Product & Materials
An ongoing focus of ours is to create products that have minimal impact on the environment, through increasing our use of sustainable fabrics, components and printing methods. We do this both in our Bravissimo own brand and through partnering with the brands we work with to drive positive change. We know that we have lots more work to do to become more sustainable, but we take full responsibility for the impact that Bravissimo has on the environment and strive to do better each season.
Own Brand Bravissimo Products
Making bras and swimwear can be a wasteful process, from the variety of fabrics and trims needed to the number of samples it takes to develop and perfect the fit. In order to address this challenge, we have developed working practices that minimise waste through a multitude of approaches.
We produce a lot of our own brand samples within our dedicated sample room at our Leamington Spa Bra HQ. Making samples through our sample room reduces the amount that our suppliers need to send from factories overseas, therefore helping to keep the carbon emissions impact of product development down.
We also manage our internal processes to minimise waste wherever we can. In the sample room that means managing how we cut our fabrics to minimise offcuts, how we produce the samples and how we deal with them at end of life where we either strip down old samples to repurpose components such as wires, or recycling both old samples and our fabric offcuts through our partnership with A-TEX. We donate useable fabrics and trims that we no longer require to schools and colleges.
To reduce our plastic usage, we have changed over to using fabric bags in our sample room and all our own brand products arrive in packaging that is recycled and fully recyclable. We also donate any good samples at the end of their use to our staff sample sale with the proceeds going to our nominated charity.
Our Fabrics
A major focus is how we source, and the type of fabrics that we use to make our lingerie and swimwear. We are currently sourcing fabrics across our ranges that are more sustainable compared to polyester and plastic based fabrics that are traditionally used. Unfortunately, due to prices and availability from suppliers it has become more difficult to introduce these fabrics into our ranges over the last year, but we are starting to make progress across our swimwear ranges. For example, all of our core black own brand swimwear will be made from sustainable fabrics from Summer 2024.
Swimwear fabric is usually made from plastic based polyester, so it’s been a priority for us to offer styles that are made using recycled plastic where possible. As a result, this means that we can help to repurpose plastic waste, which is a positive step towards reducing our environmental footprint. You can learn more about the different sustainable fabrics that we use in our swimwear here (link to Swimwear Fabrics Glossary)
Within lingerie we are aiming to increase the use of recycled laces. The fabrics we use to make our sports bras are more readily available in sustainable options, and we will continue to use these wherever possible in our Bravissimo sports bras and activewear. We will also continue to use more water free printing methods for fabrics, with the aim of the majority of our ranges to be printed using water free methods.
Finally, at Bravissimo we are not about fast fashion. We aim to design high quality and long-lasting products that our customers can enjoy year after year. We don’t overproduce or overstock our products – we only buy quantities that we feel confident we can sell, so we minimise waste and do not buy stock to mark down as can be commonplace in retail. Whenever we do have small amounts of stock that we don’t sell, we donate these items to charities local to our Bra HQ in Leamington spa.