability puzzle for independent brands like hers (and ours) is figuring out how to tackle the issue of over-production. We have talked at length about how fast fashion brands overproduce and literally dump billions of cheap garments each year - first into their stores and then into our landfills. When brands try to solve this issue by producing less but better-quality garments the price reflects their relationship to this value - that things have value. As simple as it may sound, it is a very tough code to crack in the current fashion and economic climate.

💻 We recommend reading the full letter by Mara on her website (https://marahoffman.com/pages/a-letter-from-mara) and a bonus read of a few of the screenshots above. They include comments from discerning readers and customers on ’s Instagram regarding its coverage of a string of recent closures of similar brands.

05/06/2024

🍃For June’s first and World Environment Day we wanted to share some photos by featured in a bathing suit at the in Singapore! The setting of the opera is a beach where the vacationers contemplate their lives and how climate change has affected it. It won the top prize at the Venice Biennale and had a successful run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The has called it “one of the greatest achievements in performance of the last 10 years.”
🏝️ Loop’s first opera appearance and a noteworthy message – we’re into it! Have you watched it? Let us know in comments below! 👇🏽

29/05/2024

☀️ Dear Loop fam, we at Loop kicked off May with our new offering - 🧠WISDOM WEDNESDAY🧩. A big thank you to those of you already following along for weekly doses of eco wisdom.

On the last Wednesday of each month we will recap all insights in a long form post on our website. Hopefully this archive will make it easier for all of us to refer and spread the word! 🤝

So head over to our website (link in bio) and sign-up for our newsletter to stay updated! 💚

22/05/2024

We at Loop Swimwear have worked to shed light on the sheer scale of the waste generated by the fashion industry for over a decade (please see images from our Co-founder, Itee Soni's most recent talk at NYU Shanghai). This 🧠 WISDOM WEDNESDAY🧩 we are sharing something that put the spotlight on the magnitude of the issue - a magnitude so large it can be viewed from space.

A recent fashion show in the Atacama Desert featured outfits made from discarded fashion items found onsite. Imagine a natural wonder of the world pillaged with discarded clothes from other countries. This is how “first world problems” like fast fashion become “third world problems” - an insufferable pile of trash where heaps of discarded items are routinely burned to clear space releasing even more harmful gases into the atmosphere and endangering local inhabitants.

You can read more about the issue here - https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/may/08/castoffs-to-catwalk-fashion-show-shines-light-on-vast-chile-clothes-dump-visible-from-space. This article doesn’t just talk about this instance but brings to light so many statistics which we hope to make you pause before your next purchase.

Finally, if you think swapping is the answer, please think again. Swap parties, while well-intentioned, send piles of leftover items as donations to charities. However, the recipients of these items from the charities are a different audience to the people the clothing is coming from, hence a reuse rate of just 8%. 57% of all clothing still ends up in landfill and 25% of global clothing waste is incinerated.

Consider the below statistics:
- Every 16 seconds clothing equivalent of the height of the Eiffel Tower is thrown in landfill (324m)
- The height of the Burj Khalifa is thrown in every 42 seconds (830m)
- The height of Mt Everest is thrown in every seven minutes (8,849m)
- In nearly eight months (228 days) the pile could reach the Moon, more than 384 million metres away from Earth

Saying no to impulse purchases and “retail therapy” and only investing in timeless designs of longevity is your best bet. In the words of Vivienne Westwood – “Buy less, choose well and make it last.”

20/05/2024

🌳It’s no surprise that we at Loop Swimwear and are big believers of how our immediate spaces and surroundings nourish our wellbeing. As we focus on with Loop Swim’s weekly , we just wanted to share this recent piece in the Shanghai Daily 上海日报 that had our founder, Itee Soni, map out all her favorites in our neighborhood in .

After all, being an ecotourist is easiest when you set out to explore your own neighborhood. 😇

If you are planning a visit or are currently living in this vibrant city, we hope you find some joy, inspiration and perhaps a few of your own favorites on the list. And best of all, that it brings you to our Studio for a visit as you set out exploring!

⏰ Open every Fri and Sat, 2pm-6pm

📍上海市静安区巨鹿路820弄34号2层
The Studio, Lane 820 Julu Lu, House 34 (back door), 2F

Itee Soni has been a Shanghainese for 17 years. She enjoys walks with her dog, Robyn, and finds all

09/05/2024

Every day is !
Every day at the beach is a Loop rashie day 😎
And every day in May is a 10%off on our website with code I

08/05/2024

For our second 🧠 WISDOM WEDNESDAY 🧩 at Loop Swim, today we wanted to shine the light on .

🪡 Run by the Sustainable Fashion Week team, invites everyone to mend clothing to keep it alive, celebrating repair as an act of empowerment. From May 1 they run an annual digital campaign on Instagram for people to get mending and share their achievements, big or small, with the hashtag. Small actions can help create ripples needed for a bigger change.

Even if you plan to donate your items to charities or take them to a swap, they require items are in wearable condition sans holes and missing trims. So, as we switch out our winter wardrobe for summer essentials, let’s make time to mend them too.

WHY MEND?

- Extending the life of a garment by an extra 9 months reduces its environmental impact by 20-30% (Traid)
- Extending the average life of clothes by a third while reducing the need for new clothing would reduce the carbon, waste, and water footprints from the production stage by more than 20% (Nottingham Trent University)
- 77% of those asked at our clothes repair workshop said that they would keep the item that they had mended for at least another 3 years with a third of people stating that they would keep the item for more than 10 years. (Triad)
- An estimated £140m worth of clothing is sent to landfill every year. (WRAP)

Swipe for our co-founder Itee Soni's favorite menders of things in downtown Shanghai.

Ms 小季 (61 Wuyuan Road) – tailor and clothes fixer extraordinaire. Kind and reasonably priced.
Mr 徐 (100 Xinle Road) – sitting to the left of the entrance to this heritage lane, he is kind and affordable. He’s fixed zippers on Arcteryx backpacks and decade old Columbia snow boots!

01/05/2024

On this first day of May and a Wednesday, we at Loop welcome you to our first 🧠 WISDOM WEDNESDAY 🧩. As Loop fans we know that you align with our goal to reduce the impact of our consumption patterns by making better informed choices. Our WISDOM WEDNESDAY aims to help you with this.

This week we wanted to share this story by Earthsight that sheds light on how H&M and Zara’s parent company Inditex are complicit in deforestation, land conflicts, human rights abuses, and more because of supply chains connected to Brazil’s Cerrado biome. Both companies work with suppliers in Asia who import Better Cotton certified cotton from Brazilian producers.

This scandal is raising questions about greenwashing. Better Cotton is an initiative that works to improve cotton farming standards by certifying growers and their produce. It accounts for a fifth of global cotton production, and 40% of it comes from Brazil. When brands hide their suppliers and manufacturers, detrimental activities like this occur-and people, the environment, and animals suffer. While Better Cotton is expanding its due diligence requirements, this situation illustrates how complicated supply chain tracing can be, while also illuminating the scale of systems that materials pass through.

You can read the full piece here - https://www.earthsight.org.uk/news/fashioncrimes/summary and follow to help you find brands that work tirelessly to reduce the impact of our industry on climate change.

28/04/2024

🌊 Surf like no one's watching, but with sun protection😎
Loop eco swimwear provides phenomenal UPF50+ cover without harmful chemicals and coatings.