Sustainable Fashion Packaging: What We Tried, Tested & Ditched

Sustainable fashion packaging is an important part of Scarlet Destiny’s wider commitment to thoughtful design and reduced waste. However, packaging must also protect our products, communicate a sense of luxury and remain affordable for a small independent brand. Finding an option that balances all four has been far more challenging than expected.

Our search for sustainable fashion packaging led us to Tiny Box Company, founded by Rachel Watkyn after she struggled to find ethical packaging for her fair-trade jewellery business. The boxes we have chosen for Scarlet Destiny are made of 40% recycled materials and have matte finishes which are fully recyclable as well as laminated finished that are recyclable once the outer paper is removed. There are 4 colours available and a luxury 1200-micron board. The chosen tissue paper for our products is also from the Tiny Box Company which is recycled, PH neutral, and resistant of running, bleeding, and fading.

After speaking to House Martin of London’s Martin Higgins, we were advised that we should provide an inner cotton bag for our jewellery as protection due to our products being of a premium standard. We concluded that we should use deadstock for this and have procured fabrics from LVMH for the initial run of the inner protector bags. However, our search for recycled or deadstock drawstring continues and is proving difficult, although we are hoping to source something very soon.This demonstrated how sustainable fashion packaging often involves compromises between available materials, minimum quantities, cost and product protection.

Mailing products created another sustainable fashion packaging challenge. We needed something protective and appropriately sized without relying on plastic bubble wrap or oversized boxes. Compostable mailers were available in small quantities, but they did not suit Scarlet Destiny’s luxury aesthetic, while better-looking alternatives required minimum orders that were too large for us at this stage.

Swing tickets is another area we have pondered about; are they necessary for the packaging? Samson from Shoreditch’s Afrocentric fashion store Soboye advised us that tags are taken off products prior to them being put on the shop floor and are therefore a waste of money and materials. Questioning whether every component is necessary is an important part of designing sustainable fashion packaging, because the lowest-impact material may be the one we do not use at all.

We eventually chose grosgrain ribbon because we could not find a suitable recycled option in the quantities we needed. We hope customers will reuse it, although we recognise that reuse cannot replace better material choices.

Our sustainable fashion packaging journey remains a work in progress. The aim is not to claim perfection, but to keep questioning each material, remove anything unnecessary and improve our choices as more suitable options become available.

What matters most to you in sustainable fashion packaging: recyclability, reuse, minimal materials or the unboxing experience? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

SD x

Image 1 sourced by: Alexander Schimmeck, Unsplash

Image 3 sourced by: Curious AboutAll, Unsplash

Image 3 sourced by: freestocks, Unsplash