The Good, the Bad and the BS

Marre Muijs

Founder of Essen The Label

Fixing Fashion, one step at a time.

utch designer Marre Muijs is doing her bit against disposable fashion, with her footwear brand, producing handmade shoes in Italy, Portugal and Spain in solar-powered factories by expert artisans who have been making shoes for generations.

Where is home?

I was born and raised in The Netherlands but now live in Melbourne, Australia. Portugal is my second home. The most beautiful shoes are made in São João da Madeira, so that’s where I go to create my shoes. The artisans I work with have been making shoes for generations and they’ve become really good friends.

How did ESSEN THE LABEL come about ?

I’ve always loved working in the fashion industry, but I grew increasingly frustrated and creatively exhausted by the relentless cycles and seasons and endless pursuit of newness. I craved a slower pace and more conscious process. Despite working in the footwear industry at the time, I could not find good quality, timeless shoes that were comfortable, ethically made and without the designer price tag. The industry was oversaturated with disposable and poorly constructed products and I needed to rethink how I was going to contribute to something that I loved, but in a way that aligned with my personal values.

Crafted by experts, each shoe is longlasting and handmade by people who care. We’re invested in making sure their craft is compensated accordingly, and in giving continuous, well-paid work. We will never switch to cheaper alternatives. We produce in small batches, or on-demand. We don’t produce to the fashion calendar or seasons, and never to excess. It is a

“Overproduction in fashion is one of the biggest environmental threats.”

challenging process, but it eliminates overproduction and up to 90% of waste associated with traditional production processes. This means lower costs per pair, so the prices of our handmade shoes can stay competitive too.

How do you reconcile fashion and sustainability?

Sustainability informs everything I do, but I’d like to mention that ESSEN doesn’t identify as a sustainable brand. I’m very conscious of the contradiction between the current fashion industry, producing for consumption, and the concept of sustainability. But I’m committed to making better choices across the business every day to minimise the social and environmental impact. ESSEN encourages people to buy less, choose better and wear longer.

Three ways fashion can be planet friendly

 Provenance need to think a lot bigger than this and leave partial fixes behind – everything is interconnected. In order to make a business truly sustainable, we need to create better systems and think about each part of the business and supply chain in a holistic way.

Transparency and collaboration are so important. Our industry is traditionally extremely competitive, but in order to become more sustainable and reduce our impact on the environment, it’s very important to share our processes, sources and makers so we create more demand for sustainable materials and ethical manufacturing.

How do you see the future of fashion?

I hope all brands make a commitment to sustainability so that it becomes the norm, and that more value-driven businesses will enter the market. People need to be able to rely on businesses to give them the right choices.

Ideally business will start separating business growth from production volumes by introducing different revenue streams and adopt near sourcing and on demand manufacturing practises. I believe we will see a shift to smaller boutique brands with niche audiences, which adopt a consumer first approach.

What are your plans for 2022?

I’m working on new sustainable initiatives and materials — footwear supply chains are hugely complex but I’m determined to create a more transparent supply chain through blockchain technology, which is very exciting. I’ve also been researching sustainable leather alternatives which is a big undertaking and am launching new essentials in a few months. This year the plan is to open an ESSEN space in Melbourne too. My focus has always been on slow and sustainable growth, but I have big dreams. I’m hopeful I can balance both.

By simply scanning the QR code on your shoebox you can now learn all about your new shoes: where they came from, how they got there, who made them, what their craft is and more.

 Packaging We believe that the world needs a better solution to single-use packaging, so we’ve partnered with RePack, a reusable and returnable packaging alternative made from recycled materials. By choosing reusable packaging we can save up to 80% of carbon emissions compared to singleuse waste.

 Revenue Share

Fashion is an industry that is currently under fire for its lack of sustainability and eco friendliness – what is being done to change this?

The fashion industry made pledges to sustainability at COP26 and there’s been a lot of planning, but not much else. Alarm bells about climate change are going off, which hopefully now translates to meaningful action. Already there seems to be more conversation and urgency, and a shift in mindset about eliminating fossil fuels and increasing worker wages. I’m excited about the discussion of introducing end-of-life regulation for fashion, so the industry can be held accountable for its impacts on the planet, including the waste its overproduction generates.

Are big brands really working towards a more sustainable future or is it a lot of ‘greenwashing’?

