INTERVIEW #83 LILJA THE LABEL
Based in: Helsinki, Finland
Founded in: 2016
Founded by: Laura Saarinen
Stores: Online store liljathelabel.com, and alongside A flagship store in Helsinki. Including some wholesalers and retailers around the world.
Price range: 88€ to 92€.
Lilja the Label, welcome to A Sustainable Closet! Tell us about your story and why you started this magical brand?
The idea of starting a swimwear brand or coming up with an activewear collection was kind of always on the back of my mind as I had always wanted to do something completely myself and start something from scratch. At the time of starting Lilja the Label, I had just finished my B.Sc and wasn’t sure which way to go after. I didn’t see accounting, finance and the corporate world being exactly for me. I had found my studies relatively easy and overall useful so I didn’t exactly struggle, but didn’t find my field that interesting and wasn’t that excited about finding a job in what I had studied. I wanted to come up with something that I could use my knowledge in but that would challenge me in a different way. I’m so grateful that I had the chance to study what I did and learn so much, but also I’m super grateful that I listened to myself and took the learnings I could and put them into action in something I love!
Today, I’m able to employ five people (plus myself), which is amazing. On top of this, I’m so lucky to know so many amazing freelance photographers, videographers and content creators who I couldn’t do this without! I’ve outsourced logistics, meaning there’s an amazing separate Finnish company taking care of warehousing, packing and shipping. This allows me to focus on the things I love and the things I’m the best at and also makes the process more sustainable, effective and agile.
How are you working with sustainability today, do you hold any certificates?
Sustainability is one of the key aspects of our business. Currently, our products are handmade at a small family-run factory in Bali, Indonesia. We love this small business and have had the pleasure to work with them for a couple of years and also have been able to personally visit them. We have decided on this factory after extensive research on their working conditions, fair wages, holidays and work safety.
As we are not a fast-fashion business, we don't want to manufacture excessive amounts of stock that could end up unsold and this way generates more fashion waste, which already is a huge problem in our industry. This is why we introduced our first pre-order collection at the beginning of this year. Preorders generally mean that customers are able to order a certain product before it’s manufactured, or while it’s being manufactured. Preorders ensure a more conscious production process, because we as a brand know the rough amounts of how many items will sell, and can avoid both overproducing and underproducing. This way we can meet the demand better. As we see it, on-demand shopping is the future of sustainable fashion and a win-win situation for both the customers and the brands. The customers are able to make sure they can get the products they want without having to stress on big launch days. They are also able to plan their purchases and make more conscious choices instead of shopping under pressure. Simultaneously, the brands can learn more about which items the customers have the most interest in. The preorders will give us as a brand an indication of which pieces our customers are most interested in and thus improve our production. We are hoping this new concept will benefit both sides and overall ensure a more conscious approach within the fashion industry.
As I mentioned before, we further outsource our logistics by using a Finnish business to take care of packing and shipping. This way we don’t have to rent out a warehouse, buy all possible materials in all shapes and sizes and drive a varying amount of packages to the post office daily - the logistic partner has much larger volumes, which has made the process effective and has access to much more materials and can source them for several brands at once. This way we are saving on a lot of environmental costs and also simplifying the process a lot.
In terms of certificates, we currently don’t hold direct certificates, however, we are working towards them as the business is growing larger. It’s important to us that the fabrics used in our production are safe to be worn and have been sustainably sourced. Our fabric manufacturers hold the following certificates:
ECONYL®:
● OEKO-TEX® 100-standard
● BS EN ISO 6330 @40°C - flat dry (dimensional stability)
● NU Martindale - ISO 12945-2 7000 rotations (resistance to piling)
● INSTRON 3343 - load 3.6 kg (stretch to dynamometer)
REPREVE ®:
● OEKO-TEX® 100-standard
● SCS Certification (Scientific Certification Systems)
● GRS Certification (Global Recycle Standard)
We are curious about how and where the products are produced, where do you source the material from?
Our main (and currently the only) swimwear and activewear factory is located on the gorgeous paradise island of Bali in Indonesia. This factory has been manufacturing all our swimwear and activewear from 2018 onwards. The factory is run by a young local couple employing a total of 36 people: four in the office alongside the owners, two specialising in fabric cutting, 26 in manufacturing, and three in quality control carefully checking the pieces before they make their way to us and to you and one in graphic design. The team has been able to grow significantly within the past three years we have been with them. We could not be happier to be growing together with this amazing family business.
Working with small businesses (just like us!) enables us to build more personal relationships with our manufacturing staff and to support these young, ambitious entrepreneurs working for their dreams. We have been privileged to personally visit our manufacturers and are trying to do so yearly.
For our products we use the following two materials:
ECONYL® regenerated nylon may be the first regenerated fiber for swimwear and activewear fabric that comes to mind, and for a great reason! ECONYL® nylon is a regenerated nylon yarn made by an Italian company called Aquafil. The swimwear and activewear fabrics utilising ECONYL® yarn are manufactured exclusively by Italian Carvico and consist of 78% regenerated nylon and 22% elastane coming in different thicknesses suitable for both swimwear and activewear. ECONYL® regenerated nylon has been made utilising pre-consumer and post-consumer waste such as fishing nets, fabric scraps, carpet flooring and industrial plastic. For each 10 000 tons of the raw material collected, they are able to save 70 000 barrels of crude oil and 65 100 tonnes of CO2 emissions from entering our atmosphere.
