The evolving lifecycle of apparel

Design for circularity
Look through our repairing index to start mending your beloved pieces.

In order to recognize the value of each clothing piece, we need to think beyond the time of purchase. We prepared this post to discuss how caring for, repairing, and disposing of every piece responsibly are essential practices to reduce our environmental footprint.

Small changes, big impact
Engagement with garment circularity is essential. The fashion industry continues to send truckloads of textiles and clothing to landfills and incineration daily. Small changes can have a great impact. For example, by extending a garment’s life by 9 months, it’s estimated that we can reduce its water, waste, and carbon footprints by 20% to 30% each (WRAP, 2017).

Repairing may not be a word frequently associated with fashion. However, it can help to readdress the way we view the balance between consumption and disposal.

At first, it might be a challenge for us to think of imperfections as opportunities. But, following the old saying that we can learn from our mistakes, a clothing item that needs fixing can be mended and become our favorite piece.

Strengthening the local community
In this way, we came up with a Repairing Index, which includes places around Lisbon where you can repair and extend your garments’ life while supporting local businesses. But, why did we create this Index in the first place?

The recent pandemic time led us to reflect on the struggles faced by local and small businesses during unpredictable times.

As a Portuguese brand, we believe that by supporting local businesses, one isn’t just contributing to the workers’ livelihoods but also to the preservation of a cultural knowledge, economic sustainability and a sense of a supportive, caring and present community.

These are some of the reasons why we wanted to make such information accessible — because apart from following the care labels, there are other steps we can take to further increase our clothing lifespan and make this routine more circular. To find more tips about garment care and the importance of consciousness when purchasing clothes, check the chapter The Importance of Garment Care of this series.

Take part
The Repairing Index, so far, only has local businesses around the Lisbon area specialized in fixing garments, given that it’s the city we’re most familiar with and where our studio is. But, our goal is to expand this Index for the rest of Portugal so that everyone can have easy access to these sorts of services and help more and more local businesses to thrive.

In the meantime, if you want to get involved in this process and share your knowledge about local businesses that focus on repairing, recycling, or donating clothing in Portugal, check this form.

Give it a chance
If you feel like trying to fix your garment on your own, we recommend checking out the Fixing Fashion project. It offers helpful tips and tutorials on how to customize and repair pieces that might just need a bit of care and attention.

But if in the end, you find that the repaired piece is wearable again, but it no longer aligns with your style, consider sending it to a donation center, an upcycling project, a second-hand shop, or, lastly, to a recycling facility.

This is the last post of our THE EVOLVING LIFE CYCLE OF APPAREL series. We invite you to check out the other two posts, The Importance of Garment Care and Wash, Wear, and Care — A Practical Guide, if you haven’t already.

We hope you liked and learned as much as we did for this research. Was this information useful to you? Do you have any tips that you would like to share? Send us a message through our social media. We would like to hear it from you!

The evolving lifecycle of apparel

Wash, wear and care — a practical guide.
A full guide about taking better care of your clothes.

We’ve come up with a few tips, in the form of a practical care guide, to increase your products’ lifespan while keeping things like energy consumption, water usage, and contamination to the bare minimum. Shall we begin?

Demystifying clothing labels
How many of us have looked into clothing labels but had no clue what they meant? Knowing how to read and paying attention to clothing labels will help preserve garments and make them last longer. So, let’s jump right in!

Be aware of clothing labels that mention ‘MADE IN (…)’ or that have a special label highlighting this because that may just be referring to the design of the piece itself, not reflecting where it’s made.

It’s also good to question why some garments made from sustainable materials cost such a low amount of money, like an organic cotton t-shirt for 10€. Instead, we must think about what that actually reflects about the brand and its practices.

One of the reasons why sustainable brands tend to have higher prices than what’s considered the average it’s because the product’s price reflects its quality, sustainable and ethical production, and the work done by the people involved in the process.

