Malaysian eco-friendly fashion brand for bamboo fiber shirts – Wired PR Lifestyle Story
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In recent years, support for the sustainable fashion movement has gained momentum. Among my social circles, second-hand stores are my favorite shopping destination for an event or a new wardrobe outfit.
On the other hand, brands also choose to produce fabric with more environmentally friendly materials such as Tencel or lyocell made of plant fibers.
Realizing the sustainable benefits of bamboo as a raw material for textiles, Ariff Faisal went into entrepreneurship and created his own clothing brand. Kualesa.
Looking for a goal
Kualesa is a full-time concert for Ariff, who left his former career in engineering and consulting. After spending time in both areas, he told the Vulcan Post that the work did not give him any sense and purpose.
His tipping point was pushed by WFH, when Ariff believes that many like him began to reflect on what they really wanted to do in life.
Remembering the dead coral reefs he saw snorkeling in Indonesia a few years ago, then he found out that one of the check boxes to find his destination was something eco-conscious.
Going to Google, she learned about bamboo fabrics and the benefits they bring, such as being cool, breathable, and comfortable to wear. After feeling the fabric on his own, he was completely convinced he was doing something with the idea.
“I’ve always dreamed of building a brand from scratch and that challenge really got me excited,” Ariff said. “Inspired by some global D2C (direct to customer) brands, which started somewhere but are now profitable businesses, I knew the business model could work.”
But why bamboo?
His name strong and comfortable, Which means strong and comfortable in Malay, Kualesa wants to describe the features of the brand’s t-shirts.
Bamboo was chosen as the main material of the fabric for a number of reasons. On the one hand, it has rapid regeneration capabilities, where some species can grow up to 20 cm per day. As a result, 35% more oxygen is produced and 5 times more carbon dioxide is absorbed than other equivalent trees, according to Ariff.
In addition, the bamboo textile manufacturing process is environmentally friendly compared to cotton and synthetics.
“We use bamboo lyocell, [where] 99% of solvents and water are recovered and recycled through the process, greatly reducing water use, and [it] it means unwanted chemicals [won’t] end up in the environment, ”explains Ariff.
On the consumer side, bamboo as a fabric has its own positive characteristics such as soft touch, hypoallergenic, resistant folding and temperature regulating. This is because the fabric is made of natural fibers that are breathable and keep its wearer fresh, suitable for warm and humid countries.
From plant to fabric
These t-shirts were designed by Kik, the head of Production and Design at Kualesa, and studied Textile Design at the Fashion College of Fashion in London, where he specialized in printing.
The process of turning bamboo into clothing begins with the first harvest of the bamboo plant, which is harvested and pulverized (ground) to form a viscous liquid before dissolving with a solvent. Lyocell is then stimulated through spinnerets that form fibers.
After washing and drying, the fibers are turned into thread and passed through a mill to create a fabric.
One of the main challenges facing Ariff was to accept its initial quantities and build relationships with manufacturers who took the environmental impact seriously. This was made even more difficult by the fact that R&D was taking place at the heart of the pandemic.
“We started sampling in November 2020, so it took us a full 10 months to be happy with our products on the market,” Ariff said.
Eventually, the Kualesa team went through the search for the right eco-conscious manufacturer by duplicating the screening process to ensure that the manufacturer had the right certifications.
Starting with pre-orders in July 2021, Kulesa was officially launched in August 2021.
High cost of sustainability
With the worrying threat of global warming, it seems pointless for most of us to buy sustainable alternatives. However, adoption can come at a high price.
Costing from RM163 to RM231, Kualesa’s product range includes round neck T-shirts, semi-formal polo shirts and T-shirts. Although fast-fashioned products that sell a similar look, synthetic and cotton-like materials, can come at a fraction of the price, so it’s understandable to change the reason most people question.
When I brought this to Ariff, she accepted that fast fashion brands could offer cheaper prices. “[But] from a quantitative point of view, they promote very fast use and do not necessarily promote quality and long-lasting garments, ”he argued.
He pointed out that the fast-fashion industry uses a lot of cheaper synthetic fabrics like polyester, and it takes them 200 years to decompose to end up in landfills. When washed in the washing machine, these fabrics also push harmful microplastics into the oceans.
Thus, Kualesa is developing an approach to promoting high-quality non-synthetic garments that customers can feel comfortable with and often want to wear.
“Instead of buying a RM30 T-shirt that you might wear three times over, mold it and turn it off for design and then throw it in the trash, we’d rather buy something you love with a higher quality and wear 100 or more. 200 times more,” Ariff said.
But it seems that Kualesa has a slightly more expensive price for its products, while another brand that I have found also uses bamboo fabrics. JBS Zaloran. The t-shirt is sold in 2 packs between RM197 and RM209 prices (no discount). However, the product details indicate that the fabric is made of a mixed material, with 65% bamboo viscose and 35% cotton.
Kualesa products, on the other hand, are made up of 95% bamboo lyocell, which indicates a higher concentration of plant fibers, justifying a higher price.
Another reality that the Kualesa team has to deal with is that economies of scale are more difficult when producing a rare material like bamboo-lyocell. “Conscious materials cost more to work with, so somehow we have to make a price based on that,” Ariff explains.
After all, Kualesa must become a sustainable business in order to create a real impact from a sustainability perspective, and it cannot do so by putting too low a price on its products.
Although traction may be slower at first, those who find value in organic products would ultimately be willing to make a purchase. Later, when it is scaled, it is possible to make Kualesa cheaper and therefore more accessible to different groups of people.
Although it could not disclose its business sales figures, Arif can share that Kualesa grew by 140% month-on-month.
It is already shipping to Malaysia, Singapore and the 6 major ASEAN countries, with its eyes set on the global market.
With the aim of releasing new product collections every month, as it expands to cater to more customer segments, it expects to name Kualesa as one of the largest D2C brands in the region.
Featured Image Credit: Ariff Faisal, Founder and CEO of Kualesa
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