On what it means to be truly zero-waste in fashion, redistributing power as a White-owned brand, and the role of anti-racism in the larger industry.

It’s a problem I’ve talked about at length in the past: the whitewashing of sustainability that glazes over the colonial structure of the fashion industry, and often perpetuates a narrative that positions BIPOC communities as the victims of predatory production cycles, without engaging with the historical— and contemporary— systems that maintain this oppression.
tonlé presents a refreshing change: a brand that has been a zero-waste fashion champion for the last two decades, and whose founder, Rachel Faller, continues to grapple with what redistribution of power looks like as a white woman in the sustainability space.
Catch our Q&A below.
I love that your approach to “zero waste” exists both in how you source materials and how you design.
Tell us more about this process.
There are generally two approaches to making zero waste fashion: creative pattern making that uses 100% of a given textile, and creating garments from reclaimed materials. The approach we feel best honors our commitment to lighten fashion’s footprint is a marriage of the two. Not only are we diverting waste generated by others, but we strive to use every scrap of textile that comes into our workshop.
Our design team scours the remnant markets in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where pre-consumer textile waste from large garment factories is collected and resold. Back at our sewing workshop, makers and designers work together to create designs from the larger pieces of reclaimed fabric. The small scraps leftover from making those garments are cut and individually sewn into yarn.
The yarn is then handwoven and knit into new pieces—this process creates our iconic twice-recycled fabric pieces. The small amount of textile waste that remains from making our garments is mixed with used paper from our office and pattern making to create our own handmade paper. By being purposeful each step of the way, we are left with zero material waste.
Our process shows that waste is only truly waste when it gets wasted.



There are generally two approaches to making zero waste fashion: creative pattern making that uses 100% of a given textile, and creating garments from reclaimed materials. The approach we feel best honors our commitment to lighten fashion’s footprint is a marriage of the two.
Not only are we diverting waste generated by others, but we strive to use every scrap of textile that comes into our workshop. Our process shows that waste is only truly waste when it gets wasted.
Absolutely. I think the first step in repairing harm is acknowledging what the root problems are – acknowledging how you might have benefited from them and created them. Specifically for white customers or white-owned brands, we have had an outsized role in creating these problems that stem from this history of colonialism, and we disproportionately benefit from that legacy.
If large fashion companies – or even small ones – want to be a part of the solution – they, at the very least – really need to acknowledge what the problems are and again I think that is mostly about unfair power structures. Truthfully – I don’t see any of these large companies doing that any time soon – sure they might use organic cotton or become 5% more sustainable in this or that way – but without radically questioning the capitalist system of extraction in which only a few people at the very top thrive while everyone else suffers – they will not make any real change. If they could first acknowledge their role here, then, if they truly want to change, from a practical standpoint we need to be re-thinking the contract and relationships between brands and their suppliers – by revisiting these contracts and creating a more fair and just distribution of risk and reward (who makes profit and who is taking on more risk) that would be the next practical step.
Brands could also do this by running their own production and actually taking responsibility for what goes on there. If they ran their own production and valued how hard it was, do it well and correctly – they might actually make less stuff and make it better quality. As it stands – by outsourcing production they can put all of their risk on the suppliers if anything goes wrong, as well as getting all of the upside (read: profit) when things go right. Investors have a big role to play too – no one likes to talk about how their insatiable greed to make piles of money while taking on zero personal risk leads them to invest in the companies that can reap more benefit with none of the personal risk.
I think for our systems to change, true “impact investors” should be thinking about their investments as wealth redistribution to the people who are coming up with the best solutions to make sure we have a planet to live on in the future. At this point – no one has time for baby steps – this capitalist system is really causing all of us to suffer and of course to different degrees – except for a very privileged few. To change this – we need to look to people who have knowledge of circular, regenerative, and reciprocal systems and follow their leadership in creating new models where everyone can thrive. (And of course, vote, and get active in other ways, because these companies are truly not going to regulate themselves.) I do see fashion as a space where you could have businesses that are created on a culture of care and reciprocity where everyone can benefit. Hopefully in that future we’ll produce a lot less stuff but the things that we do make will enrich our lives so much more greatly because we’ll be able to feel the care for the earth and the people around us imbued into each and every garment.
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