Loading a new laundry routine
The way we wash our clothes at home tends to cause changes in fabrics and fibers, reducing their durability. To guarantee that your clothes last for years to come, wait until you have a full load and wash them in cooler temperatures.

For example, washing your clothes at 30ºC is equivalent to 40% of the energy used when washing them at 40ºC (WRAP, 2021). This will prevent them from shrinking and decrease the energy use on water heating.

The choice of detergent also weighs in on how sustainable our laundry routine is — eco-friendly detergents are plant-based and biodegradable, thus being a good solution for both our skin and the environment. Non-eco-friendly detergents are petrochemical-based, including toxic chemicals that can be harmful to our skin and when in the sewage system can contaminate water ecosystems.

The problem of Microfibers and how to fight it
When doing our washing, we also have to be aware of the microfibers released into the sewage system, which cause water and ocean pollution. One of the few alternatives available to fight this menace is to use a wash bag made from microfilter material that captures the fabrics released in this process, keeping everything cleaned.

Over time, these wash bags won’t only accumulate microfibers, but also hair and pet fur, for example. Thus, that build-up will have to be removed and disposed of in the garbage bin rather than down the sink. Depending on the wash bag you use, check its washing instructions ahead and how many washes it withstands, using only cold water during this process.

Microfibers are a type of microplastics, thinner than human hair, that our synthetic clothing releases whenever we do laundry.

Air dry for the win
The most energy-efficient method to dry our clothes is to air-dry, helping to extend the clothes’ lifecycle and reducing the energy used to generate heat when tumble-drying, for example. A household that runs a dryer on average every 2 days could save approximately half a tonne of CO2 emissions by turning to alternatives such as a washing line or clothes rack (Berners-Lee & Clark, 2010).

Steaming & ironing
Fabrics can be more or less prone to wrinkles and creasing according to their structure. Most garments don’t require ironing when washed on lower cycles, then smoothly stretched at the end of their washing and hung to dry.

In terms of steaming vs. ironing, steaming tends to be gentler to the fabric fibers. Nevertheless, if your garments do need ironing, pay attention to their care label to know at what temperature and setting are safe to do it.

Some washing machines also have available a setting called ‘reduced wrinkles’ that might also prevent creases. Reducing the washing cycle might be another good alternative.

Storage who?
There’s nothing worse than opening a wardrobe to find our clothes a bit worse off to wear after being stored for too long, or moth holes and mold from excess dampness.

In these problematic cases, the best to do would be to give your clothing some good aeration. It can also be helpful not to fill your closet to the brim since it will prevent garments from tearing and wearing.

Establishing a capsule wardrobe may also help in your closet’s organizational process. For instance, you can put everything cleaned and well folded into clothing bundles at the end of each season. If the problem has to do with limitations in storage, a vacuum seal bag can be a good option for space efficiency.

What about repurposing our clothes?
Fashion has to be more circular, and we believe that’s our responsibility to ensure this in many ways: from the materials picked to how a product is used and repurposed. You can read more about the importance of garment care in the first chapter of this series.

There’s a need to shift the way we think about clothing — as durable and not as disposable pieces, having a more mindful approach to our everyday possessions. Hence, this practical care guide wouldn’t be complete without a few suggestions to give your clothing a second life:

1 — It can be frustrating to have a clothing piece you love dearly but that needs some repair. If you live around the Lisbon area, we have gathered some info that might be useful — so stay tuned for the next chapter of this series, where we’ll provide an index of places in Lisbon where you can repair clothing.
2 — Donate and organize a clothing swap with your friends, family, or local community.
3 — Repurpose your clothes — transform them into things like cleaning towels, or make a new piece.
4 — Get creative and try to fix your clothes. If you’re searching for some good tutorials and more info about ways of reusing your preloved pieces, have a look at the Fixing Fashion website.

The evolving lifecycle of apparel

The importance of garment care.
Find the reasons why and the need to embrace what we already have.

