Mindfully Made
Our commitment to fair pay and working conditions
Our garments are cut and sewn in-house in our bright Rutland studio, adjoined to our little shop housed within a Grade II listed building. As a two-woman team, we ensure everything is made with ultimate attention to detail and sold at a retail price fairly reflecting the hours we put in at above the living wage. We only work with trusted UK and fair trade suppliers to source our fabrics and materials, with a huge selection from Rye-based company Merchant and Mills, chosen for their full transparency on each fabric and the process they go through to get to us.
All-natural, at every step
Through our choice of all-natural fibres like OEKE-TEX-certified linen and organic cotton, we ensure our products incur as little water consumption as possible during the manufacturing process. The primary factory we source our linens from in Lithuania is powered by the clean electricity of a wind farm, mirroring our use of renewable energy to power our studio and shop. We’ve introduced eco-friendly Corozo buttons made from the South American tagua nut, and in place of conventional elastics, we use organic cotton and natural rubber, to ensure every component is biodegradable and recyclable. We use small batch production, reproducing only when in demand to avoid the waste caused by an excess of ready-to-wear stock. All of the styles featured in our online shop have been honestly photographed with no retouching, and we’re looking forward to expanding the range of ethnicities and sizes pictured.
All Nadinoo packaging is plastic-free, using recycled tissue paper and paper tape, and unbleached manila mailing bags - all parts are recyclable and bio-degradable. We keep all reusable packaging sent to us by our suppliers and other independents that we stock, so we can repurpose them for posting wholesale orders or larger items.
Sustainability past the point of purchase
Our sustainable practises don’t end at the door - in fact, we extend to our contribution to a worldwide reforestation programme forged by Treeapp. In 2021, we made the decision to directly combat our carbon footprint by planting a tree for every sale, donating a pound per order to assist a selection of their worldwide projects in an effort to keep the journey our designs make from studio to customer as low-impact as possible. We invite you to read more about this commitment in our ‘Plant a Tree’ article, which can be found in the Journal section. We also offer a made-to-order service with alterations to suit your needs and specification, and free repairs to our UK customers so you can improve the longevity of your Nadinoo garments. In December 2020, we made the decision to only offer delivery within the UK. This was a tough choice, but one we hope will encourage our international customers to shop local, and in turn reduce our collective carbon footprint.
Every decision made is considered and scrutinised to ensure we do the most we can to support the rise of eco-friendly business practises. You’ll find various journal entries covering our developments and ideas to keep you updated with our evolution as a slow fashion company as new methods, initiatives, and resources become available to us.
Making (and mending) matters
All our garments are cut by hand, allowing us to reduce fabric waste in the lay plan, with any leftover scraps saved and donated to UK artists, designers, and customers to incorporate into their own handcrafted works. After a wonderfully positive response to our scrap-pack initiative, we introduced a ‘make + mend’ section both online and in-store; here you’ll find an array of mindfully-curated resources and tools to help you make the most of your garments. Seeing our off-cuts reborn into beautiful patchworks and visible mends was a great opportunity to give you the chance to repurpose the untapped potential in your wardrobe, or even to embark upon a new project with our range of patterns, guides, tools, and trouble-shooting companions. Whether fixing or forming, we want to demystify the making processes that can often seem out of reach, and allow you to care for your clothes responsibly. We believe that making and mending really matters - now more than ever.
Our influences
You’ll note the Japanese influence in our clean lines and unobtrusive silhouettes. A simple garment becomes elevated by subtle details that lend it a handcrafted attention to detail - the gentle shades of nature work as an excellent backdrop for carefully-chosen tagua nut buttons, the characterful irregularity of raw silk, or tiny gathers that work together to form an indulgently full skirt. Going beyond the visual, clothing is a holistic experience. It’s not just colours and shapes that count, but the texture and weight of the cloth; how it falls and layers to add tactile depth to your outfit. Beth Kempton, author of Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom For A Perfectly Imperfect Life, notes that ‘stillness, simplicity, and beauty can help us fully inhabit a moment in the middle of anything’. Amidst the overstimulation of everyday life, the rich weave and grain of natural fibres can ground us and provide a much-needed sense of peace. The Japanese concept of shinrin yoku - ‘forest bathing’ to find calm by immersing yourself in the natural world - is a great reminder of the human need to be in nature. We can introduce this into our wardrobe by using natural fibres and methods of handcrafting garments that have endured through millennia to be survived by today’s slow fashion practises. Our influences range far beyond this brief introduction, and we’re looking forward to introducing you to more concepts that have impacted our designs in our online Journal.
Being part of the sustainable community
On entering our Slow Living shop you’ll find a selection of offerings from other sustainable brands based in the UK, featuring beautiful hand-picked items that are ethically made and benefit our planet. We are proud to say we include community-run initiatives wherever possible - we’re a small company, but we’re always looking for ways to support social and environmental causes. We want to provide a space of solidarity for fellow eco-conscious brands to exhibit their work, where you can appreciate them as much as we do. Ensuring slow fashion continues is a collaborative process, in which working together helps us form a platform for sustainable makers’ voices and crafts to be heard and enjoyed.
Maintaining an honest sustainable brand is a process of constant development. Lessening our ecological impact is not a static process with a beginning and end, but an ever-evolving effort to better ourselves, and ensure we have a future in which to continue creating beautiful things.