Osei-Duro

Item: Osei-Duro
Rating: 4
Author: SustainableReview

Going the Extra Mile

Last Updated: June 30, 2024

How we review

The Art of Conscious Clothing: Reviewing Osei-Duro’s Sustainable Impact

Key Takeaways

Osei-Duro receives a “good” sustainability rating, highlighting its commitment to ethical and sustainable practices.
The brand has undertaken commendable strides in mitigating its environmental footprint by incorporating lower-impact materials and dyes into its production processes. However, areas remain for improvement, particularly concerning using materials such as spandex, cotton spandex jerseys, and plastic buttons.
Workers’ rights are prioritized, with Osei-Duro ensuring fair wages and safe working conditions for its artisans in Ghana.
Animal welfare is considered, with the brand avoiding animal-derived products in its collections. However, there is an opportunity for the brand to reassess its use of leather and silk fabric, ensuring that these materials are sourced sustainably and ethically.
Osei-Duro’s commitment to traditional textile techniques and local craftsmanship supports cultural preservation and sustainable fashion.

Brand Background

Osei-Duro is a contemporary fashion brand based in Accra, Ghana. With a studio in Vancouver, Canada, and a distribution center in Colorado, USA, Osei-Duro exemplifies a global perspective while staying true to its African heritage.

Maryanne Mathias and Molly Keogh founded the brand to create sustainable and ethical fashion that bridges traditional Ghanaian textile techniques with contemporary garment design. From hand-dyed batik to weaving and knitting, Osei-Duro’s collections are a testament to its commitment to sustainable fashion and ethical production. By partnering with local artisans and dyers, the brand supports the local economy and helps preserve traditional crafts.

Environmental Impact

Sustainability is at the heart of Osei-Duro’s mission, apparent from its environmental policies and practices.

Central to Osei-Duro’s sustainable practice is its choice of LENZING™ ECOVERO™ rayon as a primary fabric. This material is heralded for its eco-friendly credentials, requiring 50% less water and emitting 50% fewer CO2 emissions during production than traditional viscose fibers. The brand also places a strong emphasis on sourcing fabrics locally. This strategy helps reduce water usage and pollution along the brand’s supply chain, aligning perfectly with its sustainability objectives.

Moreover, the brand’s commitment to using lower-impact dyes and materials like natural indigo and recycled brass speaks volumes about its holistic approach to environmental sustainability. On the innovation front, Osei-Duro is actively engaged in research and development efforts to find more transparent and sustainable sources for its dye chemicals, including seeking OEKO-TEX certification and incorporating local botanical dyes and bio-pigments into its processes. This pursuit of continuous improvement highlights the brand’s forward-thinking attitude towards eco-friendly fashion.

To combat the issue of textile waste, Osei-Duro has implemented several impactful initiatives. The brand effectively reduces potential waste associated with unsold stock by producing garments in limited runs, typically fewer than 100 pieces. Its practice of hand-cutting and dyeing each garment individually ensures a unique artisanal quality while significantly minimizing cutting waste and fabric damage.

Osei-Duro’s dedication to a circular economy is evident through its reruns program, which reuses damaged clothing and textile waste, turning them into new garments. This reduces waste and emphasizes the brand’s commitment to circularity and environmental sustainability.

Osei-Duro extends its sustainable ethos to its packaging choices, with 99% of its garment packing bags and shipping materials being 100% home-compostable—a commendable achievement. These packaging materials are sourced from the Invisible Company, ensuring that the brand’s sustainability efforts are consistent from product creation to customer delivery.

By partly tracing its supply chain and using traditional, less environmentally damaging techniques, Osei-Duro sets a high standard for sustainable practices within the fashion industry.

Workers’ Rights

Osei-Duro ensures the well-being and fair treatment of its workers. The brand provides jobs for workers from disadvantaged communities in Ghana, ensuring they are paid living wages and work in safe conditions. Reflected on the brand’s official website, each member of Osei-Duro’s 19-person team in Ghana earns a salary that exceeds the monthly living wage by at least 50%, according to standards set by the Global Living Wage Coalition.

Such fair treatment of workers and the choice to keep production local foster a sense of community, support the livelihoods and skills of local artisans, and promote gender equality and poverty alleviation.

Osei-Duro is taking significant steps toward creating a more ethical and sustainable fashion ecosystem through its collaboration with non-profits and dedication to creating a good business model that respects workers’ rights.

Animal Welfare

Osei-Duro strongly prefers avoiding animal-derived materials in its collections, steering clear of fur, angora, exotic animal skins, and hair. The brand has also made a notable shift away from using shell buttons in its designs. Despite these efforts, the brand acknowledges on its website the use of leather for logo patches on its Partare Totes. It also incorporates silk fabric in a minor portion of its collections, accounting for less than 2% of its designs.

Such use of leather and silk highlights an opportunity for Osei-Duro to enhance its sustainability practices and embrace a more comprehensive cruelty-free approach. By exploring and adopting alternative materials that align with both sustainable and ethical standards, Osei-Duro can further elevate its commitment to environmental stewardship and animal welfare.

Overall Rating

Based on the publicly available information and our comprehensive analysis, Osei-Duro earns a “Good” rating for promoting environmental sustainability, ethical practices, and traditional craftsmanship. The brand’s commitment to using sustainable materials, supporting local artisans in Ghana, ensuring fair labor practices, and respecting animal welfare sets it apart in the fashion industry.

However, like many small-scale sustainable brands, there is always room for improvement, particularly in areas like materials, animal welfare, and further reducing environmental impact. Nevertheless, Osei-Duro’s dedication to sustainable and ethical fashion makes it a commendable choice for consumers looking to support responsible clothing brands.

As the fashion industry grapples with issues of sustainability and ethics, Osei-Duro serves as an example of how brands can operate in harmony with the ecosystem, support local communities, and lead the way toward a more sustainable and ethical future.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Osei-Duro a sustainable fashion brand?

Yes, Osei-Duro is known for its commitment to sustainability in the fashion industry.

What are some key sustainability practices of Osei-Duro?

Osei-Duro uses hand-dyed textiles, partners with artisans, reuses textiles, supports local apparel industries, and takes meaningful action to reduce water consumption.

Does Osei-Duro have an ethical business model?

Yes, Osei-Duro has policies in place to ensure ethical practices in its supply chains, including working with local artisans and supporting social initiatives like the Union Gospel Mission.

How does Osei-Duro rate in terms of sustainability?

Osei-Duro has a high sustainability rating thanks to its environmentally conscious practices and commitment to ethical production processes.

What sets Osei-Duro apart from other fashion brands?

Osei-Duro stands out for its use of traditional textile techniques to produce contemporary garments, as well as its focus on supporting local artisans and communities.