From experience, it can be refreshing and often urgent to rethink the choices we make in our daily lives. Progressively changing a few habits here and there and finding new ways to tackle our routine can foster awareness about our possessions and overall practices, matching them according to what we need.

Fashion is an inevitable part of our lives, and the way we take care of our clothes can have a considerable impact overall. As a brand that produces clothes and accessories with a low impact on the planet and that are made to last, it’s essential to provide information and tools for you to make informed decisions and to know how to take care of your pieces. This is one of many contributions we can make to reduce our environmental footprint on production and individual level.

Why choosing to buy something from a certain brand in the first place?
Let’s get our priorities straight — a good first exercise is to understand the reasons behind our purchases. Was it because we needed it and are going to give it use or just because we fancied it? Both choices are valid, however, it’s good to be mindful about what we’re investing our money in and what brands we’re backing.

Which brands are socially and environmentally responsible? Can a brand be sustainable without being transparent? What are the most sustainable fabrics? Where should I buy clothes? These are some of the questions one should keep in mind before signaling to companies validation through purchases.

Something to also be aware of when choosing a brand is greenwashing — a promotional tactic used to describe an organization’s products, activities or approaches as environmentally friendly when they are far from it. Nowadays, some businesses prefer to spend more time and money on the image of caring for the planet than taking practical steps to reduce their impact.

Nevertheless, as conscious consumers, it’s relevant to recognize that there are no simple solutions to complex problems. Sometimes we’re only able to work with what we’ve got, and that’s ok.

What happens next — Taking care of clothes
The more knowledge we have about the products we get, such as the resources and craft that goes into their production, the more aware we’ll be about our engrained practices from the throwaway society and their consequences.

This info will also influence the emotional durability we attach to a product — how the value of a product grows as we establish a personal bond to it (WRAP, 2015). The stronger the connection we develop to our belongings, the more we’ll treasure and take care of them after purchase, and the less we’ll need to replace them for new ones.

If taken care of properly and by elevating their value, our pieces will not only last longer but will also:
— Not be dumped in a landfill or be incinerated
— Prevent us from contributing to the vicious cycle of consumerism
— Help us save money, and
— Allow us to be more conscious about our habits & choices

In more practical terms
In our daily routine, there are always new habits we can implement to increase our products’ lifespan while keeping things like our energy consumption, water usage & contamination to a bare minimum, like:
— Waiting until we have a full load and wash our clothes in cooler temperatures
— Using eco-friendly detergents that are good for our skin and the planet while bettering fabric care
— Including a wash bag when doing laundry to avoid any microfibers from being released into the sewage system and polluting the ocean
— Choosing to air dry our clothes, which reduces the energy used to generate heat when tumble-drying
—Getting acquainted with clothing care symbols and care labeling to optimize our laundry practices
— Considering clothing repair, repurposing old clothes and donating clothes when no longer using our clothes

We hope this was useful.
Stay tuned for the upcoming news and for the next chapter of ‘The evolving lifecycle of apparel’.

From umbrellas to swim shorts — the full story.
Celebrating 10 years since our first release with a nostalgic limited edition collection.

Porto was never known for having a mild winter, and 2011 was no exception to this rule of thumb. As a part of the season’s equation, the rain was a constant, and so was the excessive amount of umbrellas left abandoned on the street. During this weather turbulence, another was about to set in for Filipe & Sérgio: the classic crisis of what to do after graduating from university.

Noticing the abandoned umbrella phenomena, they started collecting them since these would otherwise go to waste, wondering what could be done with such umbrellas. As recent graduates, they decided to venture themselves by transforming broken umbrellas into swim shorts, putting their creativity and design skills to the test.

In fact, one can say that wetheknot started from there, with a mere 20€ bill, featuring a collection of unique swim shorts made from upcycled umbrellas called WET. This collection was extended until 2015 and would require collecting approximately 30 to 40 broken umbrellas per winter.

