Our commitment to being sustainable at Bravissimo
~Here at Bravissimo, it’s so important to us that our customers, employees and community know what we do and what we stand for. We want to take full responsibility for the impact that Bravissimo has on society and the environment which we live in and this means making sure we are doing our bit to be more sustainable. We know this is just a starting point and we have a long way to go… but we really are committed to driving meaningful improvements and we truly stand by our commitments towards being more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Our impact on the world matters...
Our products
We are not about fast fashion. We aim to design high quality, long lasting products that our customers can enjoy year after year. We don’t overproduce our garments – we buy small amounts of stock that we know we can sell so that we can prevent waste. Wherever we have small amounts of stock that we don’t sell, we donate these items to charity.
Our fabrics
Our impact on the world matters and that’s why we’re always aiming to use recycled fabrics wherever possible. We have styles in our ranges that use fabrics made from recycled yarns and we use recycled polyester in some of our swimwear styles, too. This means that the yarn for the fabric has been made from recycling single use plastic (including plastic bottles - hooray!). We also use digital printing methods to reduce our water waste wherever possible and we do not use fur, down/feathers or exotic animal skin or hair.
We are testing recycled fabrics and trims and exploring how we can use these in our styles going forward including using recycled lace in our bras. We are aiming to increase our offering of eco-friendly fabrics… watch this space!
Our factories
We have a strong relationship with our factories – we see them as our extended Bravissimo family. All the factories we work with are audited and accredited for full transparency which is exceptionally important to us so that we can ensure the environmental, ethical and social needs of the people within the factories are upheld and protected. We require all suppliers to each make an assurance and commitment to us that they and their factories are working to the Ethical Trading Initiatives Base Code. Additionally, we receive full Ethical Trade Audits for all factories who manufacture Bravissimo goods - you can read more about our ethical policy here.
We have limited waste in our factories; a lot of our factories use reusable material bags from older fabrics instead of plastic bags. Some of the factories use compact waste machines to optimise space (with fewer trips to the tip!) which means less CO2 emissions. In Thailand, our factories reuse every part of waste from our bras to make rugs, oven mitts and dusters and all donations go to back into their community to local schools. In Sri Lanka, our factories have set up a charity to support and address issues on Child Welfare, drought and flood relief in their local community.
We’re working towards minimalizing our packaging used…
We do not accept single use plastic hangers or excess tissues in our deliveries and are working towards making as much of our packaging as recyclable as possible. We provide our products to our customers in cardboard boxes and tissue paper which are both recyclable.
We're reducing the number of magazines we print and send...
We are committed to no longer send our printed magazines wrapped in plastic, which saves 8.83 tonnes of plastic use a year!
We launched our digital magazine in Spring 2020 to positively impact the amount of printed magazines in circulation, and for our customers to still receive the quality magazine content they've come to expect from us.
The lifecycle of a garment does not end when you buy it...
Care and repair
We are passionate about empowering our customers to be armed with the knowledge of how to care for their garments so that they can look after them and love them for as long as possible. We encourage our customers to hand wash their garments to not only increase the lifespan of their items but to be more environmentally friendly, too. You can read our lingerie and swimwear care guide here.
Doing our bit
We are passionate about ‘doing our bit’ at Bravissimo. We run a bra recycling scheme in the UK, so anyone can donate their old or unwanted bras to us and we use a bra recycling provider called A-TEX. For every kg we receive, we donate to our chosen charity. Approximately 5000kgs of bras go into our recycling scheme each year! The bras that are in a usable condition go directly to women in developing countries across the world. The bras which can’t be used are broken down into parts which are recycled into new items.
At Bravissimo, we donate unwanted fabrics to local schools and charities and re-use wires and trims from samples. We can recycle all textiles from nightwear, clothing and swimwear as well as bras. We only use hangers on our shop floors and don’t use any disposable hangers in our stock rooms – bras hang themselves!
We’re also committed to changing our office supplies to be eco-friendly, from the tea bags we use to stationery and cleaning products. We have a dedicated environmental committee who are always looking for new ways we can make our office eco-friendlier.
Discover our Sustainable Collections
Did you know that we have our own range of lingerie and swimwear made from recycled fabrics? Shop the Sustainable Lingerie and Sustainable Swimwear collections today and read more about our commitment to sustainability.
Last but not least...
We’ve come a long way, but we know there’s lots more that we can do to improve on our environmental and sustainable position as a business and this is something we’re exceptionally committed to.
We strive to do more every day - from testing different eco-friendly fabrics to researching how we can reduce our footprint and make a positive impact on the world around us. From bake sales to our amazing environmental committee – we’re always looking for ways we can make a positive impact to our customers, employees and community. To find out more about our efforts, visit our Responsibility At Bravissimo section of the website.
If you have any ideas on how we can be more sustainable or environmentally friendly, please do get in touch with us – we’d love to hear from you.