Sustainability and responsible working practices at Lola Tong

Making of The Secret Garden Collection

The Secret Garden Collection refers to our first masterpiece capsule collection. The collection consists of a small, limited garment selection designed in collaboration with talented and independent fashion designers.

Our masterpieces are made in two factories located in Northern Italy. We visited one of the factories in summer 2021 and were positively surprised that only women from the surrounding region were employed. This decision was made to create a safe and comfortable working environment for each female employee. We immediately felt the positive vibes of these women. It was an easy decision to make by choosing an atmosphere which we wanted to be part of.

The collaboration with the second factory started beginning of 2022. This factory is another start-up of two founders with 20 plus years experience in fashion. It is the best feeling knowing we have found business partners that share the same values, work ethics and passion as we do. Being a start-up means learning by doing and we have made good as well as bad experiences when it comes to factories that we have collaborated with. It took several months, back and forth discussions, sometimes headaches, and lots of motivation to see through the different business procedures of every factory. But we feel that our efforts to avoid fast-fashion and to be as conscious as we could probably be for a small fashion start-up, is the right path to take and the right path to continue walking.

Making of the Lola Tong Originals Collection

The Lola Tong Originals Collection was our first big marketing campaign aiming to create brand awareness and to bridge the time between the beginnings of our small company and the launch of our first masterpiece collection. Lola Tong is a business idea that came to life during the pandemic by the end of 2020. We have experienced a lot of home-office and remote working and decided to produce basic loungewear consisting of hoodies, sweatpants, t-shirts and totebags to satisfy the growing demand for essential garments.

After a lot of research, we have found STANLEY/STELLA, a responsible and transparent company providing sustainable and certified blank apparel ready to be modified into our very own Lola Tong Originals Collection.

We knew that we didn’t want to use plastic embroidery, so we did some further research and found a great partner of STANLEY/STELLA offering plastic-free embroidery services. I Dress Myself, a UK based printing company / garment decorator uses rayon top threads for fully biodegradable embroidery – something we didn’t even know existed before.

Our Lola Tong Originals Collection marks our very first experience as fashion start-up and we can proudly say that sharing this collection and marketing campaign with our friends, family and newly met customers, has strengthened our believe to become a truly towards transparent and conscious fashion-brand.

Sustainable fibers and materials used at Lola Tong

Producing conscious fashion means selecting the right sustainable and high-quality fibers.

We are super honored to collaborate with the Ratti group and its division Carnet with which we have the great opportunity to source the right fibers for our masterpieces. The Ratti group is one of the oldest international textile factories located in Italy. Sharing the same principles and values is a key factor for the fiber production. They meet highest standards for sustainability in the manufacturing process. We are thankful to be collaborating with such a great partner next to big brands such as Valentino, Ellie Saab, Givenchy and Co.

Sustainability is an important brand value of Ratti and they have improved their working practices and production systems over the years to obtain many important sustainability certifications. You can find all of the certifications here.

Sustainable packaging used at Lola Tong

Packaging is an important topic to be considered in fashion. Every garment created must be packed, delivered, and decorated.

Therefore, we chose to order all of our packaging material at noissue, a company offering amazing sustainable products such as compostable, recycled, and reusable packaging material.

Additionally, our business cards are made by MOO from 100% recycled T-Shirts off-cuts that normally is thrown away as waste material.