The concept of upcycling was still a novelty at the time. Instead of looking at used umbrellas as something that should be thrown away, Filipe & Sérgio saw them as the perfect raw material. After undergoing a rigorous selection process, a vast number of them were classed as having great conditions to be upcycled. It was this production model that gave wetheknot solid ground for adopting sustainable practices since day 1.

Using broken umbrellas as the main fabric for these swim shorts helped to keep waste from going to landfills, nature, and from being incinerated. Why produce something new when we can reuse what we already have?

We decided to mark a decade since our debut with WET by releasing 10 limited-edition swim shorts. This special collection includes WET’s original concept in a new updated design: the swim shorts are reversible, have a more sleek and contemporary cut, and have no built-in underpants, being therefore unisex.

This is our way to commemorate what was the beginning of wetheknot’s journey.

The upcycled umbrellas used in this limited edition were provided by the Portuguese brand r-coat, which also reuses umbrellas to produce their pieces. Giving a second life to this fabric potentially makes the swim shorts material less durable. However, these were made to be used seasonally, helping to preserve the fabric’s quality itself.

Our future plans involve transforming the fabric from these upcycled umbrellas into a new fabric, increasing its quality and durability. This would help keep sustainability at the core of upcoming productions.
These limited-edition swim shorts are now available exclusively at the online shop.

Every little bit about our soaps and shampoo bars.
Introducing the soaps and shampoo bars’ behind the scenes.

Up and running for a few years now, Terra Viva is a Portuguese cosmetics brand founded by Teresa and Mário. They are based and work in Mafra, in a beautiful warehouse. Their business started from the passion for making innovative and natural bath, aromatherapy and skincare products.

Their brand is committed to creating high-quality products, having spent 4 years to get a more ethical production process. However, this is a never-ending journey, aiming to always search for premium ingredients to improve their offer.

Terra Viva’s products are not tested on animals, being cruelty-free. Some of them may contain these animal products: honey, goat milk, beeswax, and eggs. Nevertheless, there’s also a range suited for vegetarians and that doesn’t feature palm oil.

Teresa and Mário’s main priority with their business is to produce the best product possible without jeopardizing or costing nature’s wellbeing. In this way, all the ingredients used are biodegradable.

These also have a zero-waste production process where, for example, the production remnants from the soaps are used for decorating and coloring other soaps.

All their products are handmade, and their production requires little electricity and water. The products are curated to protect and preserve both our skin, our body’s largest organ, and the planet.

Our partnership with them started when we were both participating in Princípe Real’s market. Their products really caught our eye, so we decided to try them and we were instantly blown away. Its quality was so outstanding that we partnered up and continued promoting their wonderful products until this day.

We began from selling their natural soaps to now having 5 new shampoo bars available. These combine our favorite scents with Teresa’s mastery skills.

Solid shampoo is an alternative way of washing your hair that doesn’t require a single-use plastic bottle. Thus, very aligned with our zero-waste and sustainability ethos.

Balancing form and function, each shampoo bar was curated for a specific hair type: oily hair, combination hair, sensitive scalp, regular & dry hair, straight, thin & damaged hair.

You can check the full shampoo bars selection here and have a look at the natural soaps available here.

What if: embracing change, one piece at a time.
Find out more about the new collection and our journey towards a more conscious fashion industry.

We kept our promise and continued exploring the made-to-order production model for the new collection. From now on, this will be the frame for all our upcoming collections. But why insisting on using this model?

The idea behind it sparked from a pragmatic need and at a very peculiar time in the history of humankind. Our permanent dissatisfaction with the cyclical fashion system was also a powerful trigger to rethink our business structure.

The path towards this mindset wasn’t straightforward. Before the pandemic hit the world in 2020, we were pointed towards a different direction — we wanted to increase our production to become more accessible to a broader number of people. However, this world crisis made us realize everything we were accumulating but that no longer needed — from raw materials to finished products.

