GREN clothing is stopping fast fashion right in its tracks
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For Rae Knopik a fully circular, size-inclusive clothing brand isn’t something she dreams about—it’s something she brings to life.
And after recently launching her brainchild, GREN, Rae is proving—one t-shirt at a time—that fashion and sustainability can go hand in hand.
Where fast fashion ends, GREN’s trailblazing journey begins. Thrifting with her mum and sister (before it was cool, might I add) is where Rae began dreaming up the early foundations of GREN, inspired by a world in which fashion slows down, old clothes find a second life, and conscious decisions come to the fore.
“Because of evolving technology, GREN is finally possible. My idea for GREN first started when I was a young girl, I would go second-hand shopping—or treasure hunting—with my mum. And this is where my journey with sustainable fashion began because I realised that ( aside from a few exceptions) everyone on this planet touches fashion every day.” she says.
As Rae explains, her brand begins using the materials of discarded clothing, which then undergoes a process of transformation that proudly resists the linear, extractive nature of the fashion industry altogether.
And if this is your very first introduction to the buzzword ‘circular fashion,’ Rae breaks it down as this beautifully looping, ever-evolving journey of fabrics, whose life really has no end.
“We had this dream of taking the materials that were going to the landfill already. In particular, we wanted cotton, and we wanted to rescue it from the landfill, create a size-inclusive t-shirt where, at the end of that T-shirt’s life, we could recycle it back into the system again and again,” says Rae.
GREN’S accessibility and transparency, and inclusivity mean that all Australians can proudly take part in this circular fashion revolution, and the brand itself has been engineered to guide you through this process.
At the end of your T-shirt’s life, a quick scan of the QR code attached to the tag will let you send your used garment back to its origin—where it can begin its circular dance all over again.
But GREN doesn’t just stop there, its moral fibres and fabrics weave themselves into businesses that want to share their message without the cost of the fast fashion industry.
“Small business owners actually face a huge hurdle when they’re trying to, in fact, do the right thing. So I decided to incorporate my love of circularity and sustainability into a problem solver for small businesses who want to put branding on clothing,” she says.
“Because while it’s lovely to say ‘Oh, let’s go and thrift everything we need’ but we live in a world that requires new things, particularly in a business setting where you need to sell merch, put staff in uniforms, or have a big event where volunteers need shirts. GREN came into the picture to solve these problems for businesses, so they can have this sustainable branded t-shirts to put their message on.”
As Rae reflects on the journey that has been GREN, it becomes clear that it hasn’t always been easy, having to overcome countless roadblocks, limited technology and uncharted territory. But her small business remains passionately fierce. Leading the way towards a future where clothing is not only circular, transparent and—yes—slow but also gender-neutral, mutable and importantly, can represent anyone of any size.
“Circularity was barely even a conversation ten years ago, but I knew there needed to be a better system in place. Even today, we are the only brand in Australia that is fully circular and transparent,” she says,
“People have a sense of pride in wearing a T-shirt where they know where this item was made and that it will continue to responsibly exist after you’re done wearing it.”
For more information visit gren.international
