sage-larock-eco-conscious-swim-and-active-wear

Fall in Love with Sage Larock

1) Hi Taryn, Welcome to Verte Luxe!  Please tell us a little bit about yourself and the story behind Sage Larock.

Thank you! We are so thrilled to join Verte Luxe! Sage Larock is a sustainable luxury brand, ethically made in LA. I launched the brand in 2015 as I wanted to offer women high-quality apparel & swim that is made in a sustainable and ethical manner. I started off years ago as a model, so from that perspective, I have been in the fashion industry for quite a while.

2) It is so impressive that you use organic cotton, hemp, and even recycled ghost fishing nets and plastic debris recovered from the ocean in the creation of your fabrics. What was the motivation for creating a product that speaks to these facets?

Malibu One Piece in Beachwood

Thank you so much! It came from the desire to offer women quality garments that are made in an ethical way and using the most sustainable fabrics we can source. For our apparel, we only use organic or deadstock fabrics. We have partnered with Stella McCartney and other brands with the amazing non-profit Canopy Planet to work to protect our last remaining ancient and old-growth forests form the fashion industry. So much of the fabric that is used in fashion (viscose & rayon) involves the bulldozing of forests or is so chemically intensive, that we knew we had to work to do things in a different way.

I personally really love the ocean.  If we do not start acting globally to do something about the plastic pollution crisis, our oceans will have more plastic than any life in them by 2050. I knew we had to do something about this. The fabric that we use for our swimwear is quite amazing – it is incredibly soft and is even SPF 50, but instead of being made from new plastic (polyester fabric has the same PET content as plastic water bottles!), all of our swimwear fabric is made from up-cycled ghost nets and plastic recovered from the ocean. Not only is it helping to keep our oceans and marine life healthy, but the fabric itself feels amazing and has a non-toxic dye process as well.

3) What is your design process?  How do you go about creating a product from start to finish?

Laguna One Piece in Lavender

First, we make certain that we source the most sustainable fabric options available and we always favor recycled, organic or deadstock fabrics. We then work to make pieces that are not trend driven, but instead, ones that will look great season after season. I think it’s great that many women – myself included – wear one-piece swimsuits as body suits. They can look really cute paired with jeans or a skirt beyond the beach. Wearability is very important for us in the design process.

4)  What are the sustainable elements and practices that you implement when working in your studio? Tell us more about your choice to produce your garments locally in Los Angeles and your commitment to ethical labor practices in the workplace.

The garment industry globally is one of the most profitable, but sadly also one that involves a lot of labor abuses and slave labor. It is estimated that 90% of unpaid or underpaid garment workers are women or children under 15, often working 20 hour days. It is horrible to think that someone who is working those kinds of hours can not even afford food or basic needs,  so people can buy $30 bikinis and $10 t-shirts, or that designers selling expensive garments at big-name retailers can turn a higher profit. That is definitely not something we want to take part in, so we are proud to say that we manufacture in LA and uphold high standards for ethical conduct. I have personally seen sweatshops even here in LA, so its good to know that we are not supporting this. It is totally unnecessary for the garment industry to operate this way.

5) What are your favorite Swimwear trends for 2018 and do you have a piece that you can’t live without these days?

I am really loving our lace-up front Malibu one piece! It is so flattering to all body types and I am constantly receiving emails from girls who are wearing it as a bodysuit. I personally am wearing mine with my fav vintage boyfriend jeans and its so cute!

The sustainably sexy Malibu Lace Front One Piece

6) How often do you come out with new lines to go with evolving trends? How do you see your clothing line evolving in the future?

I would say we are trend aware but not trend driven. We expect Sage Larock pieces to last and to be worn season after season.

We are currently planning to grow our swim and apparel line – and also have some exciting new collections like lingerie in the works!

7) What are your favorite eco-honeymoon “must-haves” from Sage Larock?

