Sustainability

Multifunctional Ethical fashion 

Creating beautiful clothes should not be at the expense of our future. In 2008, Daniela Pais founded Elementum with the vision to change the way we make and wear clothes.

In Elementum we apply the principles of sustainability in Fashion and we do so Ethically. We believe that sustainability is not about making products, but is about building relationships. With Elementum we design relationships that care for the impact of the materials we use, for the people who make our clothes, for those that will wear, care and enjoy the clothes we make.

Ultimately, our pieces are designed to stay with you for a long stretch of life. That is because of the quality of the fibers and the making process that we choose. More importantly it is also because of our pieces' multi-functionality and timeless, convertible and/or reversible design. This means that with time you will discover a “new” piece hiding in your Elementum piece. So, with Elementum you will have less clothes but more opportunities to dress differently. See more about the multi-functionality here.

 

ZERO Waste 

All Elementum knitwear is designed to be and produced with ZERO waste methods. In Elementum for every knitwear we make, we use the total piece of jersey fabric/raw material. There are no cutoffs from our cutting process. In addition, our all knits are tubular and seamless.

Our latest line of woven garments is still not totally ZERO waste. That is because of the difference of flexibility in relation to the knitwear production. But we are working on converting all our designs into Zero waste patterns. In the meanwhile we reuse the little cutoffs into new products in our studio.

 

Sustainable Fabrics

Our fabrics are made from sustainable fibers and sourced as locally as possible. Our fabrics have a natural and refined touch. For our clothes, we use natural fibers, such as organic cotton, linen, hemp and other low impact manufactured fibers plant-based fibers like TENCEL™ and cupro. These require fewer resources to be produced, create less pollution, and decompose back into the earth far more quickly than synthetic fibers like polyester and nylon. Most of our fabrics are GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certified. We work with high-quality materials that offer a lasting good fit and beautiful appearance.

In addition, we follow strict rules about not mixing natural and synthetic fibers so that our pieces could be fully recyclable or composted, and; with our Close the Loop project, we encourage other brands and consumers to be more aware of what to do with their clothes at the end of their product cycle of life.

See more about our fabrics/fibers here.

 

Fair Production

Half of our production is made in our studio and the other half we produce in small family businesses in Portugal and in The Netherlands. We know all our suppliers and work with them in person, visiting them regularly. We establish long term relationships so that we can ensure product quality and good labour conditions. You can meet some of our partners here.

 

Vegan

We do not use fur or animal skins in our Elementum clothes, in fact our jersey line has PETA approval. A small part of our collection has Alpaca and Merino wool, which we use for making warmer knitwear items. We choose these fibers very carefully and we selected these for very special long lifetime clothing. We work with undyed wool yarns from the same supplier who guaranties a sustainable fiber production. See more here.

 

Circularity & Upcycling

We also repurpose surplus fabric that has been sitting around as a leftover from fashion brands and textile mills in Portugal, preventing it of ending up as a waste in a landfill. We limit the use of surpluses to about 10% of the collection because on a long term we know is a cycle based on waste that should not exist, therefore at Elementum we prefer to invest on fabrics that are made sustainably from its origin and contribute on a long term to a conscious living. 

Since our knitwear is Zero waste we only have leftover fabrics from dying or printing mistakes. So recently we designed some accessories to use this leftover fabrics upcycling it in our studio into unique scarfs and knitted necklaces.  

See more about our accessories here.  

 

Transparency

Elementum pieces are designed as relationships. It is important to share with you all the connections they have, so that your relationship with your Elementum pieces will be as positive, slow, enjoyable and meaningful as it can be. Therefore on each product page you have access to information about our supply chain that made that specific product. Each of our garment also come with a Q&R code that shows a video of how to wear but also where and by who it was manufactured.

 

Packaging

We reuse packaging cardboard boxes and use only recycled paper and recycled paper tape. When strictly necessary we use bio plastic bags.

 

If you still have questions about our sustainability email us at contact@elementum.store we will be happy to share more information with you.