Innovation

Apart from the beautiful garments, Rosa Rosa sets themselves apart from other brands due to their innovative business model, with Christina overseeing the process from start to finish in Melbourne with the help of a few local seamstresses. The process is monitored at every step of the way to ensure that the process is ethical and that everyone involved is being paid a fair wage; ensuring that the production of Rosa Rosa The Label garments is 100% fair trade. Christina speaks about how “being cruelty-free and animal friendly was always the #1 goal because that didn’t really exist at the time”, highlighting her drive to be innovative and do good for not only her brand but also the world at large. Rosa Rosa is now introducing biodegradable fabrics including bamboo, hemp, and cotton to ensure the entire lifecycle of a garment is considered and waste is minimized wherever possible.

Inspiration

After graduating from university, Christina secured a role as a design assistant with a fast fashion company and soon came to the realization that the amount of waste created from the brand was definitely an area that required work. After having to communicate with factories and request lower prices to ensure higher margins on the clothing, Christina realized how little a wage these factories were getting from the production of the garments despite their hours of work, and her many hours of work were also negatively impacting her own life. After eventually quitting her job and struggling to find another, she decided to take her morals and values into account and aim to spread awareness about how our purchase decisions make an impact on the environment. Whilst her brand is already doing amazing things, Christina still thinks about the future and the ways in which she can make her garments more and more sustainable moving forward.

Overall impact

From the use of sustainable, vegan fabrics and deadstock, to the small batches of garments produced, Rosa Rosa The Label has a massive impact on the environment. Before the design process starts, Christina looks to source her fabrics “because they’re the core of the whole design structure, so once I go out and source fabrics, because I’m looking after such specific things, being both sustainable and biodegradable as well as being vegan friendly, once I have them, I come up with designs”. This, therefore, reduces the waste in terms of fabrics but also the pollution and health concerns which can lead to using unnecessary harmful dyes. The use of vegan and biodegradable fabrics means that the clothing will “eventually go back into the earth naturally” through the careful consideration of the entire lifecycle of her clothing garments.

Business benefit

With a shift in mindset, particularly over the past year, towards making more mindful choices when purchasing goods such as clothing, consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that have a strong commitment to sustainability. As well as the shift to more sustainable options, purchasing from more local, Australian made brands “and even considering the longevity of clothes, you know if you spend a little bit more it’s going to be made a little bit better and you get more for your money”, meaning that more people are choosing to make their purchases from brands like Rosa Rosa. Christina prides herself on being honest with her customers, and says “here are my clothes, you should buy them, but don’t buy them unless you really need them”, therefore gaining trust from her customers due to her honest transparency through her marketing.

Social and environmental benefit

While providing fun clothing choices, Christina’s “main goal is to shift people’s perspectives a little bit and bring them awareness” to more sustainable clothing options “because [she] didn’t even know this was a thing beforehand, especially working in fashion”. Whilst it is now ingrained in Christina’s mind that “every single thing that we buy or do has some sort of an impact”, it is now her mission to make others aware of this. This then links back to her business benefit, with this shift in mindset meaning that “the more people realize that and understand, the more push there will be and the fewer sales fast fashion people will get and the more sales the small businesses are doing well for those types of industries will do better, shifting the change”.

In the short term, Christina aims to target people that don’t understand the concept of sustainable fashion yet “but who just like the cute clothes just so… they might shop from me or discover another brand similar but maybe then they’ll keep coming back and change their habits without really realizing” moving forward. It is therefore switching an unconscious priority for sustainability and gradually moving towards a conscious commitment, showing the true commitment Christina and her brand Rosa Rosa The Label have on sustainability and paving the way for positive social change.

Interview

Christina Hewawissa, Founder