Not having stock allows us to manage our resources more efficiently and to occupy less space — who never wished to have fewer objects each time they moved house? We believe that this model favors what’s really important, non-accumulation and, in a way, a refusal of material possessions.

Nevertheless, our stock still constitutes a problem nowadays. But we haven’t added much since a year ago, which has led us to believe that we’re on the right path. This model’s purpose isn’t just to raise customers’ awareness to make more conscious choices. It’s also our way to inspire other businesses to fight against this vicious loop sponsored by the fashion industry.

With this new collection, we took sustainability a step further, designing our pieces from scratch to make them as hybrid and versatile as possible. They can either be used inside or outside our home while always keeping comfort and practicality. Thus, the new collection turned out to be a contemporary adaptation to the current social predicament we’re living in.

The collection includes a new featured material, Seaqual, in added accessories as the Recycled laptop backpack and the Recycled weekender tote bag. This material is made from recycled polyester and upcycled marine plastic from the Seaqual Initiative.

We are thrilled with the softness and versatility of our exclusive sets, such as the Relaxed long sleeve and pants set, which can either be worn to go out or as a pyjama set; and the Piqué tracksuit, which provides an effortless look.

This collection also introduces other new accessories to this selection. A wonderful piece of headwear, the Graphic bucket hat, available in black and warm white. These have a minimal silkscreen printed in our atelier in Lisbon. The Minimal home slippers are an essential item for anyone’s footwear, with an easy slip-on design and a durable outsole.

Explore the whole collection here and join us in this journey towards sustainability and innovation. Embracing change, one piece at a time.

Our first made-to-order collection: it’s time to reshape fashion.
Discover how we are taking a step further towards a more sustainable fashion.

Last month, we started a new way of working in wetheknot, by introducing our first made-to-order collection. While sustainable sourcing and ethical production have always been a fundamental part of our approach, we felt we needed to go a step further. To stick even more to our philosophy against excessive consumption (and related collateral effects).

We asked ourselves: If we had the chance to rebuild the fashion industry from scratch, today, what would we do? And how can we reduce all the waste that goes through the supply chain?

For our new collection, we opted for an on-demand model. What does it mean? The accessories and clothing items we designed are going to be produced right after an order has been placed. It will take just a couple of days for them to be ready for delivery.

This way we know exactly how many pieces we have to make, without the need of keeping everything in stock for months. Therefore, the lack of a preliminary production allows us to avoid using materials for items that might end up unwanted.

The design of each new piece reduces any fabric leftover, taking advantage of the materials our suppliers have in stock. As a result, they don’t have to produce fabrics just for us, and we give our contribution by making use of what they already have.

The collection features a reinterpretation of the classic Piqué long sleeve in organic cotton. We deconstructed our symbol into two geometric shapes, each silk-printed in our atelier in Lisbon. Discover the Graphic piqué long sleeve in green melange and black melange.

We are so obsessed with the soft warmness of the organic cotton fabric we use in our sweatshirts, that we designed a new one: the Contrast sweatshirt with white seam lines.

We have also added new accessories to our selection. A functional, adjustable belt with a minimal design, a warm beanie hat in textured organic cotton, and an updated version of our tote bag in denim cotton canvas.

Have a look at the whole collection here and join us in our journey towards a more respectful industry. It’s time to reshape fashion.

All about organic cotton: a new collaboration with graphic art studio We are out of office.
We teamed up with the Dutch design duo to create a Limited edition t-shirt featuring original artworks inspired by our organic cotton.

Being a small design studio ourselves, we are always on the lookout for like-minded independent businesses around us. Not only to get inspired (and amazed!) by what they do, but also to support them.

Since the moment we first saw We are out of office’s work, we knew we had to collaborate on a project together. Finally, we had the opportunity. And we are super excited to present you the results of our collaboration.

Have a look at the Limited edition t-shirt in 100% organic cotton with exclusive artworks from We are out of office here. The fabric of our t-shirts is a soft heavyweight organic cotton made in Portugal. Better for the environment and for your skin.

