Why Dirty Is The Newest Sustainability Buzzword

Sustainable’ doesn’t really mean anything any more,” says Cora Hilts. This is quite the statement from the 30-year-old founder of Rêve En Vert, a high-end online retailer whose USP was formerly “sustainable luxury”. “It’s become a buzz word,” argues Hilts. “The problem is, there is no objective system of appraisal.”

She makes a point that many others are discussing at length in the fashion world. As fashion struggles to come to terms with its status as the second most polluting industry on the planet after oil, “sustainable” is a word being bandied around with considerable alacrity. Add to that “ethically-sourced”, “environmentally-friendly”, “conscious”, “eco”, and what emerges is a flooded lexicon that’s confusing to editors, consumers and brands alike.

Hilts now has a new descriptive to throw into the mix: “Honest" luxury. Having taken some time out to rethink all her communications surrounding Rêve En Vert, which she founded in 2013 with her friend Natasha Tucker (the latter has now taken an advisory role to focus on her family),"honest" is the word she feels best sums up the tenets to which she holds designers. Clothing she stocks on Rêve en Vert must be organic (with an emphasis on low-environmental impact fabrics), re-made (committed to limiting waste and recycling where possible), local (production happens local to source, traditions and local communities are respected) and fair (workers are paid a living wage, harsh chemicals are avoided). “I feel that the word ‘honest’ sums up all those elements but doesn’t have the zeitgeisty overtones of ‘sustainability’,” she says.

Hilts has got another word to add to the list, too: “dirty”. Today, Rêve en Vert launches a collaboration with E.L.V. Denim to repurpose “dirty jeans” via a made-to-order service. Customers will be able to order a pair of entirely bespoke jeans, made from vintage pairs sourced by E.L.V. Denim founder Anna Foster, and destined for landfill because they contain minor paint splashes and oil marks.

The idea came to Foster when she was looking at what was currently available on the denim market, and realised that numerous brands were artificially treating and sandblasting denim to make it appear distressed. “We found it incredible that these new jeans are created at a huge environmental cost when there are already so many pairs of jeans in existence,” says Foster. “E.L.V. Denim is committed to creating modern jeans whilst trying to adhere to a policy of zero-waste, so thought we’d take these ‘dirty’ jeans, which already exist, and make something new and entirely bespoke out of them.”

The idea appealed to Hilts, since denim is hugely problematic for the environment. “The amount of water, chemicals and material that goes into making one pair of jeans is ludicrous, so I’ve always struggled to have denim on the site,” she says. She hopes this Dirty Denim collection, priced from £195 for shorts and £295 for jeans, will breathe new life into distressed, discarded pairs. “Each piece is made by Anna, so it’s a personalised product too – no one else on the planet will have a pair of jeans like yours.”