All Carvico fabrics utilising ECONYL® regenerated nylon have the OEKO-TEX® 100-standard ensuring they have been tested for harmful substances and are safe to be worn close to your skin. To read more, you can head to the fabric manufacturer’s website or the ECONYL® website.
REPREVE® is the world’s leading recycled fibre made from recycled plastic bottles regenerated into a high-quality nylon yarn. As billions of plastic bottles worldwide end up in landfills, REPREVE® is combating an enormous problem and giving these valuable resources a new life. The company behind REPREVE®, Unifi, has already recycled more than 25 billion plastic bottles and rescued them from ending up in landfills and turning them into waste. At the same time, they have avoided 646 million kgs of CO2 emissions from entering our atmosphere. Compared to making what’s called virgin fibre, making REPREVE® offsets using new petroleum, emitting fewer greenhouse gases and conserving water and energy in the process.
We use REPREVE® as our print fabric due to the great qualities this fabric has for printing: it’s high-quality and keeps its shape and colour well yet is super soft and stretchy for the best fit. Our amazing factory prints our pattern designs into a solid white version of this fabric to gain the best print quality and contrast and we couldn’t be happier! You can read more about the fabric on the fabric manufacturer’s website.
Who is the typical Lilja the Label customer?
We don’t want to rule anyone out based on age, size, ethnicity, gender, location or anything else, we want everyone to feel welcome and are constantly trying to improve our inclusivity. Sustainable values are what our customers share together, and we are happy to be building a community of like-minded people! Currently, most of our customers are approximately between 20-40 in age and live in Europe. At the moment we stock sizes from XS to 2XL, however, are working on expanding our sizing with our preorder system and by working closely with our factory to scale our sizing.
Describe how you could wear a Lilja the Label bikini for a summer party.
There are so many great options to wear our products outside the water! For a summer party, I would recommend pairing our Cross-Back Top with your favourite jeans for instance. The Top is cropped in front and has enough coverage for a day look and is also tied in the back, making it super cute and summery! Another option would be to wear one of our One-pieces as a bodysuit and wear some flowy pants over it. All of our One-pieces are reversible, so there is a two-in-one thought behind the product and more options for you!
Where do you find inspiration?
I’m born and raised in Finland but have spent a huge part of my adult years traveling and living abroad. Although I don’t find being a ‘traveler’ exactly my identity, it’s a thing I’d have to mention as it’s shaped me and my business so much over the years. I’m a surfer and a swimmer and love the ocean and the water in all forms. Other than that, I’m also super inspired by rain, autumn and generally all things nature.
What have been and are the major challenges of starting your own business?
I started the entire thing from scratch and with no budget at all, as I was a 22-year-old student at the time. Because I didn’t have much money to allocate to starting a business, I had to learn to do pretty much everything myself. It was so so fun and rewarding learning about so many different things – from web design to photography to pattern making to taxes to to to… And I’m so proud to say I did it all! But letting goes of ‘doing it all’ has been very difficult. At the point where the company is today, I don’t have to do every single thing myself as I have so many amazing people that can help me, and that I can afford to offer work. So why wouldn’t I utilise that?! Being so used to thinking “I’ll just quickly do this myself” instead of delegating caused me to spend so much time working, to absolute exhaust myself, kill all my creative drive and just almost drive myself to complete burnout. I think it’s great that these things are discussed more and more nowadays and a certain rush culture isn’t so popular and looked up to anymore. And being in a somewhat creative field, I’ve noticed that the more relaxed, free and rested I am, the more I get done and the better my work. I would say I only learned this entire thing this year, so it’s been the most challenging thing overall!
What have been the largest gains?
For Laura, the largest gain has been building a community of like-minded customers, coworkers, collaborators and partners of all kinds. I feel so lucky to be surrounded by and working with so many amazing people from around the world.
Money has never been the determining factor, however, it’s an unbelievable feeling knowing that I’m not only employing myself full-time but five other people too! It’s amazing being able to do what we love and be able to pay the bills with it.
Personally for Sofia, brand manager at Lilja, the largest gain has been working in a close-knit team, creating beautiful and sustainable products for our community. I enjoy the variety of tasks and every day being different from the day before. Creating swimwear can be tricky, but seeing/receiving feedback from our customers feeling confident and great in their Lilja pieces is truly the best gain and motivator ever!
What do you think needs to change in the swimwear industry to make it more sustainable?
One of the main sustainability issues that swimwear has its recycling options. As swimwear contains elastane, the material that gives the fabric its stretch, it’s impossible to turn it back to a raw material that could be used to create new swimwear, for example. Also, swimwear doesn’t have a similar 2nd hand value that for example, a pair of jeans can have. Many goodwill stores and organisations do not accept swimwear and underwear as donations, so that is also ruled out of the question. We are currently working on a solution to build a sustainable way to recycle, reuse or regenerate something from swimwear items that have reached the end of their cycle.
The best thing about Lilja the Label?
The customers! Such a cliché answer, but still true! Without our amazing community, we wouldn’t be where we are today! It’s been a great ride and we can’t wait for what's to come! So, thank you to every one of you, who has ever supported us in any way, shape or form.
What's up next?
I can’t spoil too much, but big things! As they always say. But for real, we can’t wait to show you what we have planned for the autumn season and next summer. We have new plans regarding not only new items in our collections but also new ways to produce and source materials.