In their illustrations, Winneke and Felix often take inspiration from commercial products, their materials and their packaging. And this happened in our collaborative project as well. To create these artworks, they started indeed from the basics of our Essential t-shirt.

In particular, they worked using the specs of one of the materials that most define wetheknot: organic cotton. For the design of the t-shirt, we decided together to use 3 different techniques. Screen printing for the illustration on the back, an embroidery on the side with the weight of the fabric (250 g/m²) and a graphic patch on the front saying “Made in Portugal”.

As a way to reduce our environmental footprint, we chose not to produce new t-shirts. This is why we are only using already existing stock and we will be printing and customising the t-shirts on demand. Moreover, pre-orders allow us to avoid any possible waste. As a sustainable slow fashion brand, minimising our impact in the production process is a priority.

The organic cotton we use in our Collections comes with a special brushing that makes the t-shirts and sweatshirts super soft to the touch. No need to say, comfort is extremely important to us. Wear our pieces over and over again, all day long and in any circumstance.

Above all, we like our products to be as long-lasting as possible. This Limited edition t-shirt in heavyweight organic cotton is robust and soft at the same time. Therefore, you can wash it several times without losing quality nor structure. If you want to learn more about the fabrics we use and how to care for them, have a look at our Materials.

Discover our selection of Essential t-shirts in organic cotton here.

Discover more about our Pouches in vegan leather.
Evolution, how to use and how to care.

Over the years, the vegan leather Pouch has proven to be our customers’ favourite. It is one of the first pieces we designed and still today, it is one of the most requested. Firstly, thanks to the incredibly resistant material, which stands up to regular use, and secondly, for its minimal design, which outlasts seasonal trends.

Made in Portugal and in a sustainable alternative to real leather, our Pouches are easy to care and clean. The vegan leather is water resistant and long-lasting, even after years.
Available in 8 different colors.

It’s the perfect everyday organizer: designed to let you carry around small items and to keep everything tidy. Use it inside your handbag, backpack or in your pocket. It can hold your passport, makeup, phone charger or any small accessories you want to reach easily.

Initially, it was it was created just as a tobacco pouch: to hold rolling tobacco, papers and filters. We were looking for a minimal design pouch but we couldn’t find one anywhere. Therefore, we came up with our own.

After a while, thanks to the feedback of our customers, we decided to adapt it to other uses. For example, now it fits a passport and is great as a travel wallet. After this improvement, we met many people using it to carry their phones and documents, or as a pen case, day clutch, makeup pouch, etc. Our advice is — if it fits, why not?

We are always on the lookout for new ways to use our vegan leather Pouches. And also, we are super curious to see how our customers adapt them to their needs. If you happen to have one, write us or send us a picture of your Pouch on Instagram, we’d love to hear from you!

As part of our philosophy of offering long-lasting items we made several changes over time. We improved the design, to make it easier to assemble. At the same time, we changed the patterns, to reduce the fabric waste in the cutting process. We upgraded the elastic band, twice, always looking for the perfect one that wouldn’t get loose over with time. And finally we changed the zipper for a YKK one, which makes a big difference on the end result. The current design is the closest to what we believe is perfection — and this makes us incredibly proud.

One thing never changed, though. Since the beginning, we chose not to use real leather because we care about animal welfare.

The vegan leather we use in our Pouches is made of cotton (19,5%), polyester (26,3%) and polyurethane (54,2%). Because it has cotton in its composition it gets very soft and has a pleasant warm touch.

Plus, this material makes it super easy to take care of the Pouch. You just have to clean the vegan leather with a sponge and soapy water. Afterwards, remove the soap with clean water and dry with a soft cloth. Remove stubborn stains with a mild solvent, like alcohol. Remember not to bleach, iron, tumble dry, nor dry clean.

You can find all the 8 colors of these Pouches online here, alongside with customers reviews, and also at our shop in Lisbon.