The fashion start-up targeting Gen Z with sustainable designs made from fashion’s waste

LONDON, England - Bright new fashion start-up Bee & Alpaca are challenging preconceptions of sustainable fashion with their fun, affordable and unique collections made from fashion’s waste.

Offering a range of womenswear products and accessories, Bee & Alpaca aim to target eco-conscious consumers with their limited collections up-cycled from offcut, discarded and excess materials - otherwise known as ‘deadstock’ - and transform it into timeless casualwear.

Despite the popular belief that deadstock refers to a few scrap pieces of fabric on factory floors, a figure from 2020 suggests that this waste amounts to $120 billion worth of unused materials across industries. Enter Bee & Alpaca, which aims to capitalise on this environmental issue and turn it into a sustainable fashion opportunity. Their process starts by sorting through deadstock, excess and waste inventory left from other fast fashion brands, handpicking the fabric that they think can be saved before it’s sent to the scrappers - despite imperfections, small fabric quantities or other issues.

“Fashion leaves behind a staggering amount of waste fabric for a variety of different reasons, many of them trivial. Something as small as a colour imperfection or slightly misprinted design on the fabric is unacceptable to bigger brands, but we see the value and potential where others don’t. We focus on hand-picking the best fabrics and imagining creative ways to bring them back to life, creating smaller batches and less waste. Our biggest batch to date was only a few hundred items.”

Deniz, Co-Founder, Bee & Alpaca

The brand began trading in the UK in May this year, and are slowly expanding to the US market. Their goal is to eliminate waste in the fashion industry by saving as much material from landfill as possible, whilst also being vocal about the potential problems and hypocrisies of deadstock at the same time, and how they walk this line.

Sustainability is a key focus for the brand thanks to increasing awareness and desire from shoppers; surveys suggest that 60% of young people want to make fashion more ethical and sustainable, and transparency is high on their wishlist. Bee & Alpaca has committed to being as transparent as possible with its customers, encouraging them to learn more about its sustainability commitments and engage in an open conversation about what we can all do to help the environment.

“The fashion industry has hundreds of sustainability problems, from water waste to workers' rights, and there is no single brand that can tackle all of them at once, but we can all do our part. By transforming fashion’s waste into upcycled clothing, we’re solving a problem and creating something beautiful at the same time”

Deniz, Co-Founder, Bee & Alpaca

Despite Bee & Alpaca’s passion for the cause, they know that realistically they can’t fix all of fast fashion’s issues - instead, their goal is to save as much fabric from landfill as possible, and work towards sustainability in all other aspects of the business. Other than pledging net zero carbon emissions, the brand’s sustainability efforts span through their supply chain, design process, packaging and order process.

CONTACT

If you would like more information please visit www.beeandalpaca.com, or visit our Instagram: @beeandalpaca For press inquiries please contact Deniz at hello@beeandalpaca.com.