I think everything you take with you on your honeymoon should make you feel gorgeous, but also be effortless. Lots of ladies have loved taking some of our reversible pieces, especially for the more exotic locations that you don’t want to drag 5 swimsuits too. It’s nice to be able to have a swimsuit that makes you look and feel great that you can just flip it inside out to wear as a totally different color.

I think a great one piece like our Laguna or Malibu look so sophisticated and still sexy, and you can easily throw on a skirt or palazzo pants over and look really stylish for sunset drinks or dinner.

8)Tell us about your upcoming line of Sustainable Luxury Activewear, Sana Terra.

I’m so excited about this line! We are launching our sustainable activewear line, which like our swimsuits, is made from upcycled ghost nets and plastic recovered from the ocean.  It’s a performance fabric that is made just for active and is SO soft. This will be a capsule line, meaning we are doing key must-have pieces that can easily be interchanged and all look really great together. Sana Terra means ‘beautiful earth’ in Danish, and is a collaboration between Sage Larock and one of our favorite people in LA, creative facilitator, and model Anna Lundgaard. The name was inspired by the fact Anna and I are both Scandinavian, and that through the line we are working to protect the beauty of our planet and offer something to women that will hopefully make them feel quite beautiful as well! Our aesthetic inspiration for the active line was definitely 90’s clean, simple but sophisticated minimalistic style. You can expect some really beautiful pieces that (I must say) fit better than any active I have ever tried! Our intention with this collection was to offer gorgeous, clean, elevated styles that a woman could easily throw on a trench over after working out and be confident that she will look amazing and feel great.

9) How would you encourage our readers to “Go Green” in their fashion choices? 

That’s a great question and I would say the easy answer is to be aware of what you are buying and how it was made. It can be as easy as doing a bit of research online or watching the documentary “The True Cost”.

It’s really easy to want to trust many well-known brands that they are creating things in a thoughtful manner, but its sadly not the case many times, so just being aware is the biggest part of the process.

Choosing natural (organic cotton, hemp or linen) or recycled materials are also great for the environment – this could also mean buying things made from deadstock fabrics or recycled content, or it could mean buying second hand. There are a lot of great options out there!

Also buying things that last is important. We live in a throwaway society where many things do not have a life or value after a few uses. The sad reality is that many of these items take 100’s of year to decompose, or are made very toxically – so choosing things that are made to last is a great way to “Go Green”.

10) Are their certain types of Sage Larock pieces that are better suited for one body type over another? For instance, do you have certain pieces that fit small busted women better than others?  How do you incorporate your designs for a curvier build?

Absolutely! Women with a A or B bust look AMAZING in our Zuma or Pismo suits.  Curvier girls sometime shy away from one- pieces that have more of a Brazilian cut like our Laguna low back one piece, but this style tends to be surprisingly flattering on everyone.sage-larock-eco-conscious-swim-and-active-wear

11)  Tell us about your charitable work with NGO HealthySeas.org and NGO Canopy.  How can we help to support these causes?

Sage Larock partnered with these 2 incredible charities as they are both doing amazing work that protects our last remaining wild habitats. Canopy Planet works to protect the last remaining ancient and old growth forests from the fashion industry (Viscose & rayon is sadly often sourced form unprotected forrest areas).  They have created a collective of brands such as Sage Larock, Patagonia and Mara Hoffman, who are committed to using forrest friendly fabrics.

They have a pretty amazing website too if anyone wants to learn more about the effects of the fashion industry on our world and how everyone can help:

http://canopyplanet.org/campaigns/canopystyle/

Healthy Seas is also doing amazing work.  They work with teams of divers from the organization Ghost Fishing who actually pull 100’s of miles of ghost nets out of our oceans! These nets are then used to create our swimwear fabric, so we are really happy to support them, as there work is so important.  Because of this we give a percentage of each swimsuit we sell to support their work – http://healthyseas.org/

For More Information about Sage Larock go to:

www.sagelarock.comsage-larock-eco-conscious-sustainable-swimwear

@sage_larock