Describing her clothing brand, Jessica Flora, as a love letter to Mother Earth, Jess Beachen is on a mission to make clothes that the fair lady herself would be proud to wear. We talk about sustainable fashion and what it means to her. 

Before I dive into ‘sustainable’ fashion, I always find myself clearing up that in fact, I don’t ever use that word. It’s become muddled and misused and often leads to a rather flaky attempt at covering up other areas of a brand that aren’t that great for our earth. Instead, I like to focus on what makes a brand circular and favour those who choose to lower their footprint to protect the very soil that the clothing begins in.

Natural fibres are all derived from plants grown in the soil, so caring for Mother Earth only makes sense so we can continue to thrive and provide quality fibres in the future.

As we personally tackle that battle in front of us, I am very honest with the fact that Jessica Flora isn’t perfect. But we are looking at implementing changes as we grow, creating an open and honest conversation around what challenges we face and the positive changes we are making along the way.

As a consumer, don’t let choosing clothing that focuses on its environmental impact become a daunting task. Look at it as an opportunity to have some fun, and to support your own personal morals and values. Work out what aligns with you: whether it is choosing second-hand, natural fibres, B Corp certified brands, plastic free … and start there.

Supporting brands that you feel align with your values gives those brands a stronger voice in the industry. This can be such an important message to the bigger brands around them to make impactful and necessary changes and help bring a positive change so desperately needed.

At the end of the day, we are all able to thrive off what Mother Nature provides us with – how lucky! So, if you focus on supporting and purchasing in a footprint-friendly way, we will be able to continue to thrive on this very earth. A positive-in/positive-out mentality goes a long way.

 

Brands that inspire me …

Untouched World
Untouched World have stayed true to their conscious mission from the beginning and have been a brand I have admired for a long time. They make a lot of their products in their Head Office in Christchurch and use natural fibres like the amazing merino wool grown in New Zealand.

Kowtow
Again this is a brand I have looked up to since early on. Kowtow have paved the way for creating incredible organic clothing that fits and looks amazing. They recently announced they have gone 100 per cent plastic free – not an easy feat for any business, whatever industry you are in.

Maggie Marilyn
An admirable purpose-driven brand that is constantly pushing boundaries around circular fashion. They are very impressively creating a big name for themselves not only in Aotearoa, but internationally as well.

 

Pick up a copy of our August/September issue to see Jess’s top fashion picks of the moment.

 

A small brand on a big journey, Jessica Flora produces seasonal collections of small-run garments, each customisable with variations on the fit and function to work for the end consumer. Their goal is to do better every day, ensuring they are constantly evolving and exploring and building on what they can be doing better, while having fun with it!

Follow Jess online for new releases and behind-the-scenes footage as she takes her natural fibres full circle and composts down her fabric offcuts with her favourite garden friends, worms. jessicaflora.co.nz