Achieving the holy trinity of fashion retail

Notting Hill is famous for its colorful houses, colorful markets and colorful characters.

So it’s only fitting that a new fashion brand has its headquarters on one corner of this West London village.

But OMNES wants to be more than just the aesthetic, it was founded with the special purpose of making sustainable and ethical fashion accessible to the masses.

The company was founded with a specific mission of ‘fashion that doesn’t cost our earth’ and is climate positive and very clear.

Although it launched in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, it has built up a lot of word of mouth and is expected to reach £6m in sales this year – all through its website.

Fans include Bridgerton star Florence Hunt, Irish comedian, actress and writer Aisling Bea, who stars in Lifestyle with Paul Rudd, and British TV presenter Holly Willoughby.

Founder Jordan Razavi spoke with me at Great Western Studios, a creative hub of 22 designers and office staff, to learn more about this bold new venture.

Christopher Markis: Please share a bit about your fashion history and your inspirations for founding Omnis.

Jordan Razavi: OMNES was frustrated by the amount of fast-selling fashion and making sustainable fashion responsibly. I felt there was an opportunity to make things better, to have a brand that people feel good about buying.

I am originally from Cheshire, North West England, studied Business and Political Science at Trinity College, Dublin and have since worked in various business ventures. I wanted to combine my experience in business with the creativity that comes with fashion. I had been putting together the infrastructure to open OMNS for a few years, and when it was locked in 2011 I took the opportunity to start the business at the end of 2020. Fortunately, we have found the market, considering the problems caused by Covid in recent years. Be very receptive to what we do and our philosophy, with extensive growth since our inception.

Marquis: You say you found the holy trinity of fashion retail – desirable, affordable and sustainable clothing – how did you do it when so many big brands failed?

Razvi: OMNES is Latin for ‘for all’ and from the beginning we wanted to show that clothes can be desirable, sustainable and affordable for everyone and also make the world a better place. So it’s baked into our DNA: we’ve set out from the start to have a total 360 approach to sustainability without any greenwashing.

It means we put the processes in place at the start and work with suppliers and manufacturers to achieve them. It was important for us to impose a partnership policy that ensures all our factories are audited for equal pay, fair working conditions and various labor rights. We are a business, so we must be profitable – but people and the planet are as important as profits, and if sometimes it is difficult to satisfy the three, it is the margins that give.

Sustainability and transparency aren’t things that are fixed into the business with a few product lines and some marketing. It’s in the brand’s DNA and built into the company from the start, at the heart of the business model.

Marquis: For a new company, finding and maintaining good and ethical supply chains and accountability is incredibly difficult and takes a huge amount of resources – especially if it’s cross-border, how do you do it? Your website reports that your supply chain is so transparent that consumers can dig in to see how much holiday pay employees receive. Can you provide more details on this?

Razvi: It took almost two years to find the partners we needed to make OMNES a fully sustainable brand. From the very beginning, we have worked hard to ensure that each item meets the highest environmental standards by researching and carefully monitoring each process.

We start by developing core policies for our partners and affiliates, and work with organizations to ensure they are policed ​​and enforced. All suppliers must adhere to our affiliate policy, which is published on our website.

For example, when it comes to suppliers, we often look to Cedex, a UK-based non-profit organization that audits and scores factories in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles and International Labor Organization Conventions.

We use a British cleaning startup called Earthly to offset our carbon footprint. The company invests in projects that protect, restore and re-establish critical ecosystems such as forests, peatlands, mangroves and seabeds. We are on the go and using these partners we can publish everything on our website, from total transparency to holidays and wages earned by employees.

Marquis: You said on your website that you are climate change positive and that it is 10 percent more carbon than you produce. How does that actually work? Why 10 percent more? What practices does the company do to further reduce its carbon footprint? Many brands claim to be sustainable but are often accused of ‘greenwashing’. How did you break up? How can you prove this? What are the hard and fast rules you live by that others might agree with?

Razvi: We are changing this to 25 percent, an initiative that will begin with our Sustainability Report in August. We want to start with 10 percent because it’s an achievable figure for a new business, now we’re ready to promise more.

