“Sustainability in fashion today is like organic milk,” says Paul van Zyl, co-founder and chief executive of the American ethical brand Maiyet. “Five years ago, it was seen as esoteric, a bit of a luxury. But increasingly, people are trying to only buy organic milk. Luxury fashion consumers are now demanding transparency. They want to know where their clothes came from.”
Zyl is standing in the middle of The Maiyet Collective, a chic new concept store on London’s Conduit Street housing the wares from 60 brands across fashion, beauty and homewares. “This is the largest curation of sustainable brands in the UK,” says Zyl of the pop-up, which opens today. “We’re trying to develop a new approach to retail — one that’s about collaboration, instead of competition.”
Sustainability, of course, is a buzzword in fashion. Gucci recently announced a 10-year plan to guarantee the traceability of 95 per cent of its raw materials. Chopard committed to using only fair-mined gold earlier this year, and Adidas has just unveiled its first collection of vegan Stan Smith sneakers, in partnership with Stella McCartney. But for consumers, finding more under-the-radar sustainable brands is difficult: these smaller labels lack the advertising budgets to spread their message. Enter the Maiyet Collective.