In this episode, Susannah chats with Alicia Tsi, the founder of Esse, an ethical fashion label bridging New Zealand and Singapore. Our conversation charts Alicia’s journey, from self-professed ‘fashion victim’ to slow fashion advocate, and her experience of building a brand based on the values of quality design, transparency and traceability.

We discuss the challenges of producing on preorder, what it took to create Esse’s latest transparency report (a great blueprint for other entrepreneurs to follow!) identifying greenwashing and clear washing and more. Discover full show notes to the episode here. New to this podcast? Listen to our intro episode.

Key moments: 

— Before she learnt about the true impact of the fashion industry, Alicia shares how she was a fashion victim and a shopaholic, chasing trends mindlessly with a closet full of “badly-made” clothes. (5.26) 

— Alicia discusses the brand’s effort in communicating openly with its customers in order to get feedback and improve their designs and processes. (11.22) 

— Alicia shares her take on greenwashing and clear washing in the industry and advises brands to ‘walk the talk’ instead of simply using sustainability as a marketing tool. (14.48) 

— “Transparency is a moving target and (…) right now transparency is a basic hygiene factor and a table stake. Transparency is really moving towards brands providing more granular information. (18.07)

— Alicia details their 2021 Progress Report which embodies two main pillars – the environment and social pillars. From working with ethical suppliers and their fabric usage, the report evaluates the brand’s practices against these pillars. (22.15) 

— The brand’s pre order model started as a way to bootstrap the business. However, they soon realised that this model allowed them to forecast demand and prevent overproduction (26.49) 

— Alicia notes that there are challenges with the preorder model as people are so used to fast fashion that some are just not willing to wait for their clothes. (27.33) 

— Moving beyond preorder, Alicia is shifting the business toward a ‘made-to-order’ model as a way to ‘add more value’ for their customers. (28.41) 

— To tackle fashion waste, Esse launched a repair programme last year as a way to extend the life cycle of their garments. (33.44) 

— We discuss whether viewpoints and perceptions of sustainable fashion are changing. (37.34) 

— Susannah and Alicia discuss the challenges of navigating sustainability and growth. (42.04) 

Learn more about Esse here or follow @essethelabel for more.

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