Based in London, The Rubbish Fashion Company is a sustainable supply chain supplier that is transforming the way fashion brands and companies think about transparency. Determined to bring about much-needed change in the fashion industry when it comes to textile waste. The Rubbish Fashion Company is dedicated to creating, sourcing, managing, and tracking the entire supply chain. The company ensures that the impact is controlled at every step of production and that every piece is made as responsibly as possible. The company produces recycled materials for brands and retailers all over the world. We got the chance to hear from the company’s founder, Frankie Phillips, as she gives her personal experience from working behind the scenes in the fashion industry and why she decided to take action into her own hands: What first got you involved in this sector?
Working for years in fast fashion design and production I really started to despise the industry. I moved to China to work for Jack and Jones and then Next in HK and I saw the damage fashion had on the environment and on people working in the supply chain and saw how it was all just accepted as an industry's way of working. I became obsessed with working on solutions, how we could improve the supply chain, and not just through fabrics but through waste and water management and factory relationships.
What is the organisation's/company’s vision for sustainability?
To be a responsible alternative to fashion production. We produce household names and give them only sustainable options without compromising. Sustainability isn’t just about fabric and trims, it's about ways of working and working in a way that means everyone in the supply chain is treated and paid fair.
What has been, in your opinion, the organisation's/company’s biggest achievement to date?
Working with brands and bringing them on to our side of thinking and working. It’s great to see that making the biggest margin, doesn’t always win.
Where do you see the company/organisation in 5 years?
I see us working with most of fashion's big names, working with brands and retailers which would normally focus on fast fashion productions and encourage them to instead work more responsibly.
You previously mentioned your early working experience in the fashion industry, what were some of your most shocking experiences?
Generally seeing how price negotiations happen and how much the brands pushed the factories, even when they knew they had the best price, they still pushed them. I have a memory from a few years ago. I was living in China at the time working for a UK fashion retailer and was visiting a factory in Cambodia. The factory had made over 200 beautiful samples, had given brilliant prices. The factory had invested so much to get new individual audits, a new team just for our account etc... I knew the price was better than all the other factories (the buyer liked to cross cost all over the world) The buyer was on video call to us in the factory insisting they push for lower prices. He told her he needed the order but couldn’t go lower or it meant he couldn’t pay proper salaries. I will never forget the language, the bullying, the anger and the total disrespect I saw. As the call ended the factory owner walked out and I could see him cry in the corridor. The worst thing about it though, was the buyer called me after, praising herself on the call. I disagreed with her, I went back to china that week and I was put on gardening leave for standing up for the factory.
The Rubbish Fashion Company is all about tracking the entire supply chain. In what areas do you think most companies are lacking in this aspect?
It's actually shocking how little most companies understand about their supply chains.I don’t blame the buyers, I know some brilliant people working in fashion companies. Its just not normal to know every stage of the business. Every brand/retailer we produce for is set up differently. But the most interesting thing I find is that people are interested in the main fabric, and also the ethical audits, but don’t consider the trims, lining, labels and how and where these parts come from. I had to explain to someone in depth today that focusing on labour isn’t just at the making stage, I had to explain that people make fabric- so it’s important to understand that when they push for cheaper fabric prices, they are also risking pushing down people's labor. (We wouldn’t never agree to prices which would mean this though)
How is the company campaigning for women’s equality? As a company run by a woman and has a majority female team it’s high up on our agenda to focus on women’s equality. Before Covid we started a foundation to work with women within our supply chains to train and educate them so they could develop in their careers at the same level as their male colleagues. We had to pause this work last year but are getting plans together to restart this project at the end of this year. The Rubbish Fashion Company won The National Recycling Awards in 2020, how important was this milestone for the company?
This was a great achievement for us and for our supply chain. As soon as I can go to Turkey I am taking this trophy to our office in Istanbul. We love that we can turn rubbish into something new. We started by working with the factory to help them reuse their waste. It all happened very naturally building this recycling process and chain up, everything from how do we dispose of the dust created from recycling - the mill donates it to a chimney company to use as insulation.
On the company’s official website, you cite that you make clothing “through unusual processes and have modernised the medieval process of food waste dying”, would you mind giving a brief insight into this process?
We are so excited about this. We have partnered with an incredible mill in Turkey who we work with to create new innovations. This food waste dye innovation is their development which they worked on for over 8 years. No synthetic chemicals are used, the colour is fixed with natural minerals. This combined with dying using cold water minimises the water by 90% and every by 75%.
TRFC aims to hit the target of “zero waste”. How is the company’s progress so far?
Our first route in Istanbul Turkey is where we make zero waste production. We have now started to create more routes to handle our growing business. This is great news but of course means we need to spend time on building up these supply chains and learning as we go. This is important as we need to understand the water usage, carbon footprint and of course waste management. We are very happy with our Istanbul route when it comes to waste, however our new route in Izmir needs a lot of work to get this to be zero waste. We will get there.
If you’re interested in learning more about the inner workings of The Rubbish Fashion Company, head to this article to discover how the company is focusing on the entire supply chain and transforming textile waste.