Encounter with Ecologic Republic

Andriana Landegent started her own clothing company in 1992 and since 2004 has worked all over India. Now she is able to offer the clothing industry her knowledge and passion on the subject of true sustainability in textiles: everything you wanted to know about eco, bio, organic cotton and, most of all, 100% natural dyeing processes.

For winter 2014 she is launching a new ladies wear brand: Fractalz . For this initiative she will use all the fabrics she sources through Ecologic Republic, such as peace silk – natural dyed, handspun and handwoven; even unusual specials like banana paper fabrics are included.

>> What is Ecologic Republic?
What kind of collections do you produce? 

Ecologic Republic Company is the first 100% organic and natural dyed control mark in the fashion and garment industry, which will be accredited by external green organizations and fully transparent in terms of price, profits, production and marketing & sales. Additionally the brand name should accredit complete supply chains since external accrediting bodies only perform their evaluations and trademark on parts of the supply chain. The ambition of the ER Company is to develop the true green criteria for a 100% organic clothing and garment line and be fully compliant towards these criteria. ER Company wants to become a control mark that is attached to sustainability, entrepreneurship, innovative developments, transparent business processes, style in terms of design and fibre and ethical business standards.

The whole idea of Ecologic Republic started from my personal view of life – says Andriana Landegent.

We are all connected to eachother and nothing stands on its own, all and everybody influences eachother. A few sayings are supporting my beliefsystem:

  • “In the new culture success will be measured by how much you cause others to amass”
  • “The more you cause others to amass, the more you will amass effortlessly”
  • “In future economy, you will do nothing for personal profit, but for personal growth, which will be your profit”
  •  “Wisdom is knowledge applied”
  •  “Be the change you want to see in the world” (Gandhi)
  •  “The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation” (Einstein)
  • “You cannot understand anything in isolation from its environment” (Personally I found this quote very funny!)

>> Which is your background and what do you do exactly?

After graduating from Fashion Management College in Amsterdam in 1987 I started as a junior consultant for the dutch fashion industry Association. This was the opportunity to experience our local production, just before it almost disappeared and moved to Asian and eastern European countries. 1990 was the year that I got to know production on international level while setting up the Quality Department of Hunkemoller. They are a major retail chain in lingerie in Europe.

Starting my own company in 1992 was the next step towards materializing my own ideas which are different then status quo.

Since 1992 we have worked to get the best out of clothing production for main client Pauw retail in Belgium and Eastern Europe. Since 2000, during a consultancy period of 3 years at westside departmentstore – a part of Tata Retail Enterprises in India, Mumbai, I got to know India much better with all its production possibilities. Since 2004 I am working from all around India. ?But the focus has shifted and for the last 6 years, I am able to supply the clothing industry with knowledge and passion on the subjects of true sustainability in textiles: everything you wanted to know about eco, bio, organic cotton and most of all 100% natural dying process.

>> What about the supply chain?

ER Company will introduce a complete supply chain label, which accredits all elements of sustainability.

  1. To guarantee a fair (sustainable for the long run) price with transparent profits throughout the complete supply chain with surety that the products will be produced with the objective to reach 100% organic;
  2. To guarantee that the quality and design of the clothing will be optimal throughout the complete supply chain;
  3. To assure that the transport of the clothing will be offset against environment friendly counter activities, which mean that the carbon dioxide emissions will be neutral.
  4. To evaluate the complete supply chain and only label fashion and garment that have reached at least 70% of the 100% organic objective.
  5. To make sure that the accreditation is audited by a professional firm such as KPMG and set by an independent auditor making use of the criteria and standards that are developed by the Ecologic Republic Company.
  6. To apply new innovations throughout the supply chain in order to increase the crops and streamline the supply chain.

Creating such an organization is supported by a new Business University in Netherlands, the BU Zutphen. We are part of their pool of companies who are an example of entrepreneurship for the new economy. Hopefully this year we can start with the process of creating this control mark through funding of the green fund of BU Zutphen.

I think that it is also important that we are able to show, with our own brand, that it is viable to have a different pricing structure. Our final price point for consumer in regard to product quality will be very sustainable. Part of the philosophy of Ecologic Republic is that we first look at ourselves. Do we need the margin the industry is working with at this moment, is this sustainable? We work with a different calculation: each step of the supply chain only makes profit based on their own added value and not that of the ones before. As you can imagine this will give a totally different end price. Even if in terms of marketing we can ask for a higher price, then the added amount will be used within our own supply chain to invest in parts which in turn make the whole stronger and stronger.

http://ecologicrepublic.com

Interview by Laura Molteni

 

Handmade shawls by Palettiz

The brand is part of Ecologic Republic project

 

 

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