Having an outside company like Terrestrial Audit means there’s nowhere to hide. This new ecosystem of companies is created by people who are very passionate about sustainability and do not compromise. It covers our terrestrial carbon through BAM, which represents Bosque Amazonicos, an organization that protects and restores rainforests in Peru. Not only that, but it also supports the Brazil nut industry, which provides jobs and livelihoods.

We are equally passionate and our sustainability team also audits what we do and is always looking to improve our processes. For example, one of our biggest uses of carbon is the need to fly samples to and from our suppliers and we hope to reduce this with digitally based design processes. One example is that we will soon start manufacturing our assembly parts in the UK, which will also go some way towards reducing our carbon footprint.

We’re a fashion brand so we want to make clothes that make you look good, but more importantly we want you to feel good about making them and you want to feel good about buying them. Last Christmas we decided not to make any clothes with sequins because we just couldn’t find quality materials that would last. For a fashion retailer, this is a huge financial sacrifice during the party season. We are also in the process of becoming B Corp certified, which is a seal of approval.

Marquis: There is a lot of talk about the circular economy, how does your clothing fit into that? Can you give an example of how one of your products can have more life? Many recycled products use more energy than new fabrics, how can you guarantee that this is not the case?

Razvi: Moving towards a circular economy is something we are passionate about as a brand. From the initial design stage to the end of the garment’s life cycle, we make sure to close the loop as much as possible by eliminating waste and keeping products in circulation. We do this in three ways; Incorporating dead stock into our collections, our charitable partnerships and our recycling program.

This year, we started the potato collection for the first time not only to reduce textile waste, but also to offer our customers a unique capsule collection, which means that tent clothes are not produced again and are produced in small quantities. , meaning that what you get is truly one-of-a-kind.

We always work with end-of-life charities and are currently partnering with two new charities that empower women to achieve economic success and thrive in the workplace. In development tools and professional clothes. We always keep any surplus clothes out of landfills and often put them to good use through our clothing donation drive.

To source our materials, we work with textile mills registered as part of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition – an organization committed to measuring and improving social and environmental sustainability impacts.

Marquis: About 80 percent of your company’s website influence is determined by the design level. It’s a surprising and refreshing claim. Can you explain how it works? Do you have outside industry sources to confirm this?

Razvi: I believe this originates from the EU Eco Design Guidelines report. For us, it is a matter of careful consideration of the fabric selection and design details from the beginning. At OMNES, we think about the garment’s lifecycle from the beginning, ensuring that all creation processes and decisions throughout our supply chain are transparent and responsible. Not only do we create beautiful, high-quality, accessible products, but we also strive to use the most sustainable, innovative materials to ensure we are reducing our environmental impact as much as possible.

Marquis: Your clothes are a bit more expensive than some fast fashion stores, do you think consumers will pay more and why? Many consumers say they want to shop responsibly, but reality doesn’t always bear this out. Companies like Shein and Boohoo go from strength to strength with ultra-affordable throwaway fashion. Do you think this will change or are your customers completely different from those who buy fast fashion?

Razvi: Our prices can sometimes be slightly higher than some high street brands, but generally we believe we match them, with a quick turnaround in quality.

Our target audience is the 20 to 35 year old woman who cares about the world they live in and wants to buy better. We believe there is change. Customers are becoming more discerning, looking for more investment pieces that last longer and are more affordable, OMNES is not a fast fashion brand.

All of our customers are completely different and everyone buys our clothes because they want to save the planet, many buy because of the great design, but I’d be lying to say they get away with the guilt that goes along with that. Cheap throwaway fashion.

Marquis: Sustainable fashion is becoming a marketplace that even the likes of H&M are trying to move into the space.Besides your great designs, what is your unique selling point?

Razvi: Our strengths are our total transparency and the fact that we built the company from the ground up with sustainability and equity at the core of its business model. It’s not something we’ve overhauled and it’s not just a few product lines, it’s across the business as a whole. We are learning a lot on this journey and my wish is that OMNES continues to expand, take a break and become a sustainable street brand that people feel good about buying.