“Anything that comes from the earth, goes back to the earth” – these were the words of Noelle Kan, the founder of Kanoe, a label that champions sustainable fashion based in Kuala Lumpur.
Established in 2016, Kanoe was inspired by the word “canoe”, which is essentially a narrow vessel that relates to her passion for travelling. Kan was academically trained in fashion and has always dreamed about creating her own label.
“When I created Kanoe, I knew how I wanted it to be, its identity and values,” she said.
All pieces carried by Kanoe are proudly made of natural fibre where materials are sourced from countries around the world, like India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
“As it comes naturally from the earth, we only need to spin it and make it into garments.”
This makes it more environmentally friendly than synthetic fibre because the process of creating the latter material “may involve chemical products that pollute our water sources”.
Other than creating pieces from environmentally friendly material, Kanoe advocates paying fair wages to everyone involved in the production process and zero waste.
“We make sure that the skills and talents of our tailors and staff members are not exploited, and I always save up scraps of fabric to see where I can use it later,” she said.
With a label focusing on tropical designs, Kan shared that she draws inspiration from her travels around the world.
Besides that, Kanoe works with local and international artisans, striving to “incorporate traditional art elements into modern pieces”. This includes local batik prints and hand-
block prints from India.
With a three-person team today, Kanoe has been growing, but the beginning of this journey was far from smooth-sailing.
“We were in a market where people were slowly being more receptive to buying sustainable products,” Kan said.
There is also a general misconception held by the public that sustainable fashion has to be expensive. While she admitted that it is true in some cases where the amount of research and development that goes into one piece of garment can rake up its price, there are other sustainable options that are a lesser blow to the wallet like thrift shopping.
To overcome this, Kanoe focuses on creating quality pieces that are trendy and price-friendly to the general demographic as consumers “tend to be price-conscious and trend-conscious”.
Over the years, Kan agreed that there have been noticeable changes to the local sustainable fashion scene.
“There is definitely more initiative now with more brands popping up,” she said, adding that people are also “becoming more aware of their fashion choices and alternatives for fast fashion”.
Although she noted that fast fashion, the counterpart of sustainable fashion, is a great money-making machine, her passion lies in “creating designs that add value to the environment and consumers’ lives”.
In the future, Kan envisions Kanoe to grow in terms of exploring more sustainable fabric and expanding the tropical fashion line.
“I also hope we get to work with other international artisans and communities.”
For those looking to shop more responsibly and ethically, Kan advised buying only what they love, instead of giving in to impulse decisions.
“Because when we start to curate our wardrobe to what we really want, we’ll more likely wear it for multiple occasions and carry it for a few years,” she said.
Note: This article was written and published in The Star's NIE pullout on 4 September 2019.
Commentaires