Circular fashion from end of roll fabric to legacy clothing with Beira founder Antoinette Fionda

My guest this week is Antoinette Fionda, founder of Beira, a Scottish sustainable, honest, ethical, slow fashion brand that saves fabric waste from the luxury fashion industry & ethically crafts limited edition womenswear that will last a lifetime. 

Their circle starts where others end, with the end of roll fabric which they save from being discarded, breathing new life into fabrics & reworking them into contemporary pieces.

The fashion industry annually generates 144m tonnes of textile waste and recycles less than 1% (Fionda, 2022). 

One of their policies is no new materials!

Inspired by the craftsmanship of Italy and the folklore of Beira in Scotland the aim is to re-explore all parts of the process to minimise the negative effects from design though to manufacturer and delivery.

Their 3 key values:

Circular Sourcing: They purchase luxury deadstock which they call the ‘best waste in the world’ and remanufacture the fabrics into garments. Their circular sourcing, solar panels, ‘waste’ shipping protocol, and packaging, provides a 90% reduction to their carbon footprint.   They have already saved 10,000 metres of fabric to date!

Radical Transparency: They know the names of every artisan who makes their clothes and pay €28 an hour. They are transparent across all areas of the business. They publish the cost of every element of the garment from wages, packaging, shipping, manufacturing, materials to everyday business practice.

Honest Luxury: Functional yet feminine womenswear which are designed to stand the test of time. Selling direct to the customer eliminates the wholesale mark-up resulting in quality at an honest luxury price - less than 1/3 of the cost.  

Essentially, Beira’s strategy reduces the environmental impact of the materials already in the supply chain and creates quality and honest luxury womenswear. Luxury fashion that doesn’t cost the earth.  

Their motto: Buy Less, Buy Better. Invest. 

Antoinette shows us how still buy good quality clothes that also allow us to be gentle and nurturing to the planet  

You can find our more about Antoinette’s work at https://beira.scot/

And follow her on Instagram @b_e_i_r_a

Join Lou on Linkedin
Follow her @brave_newgirl on Instagram and get her books Brave New Girl- How to be Fearless, FEAR LESS and her Internationally Bestselling book DARE TO SHARE on Amazon or Waterstones or Barnes & Noble. UK & US versions available.

Lou is the founder of Brave New Girl Media, helping you  unlock your creativity, find your superpower and put your story in the spotlight to help others. BNGM enables you to showcase your vision and supercharge your impact in the world.   https://bravenewgirlmedia.com

Music by Melody Loop

Creativity, Coaching, Podcasting Brave New Girl Media