Fashion – particularly the big brands - is one of the worst offenders of greenwashing. The words ‘eco’ and ‘organic’ are so overused in marketing, which makes it really difficult for smaller brands that are genuine to cut through the noise, or for consumers to

To us, every day is Earth Day. Forests are the lungs of our planet, storing and removing CO2 from the atmosphere. The rainforest takes hundreds, if not thousands, of years to recover to a point at which it’s storing as much carbon as it is now. It’s a really long road back once it’s gone. This is why we’ve decided to protect trees, rather than plant new ones. For each style you purchase from ESSEN, we protect 25 endangered rainforest trees, which is one of the most immediate and efficient ways to fight climate change.

“I aspire to simplify women’s wardrobes, by helping them consider what they really need and edit out excess. That’s where the name comes from – essentials.” find them. We’re all using the same language to describe sustainability and the brands genuinely committed to sustainability can’t compete in that space. But sustainability is becoming a priority, now policy and regulation has to catch up to create meaningful change.

Any words of wisdom for others who want to raise awareness and work in fashion – the right way?

The environmental impact of the fashion and textiles industry is one of the leading causes of climate change. It’s of course important to consider the longevity of a garment and the materials that are being used, but we

Climate.

Time for a reality check!

After spending a decade in climate change investment, Claire Dunn ponders climate change and its realities.

Tackling climate change is such a huge topic that we can all be forgiven for struggling to get our arms round it. Our individual carbon impacts are constant. Brushing my teeth this morning, I thought about how far those toothpaste ingredients travelled. Would using a self-brushing bamboo

toothbrush be better for the planet than my rechargeable electric toothbrush or will it just leave me with more fillings? What carbon impacts do fillings have? After over a decade working in climate change, counting carbon can feel like counting calories on a never-ending diet, the flab having the upper hand. Attention grabbing headlines about our ‘Uninhabitable Earth’ and ‘Too Little Too Late’ are not the empowering messages we need. Inspiring action is where we should focus; politically, corporately and individually.

This isn’t a new challenge. If you are under 50 it’s likely you will have learned about climate change at school. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported climate change as an international challenge with global consequences back in 1990. Since 1995, countries signed up to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and meet annually. They’ve created mandates, platforms, protocols and not infrequent angry arguments in meetings called ‘COPS’ (Conference of Parties). It was another twenty years before the first legally binding global climate change agreement was signed in Paris. It succeeded in that 192 countries eventually ratified this 2015 framework

Companies that don’t respond will start getting left behind – inertia is becoming less tenable.

Attention grabbing headlines about our ‘Uninhabitable Earth’ and ‘Too Little Too Late’ are not the empowering messages we need.

to limit global warming to well below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.

A global consensus

Gaining global consensus around such a divisive issue with such huge economic stakes was no mean feat and should be celebrated. By the time politicians had wrangled over the final wording of the Glasgow Climate Pact late into the nights of the latest COP26 back in November 2021, 74 countries had set (often very complicated) net zero targets. All praises to Bhutan as the first country to set a net zero target back in 2015 and to have already achieved it. Bhutan’s policy makers use an inspiring Gross National Happiness index rather than Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But money still talks. Behind the scenes, the economic prizes from our transition to a low carbon economy are being divided up by the major global economic players. The huge investment required to decarbonise presents opportunities to make money. That is starting to drive the positive change we need.

Companies are increasingly seeing the opportunities, as are their investors. Successful fuel cell IPOs such as Bloom Energy, FuelCell Energy and over in the UK, Ceres Power, have been powering investor returns, and clean energy exchange-traded funds offer lower risk, mainstream investment routes rather than picking winners. Asset manager such as Impax Environmental Markets Plc are offering real alternatives to FTSE trackers. Innovative research companies such as Sustainalytics are assessing companies on their environmental performance whether they like it or not, which puts them in a fascinatingly powerful position. Companies that don’t respond will start getting left behind – inertia is becoming less tenable. Entrepreneurs and angel investors are amassing in the space, driven by a mix of good intentions and increasingly attractive potential returns. The Green Angel Syndicate supports over 28 innovative early stage companies tackling climate change in energy, transport, waste and water. The financial switch to a low carbon economy is afoot.

Noble intentions?

Other companies are seeing the writing on the wall for their traditional business models as governments and shareholders require that they make their climate intentions clearer. We saw BP and Shell race to publish their net zero commitments, which were duly