Last month, I saw a tweet that there’s a shop in Glorietta 1 selling basics made from recycled fabrics priced from P100 to P500. If you think that’s too good to be true (it’s conveniently situated in a mall, sustainable, and affordable), I thought so, too. But it’s real.
Lazy Fare is on the second floor of Glorietta 1. It’s a business run by three sisters who aren’t strangers to this kind of business—their family has been in the garments business for over 40 years now, “mostly importing clothes from Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Bangkok.” The brand, established in 2014, started as an online accessories and shirts shop. Now, it’s a physical shop which just opened last June.
“With Lazy Fare (and its sister brand Lucy in the Sky), we wanted to evolve our approach with the business by working exclusively with local manufacturers and being more conscious of our footprint,” Lia Lontoc, the managing partner of the brand, tells Nolisoli.ph.
Keeping everything local and impartial, they employ local manufacturers that they personally know and trust in terms of quality of work and fair treatment and compensation of the employees. “Taking steps to lessen our footprint came into the picture as we grew and learned more about running our business as well as the textile manufacturing industry,” says Lontoc.
Enter Lazy Fare and you’ll be welcomed by racks of basics—shirts, pants, and kimonos among many other—in different styles with seemingly durable and comfortable fabrics. On the racks, there are signs that read “Made with reclaimed fabric rescued from landfills.”
“A lot of international fast fashion brands actually have their clothes manufactured in Luzon,” says Lontoc. “We learned about the overproduction and other factors that lead to scrapping and dumping perfectly usable fabric.”
So with their manufacturers, Lazy Fare collects scrap fabric from warehouses before they end up in landfills, which is what usually happens to most of them. Lontoc and her sister’s other brand Lucy in the Sky also does the same for the clothes, but it sells more trendy garments. It’s just a stone’s throw away from Lazy Fare.
Currently, Lazy Fare is looking for more ways to work with more local makers who focus on reusing and recycling things and those who uplift Filipino workers. “We’re a small operation but with the continued support of people who choose to buy local, we can make that vision happen,” says Lontoc.
Follow Lazy Fare on their social media sites: Facebook and Instagram. You can also shop on their website.
Featured image courtesy of @ramenmoons on Twitter
Read more:
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What is ‘slow fashion’ and why should you care?
This OFW-turned-fashion designer made couture upcycled gowns in Hong Kong