Inspiring Quality
The quality of clothes is essential. Especially if you’re planning to wear them for many years, they become a representation of who you are. We love certain fabrics because of their authenticity, and this familiarity feels comfortable to us as human beings. That’s why you can never go wrong with good quality yarns.
We love to experiment with unique fabrics to create a subtle, yet outstanding difference in quality to other clothing you can buy. For instance, we can create a unique aesthetic with our clothes by turning a garment inside out or washing it several times. