From Earth Heir to Biji Biji, we talk to the masterminds behind Malaysian sustainable fashion and lifestyle brands.

This month of April, we want to pull your focus to get acquainted with the local sustainable fashion and lifestyle Malaysian brands whose creations promise to make you feel as good as they look.

From Earth Heir who works with over 100 craftspeople sourced through women&rsquo;s cooperatives, indigenous tribes and refugee&nbsp;groups to Biji Biji who&nbsp;upcycles materials collected into renewed fashion collections and products, here are four amazing masterminds behind these brands.

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EARTH HEIR (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/earthheir/">@earthheir</a>)

A social enterprise that champions underprivileged and underrepresented&nbsp;local artisans, Earth Heir has been working with&nbsp;over 100 craftspeople from all over the country. Here, those&nbsp;from women&rsquo;s cooperatives, indigenous tribes and refugee&nbsp;groups are given the opportunity to earn a living and at the&nbsp;same time put Malaysia&rsquo;s cherished traditions and heritage&nbsp;on the map. Founder Sasibai Kimis shares the story behind&nbsp;the brand.

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How it all started&hellip;

When I spent two months in Cambodia in 2011 doing social&nbsp;work, I came across some local weavers and artisans and I&nbsp;noticed that they weren&rsquo;t making much money because the&nbsp;middlemen whom they were working with ended up getting a&nbsp;big chunk of the profit. I felt that something was needed to be&nbsp;done about that.

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Working with foreign and homegrown artisans&hellip;

When we won the British Council Social Enterprise Award in&nbsp;2015, they pointed out that we didn&rsquo;t have any Malaysia-made&nbsp;products. That&rsquo;s when I started travelling and meeting our local&nbsp;communities. I also slowly realised that there was a gap in the&nbsp;market for these artisanal, handmade products.

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On meeting the principles of World Fair Trade&nbsp;Organisation&hellip;

We&rsquo;ve visited the artisans and seen where they work and&nbsp;where they live; we know what their conditions are like. We&nbsp;made suggestions that if the environment isn&rsquo;t conducive&nbsp;and if they refuse to listen and continue to put other people&nbsp;in danger, we&rsquo;d stop working with them. But so far that hasn&rsquo;t&nbsp;happened.

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How the business model benefits the artisans&hellip;

There isn&rsquo;t a hard and fast rule about this but for our jewellery&nbsp;products, we had to do a study on the amount of time it takes&nbsp;for the artisans to make the product. We timed the process&nbsp;and pay them an hourly rate. Right now we pay about 30 to&nbsp;40 percent more than the minimum wage and there&rsquo;s also noquota to be met.

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The brand aesthetic and design direction&hellip;

This is something that we&rsquo;re still trying to figure out and refine.&nbsp;But one key thing that I know is that the product has to be&nbsp;ethically made and it has to be design-led. The design has to be&nbsp;contemporary and yet respectful of the skills and the heritage&nbsp;of the artisans.

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REAL.M (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/real.material/">@real.material</a>)

Real.m came into fruition during Najmia, Naadira and Atiyya&nbsp;Zulkarnain&rsquo;s countless travels to Turkey. There the sister trio&nbsp;learned about traditional artistry especially the Hammam Towel&nbsp;and handloom craft. They then delved into cotton production&nbsp;and the traditional ways of making it resonated with their&nbsp;ethical principles to respect nature. In promoting sustainably&nbsp;sourced fibre for home and clothing, this sets the foundation of&nbsp;Real.m and what it stands for today.

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Sustainability at Real.m&hellip;

We produce in small batches so we barely ever have dead&nbsp;or excess stocks. When we design clothing, we minimise&nbsp;stock variants by designing one size, free for all. Our&nbsp;natural fibres are sustainably sourced. We work with non-GMO cotton, which means we support zero pesticide in&nbsp;farms, bamboo&mdash;a renewable source&mdash;and plant-based&nbsp;colour dyes.

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The work process...

We focus heavily on our supply chain first. We ask&nbsp;ourselves: what is the material composite; where is it from;&nbsp;how is it made? What are the pros and cons of purchasing&nbsp;and using the material? Next, we look at quality. Design is&nbsp;important to us, but before aesthetics, there&rsquo;s got to be&nbsp;quality. From here if costing is right, we look at ways to&nbsp;reduce waste when designing, right down to the packaging.

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The challenges, then and now&hellip;

Aside from the funding, we are constantly asked why organic&nbsp;cotton or natural products are expensive. This reflects the&nbsp;current consumer disconnect with the supply chain. Many&nbsp;don&rsquo;t question who made their clothes; how these people are&nbsp;paid; how the clothes are made; or where their production&nbsp;costs actually come from. So there&rsquo;s still a lot of room for&nbsp;conversation, which is why Real.m is part of the Fashion&nbsp;Revolution Malaysia team.

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Creating Unplug&hellip;

Unplug is a conscious select store that caters to the need for a&nbsp;more viable commercial space that can represent small, local-grown&nbsp;conscious brands like Real.m. It houses over 35 brands&nbsp;with categories ranging from home to apparel, skincare and&nbsp;daily essentials. Each brand champions one or two aspects of&nbsp;sustainability, whether it is contributing to a positive social or&nbsp;environmental impact.

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What&rsquo;s next&hellip;

We are expanding our collaboration to curate amazing&nbsp;sustainable gift sets this year

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BIJI BIJI (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/bijibijiethicalfashion/">@bijibijiethicalfashion</a>)

Discarded items that are bound for the landfills are given a&nbsp;new lease of life at Biji Biji&mdash;a subsidiary company of Biji Biji&nbsp;Initiative. Riding the wave of the zero-waste movement, the&nbsp;label upcycles materials collected from a range of industries&nbsp;into fashionable and functional pieces made to last a lifetime.&nbsp;We talk to chief executive officer Ambika Sangaran and&nbsp;assistant manager of communications Gwen Voon to learn&nbsp;more about what they do at Biji Biji.

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How it all started&hellip;

Ambika (A): It started as an ideology to do something with&nbsp;sustainability, waste materials, open source principles and&nbsp;financial transparency. Our founders were just driving around&nbsp;town picking up throwaway wood and later turning them into&nbsp;bookshelves and other things. At some point, we received&nbsp;orders to create banner bags and that&rsquo;s when Biji Biji started.

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The materials they use&hellip;

Gwen (G): We get faulty seat belt webbing from the local&nbsp;seat belt manufacturers and deadstock vintage kimono from&nbsp;Japanese textile manufacturer Nakakoma Orimono. There&nbsp;are also the tarpaulin banners we receive from advertising&nbsp;corporations as well as needle punch carpets from the Malaysian&nbsp;Association Of Convention &amp; Exhibition Organisers &amp; Suppliers.

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Working with underprivileged communities&hellip;

A: We partner with lots of non-profit organisations that work&nbsp;with underprivileged communities. We give them proper&nbsp;training and we engage community partners in production.&nbsp;Essentially this is also part of our ethical fashion pledge. All the&nbsp;tailors we&rsquo;re working with have to be paid fair wages and they&nbsp;have to operate in a safe working environment.

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Challenges in working with waste materials&hellip;

G: The way we approach it is the opposite of the traditional way&nbsp;of making clothing or accessories. Instead of creating the design&nbsp;and then thinking about the fabrics to go with it, we&rsquo;re going&nbsp;in opposite direction, as we don&rsquo;t have the luxury of choosing&nbsp;patterns or sizes. We have to design around the materials.

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Venturing into ready-to-wear&hellip;

A: We previously launched our Nakakoma Orimono collection&nbsp;and last year, we worked with fashion designer Tengku Syahmi&nbsp;but they&rsquo;re all one-off pieces. We don&rsquo;t intend to mass-produce&nbsp;clothing items. We did it to create awareness and to show that&nbsp;we can make something special out of sustainable materials

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MUNI (<a href="http://instagram.com/munimalism">@munimalism</a>)

It wasn&rsquo;t the environment that concerned Munir Osman when&nbsp;he established Muni three years ago. The interior designer&nbsp;went on a work trip to Ubud, Bali, where he discovered rich&nbsp;Indonesian textiles painted in natural dyes. He proceeded to&nbsp;Jogjakarta to learn more about the subject and founded the&nbsp;brand that now specialises in colouring textiles using botanical&nbsp;dyes, specifically those derived from tropical plants.

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Changing of the career trajectory&hellip;

Growing up, I have always loved things that are a bit quirky&nbsp;and the bohemian style that resonated with my values. I fell&nbsp;in love with natural dyes from an aesthetic point of view.&nbsp;Of course, the fact that they&rsquo;re environmental-friendly is&nbsp;certainly a bonus.

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Differences between natural and industrial dyes&hellip;

Other than the obvious downside of industrial dyes, the main&nbsp;difference between the two is the colour. Natural dyes are more&nbsp;sensitive to light and they&rsquo;re reactive to chemicals such as&nbsp;strong detergents. So, you have to be very careful when you&rsquo;re&nbsp;handwashing them. I personally love them because of these&nbsp;&ldquo;imperfections&rdquo; that require extra measures to take care of.

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Sourcing the dyes&hellip;

I have a supplier who sources them both locally and&nbsp;internationally. My indigo dye, for example, is from Rajasthan.&nbsp;The dyes come in different forms; some in paste and powder&nbsp;like my indigo dye, and others in their raw form like the dried&nbsp;daun ketapang (Indian almond leaves).

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The making process&hellip;

I can&rsquo;t reveal everything! (Laughs) But there are three important&nbsp;steps. The first is to prepare the fabrics where we use mineral salt&nbsp;that will allow them to absorb the pigments better. The second&nbsp;step is to extract the colour itself, which is a separate process,&nbsp;and the last one is the dyeing process that would take multiple&nbsp;dips&mdash;the more dips you do, the darker the colour you&rsquo;d get.

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Experimenting on new plants or shades&hellip;

At the moment, I&rsquo;m focusing on indigo. The whole working&nbsp;process is way different from other colours. But I&rsquo;d be willing&nbsp;to try something new if I came across any plant material that&nbsp;I think is suitable for the brand. To me, the forms, textures,&nbsp;shapes and emotions you evoke through the pieces are more&nbsp;important than the colour itself.

Meet the masterminds of sustainable fashion and lifestyle Malaysian brands

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