Sustainability
We're rated 'Great' by Good On You
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Charlee Swim is an independent family owned business who have a passion for sustainability. Like you, we care for our environment and will take any measure to ensure we are part of the good. We believe in the transparency of the industry and our door is always open to talk honestly about our values and practices.
Each collection is thought out carefully with the goal to keep our impact minimal each time. We only produce two to three collections each year disregarding the usual seasonal timeline that mainstream brands follow. With our fabrics, practices and ethics – Charlee Swim aims to be apart of the change that we’re starting to see today in the fashion industry. The meaning of being a sustainable business is constantly evolving and we will be learning and improving within each collection.
Join the Charlee Swim journey and read more into our practices below.
OUR FABRICS
Quality and durability are important to us when selecting our fabrics.
Our fabrics are unique - the main fabric is made in Italy from regenerated materials made out of anywhere from of old fishing nets, carpets and industrial plastic rescued from landfill and oceans all around the world by the company ECONYL. It is also the highest quality Lycra we have come across. It sticks to its shape and doesn’t have too much stretch so it sucks in everything – and we mean everything. It is suitable for chlorinated pools (as long as you follow the care instructions – rinse!) and the colour will never fade.
We now use REPREVE Lycra which is made purely from plastic bottles. We introduced this fabric as their colours and textures are more advanced.
Linings are often overlooked when producing a swimsuit but they do certainly make up half of it. It was so important to us to select a suitable fabric with longevity and texture in mind. It is butter soft, making it feel like silk against the skin and won’t pill or pull. Oh and did we mention it’s also recycled? Made from single use plastic bottles destined for landfill.
Our fabric gets sublimated mostly in Melbourne, or in our Indonesian factory. Our prints are extremely unique and very exclusive to Charlee Swim. Sublimation printing is an extremely sustainable way of printing as it eliminates water entirely from the process. We work with mainly Australian based designers for our prints but have also collaborated with artists from New Zealand.
PACKAGING
Every single piece of packaging we use – is sustainable. Our post bags are 100% compostable made from corn starch or recycled cardboard and are re-usable for our customers to send their swimmers back in for an exchange. Our tissue paper and customised stickers are both compostable as well proudly made in Australia. Our swing tags are made from recycled cardboard and are used sparingly – mainly only used on our garments in store. The tape we put on the outside of our satchels is made from 100% recycled FSC - certified paper with water activated adhesive. Our logo on it is also printed with soy-based inks. We use absolutely zero plastic in our packaging to customers or to stockists. We believe if there’s a way to improve our impact, then we have to do it.
MANUFACTURING
Our swim is hand made by Charlee and the team in our Noosa studio based in Queensland Australia.
As we make to order we try to reduce our waste as much as possible.
When cutting, we only take what we need and attempt to place our patterns in different directions to save fabric. Our straps are also made from offcuts and never specifically cut for their purpose.
We recycle all past patterns, cardboard, paper scraps, and soft plastics that come in to the studio from suppliers.
We take time to create your swimsuit to be as sustainable as possible with such quality for it to last you many years to come.
Questions?
If you have any more questions or would love to just have a chat, please email hello@charleeswim.com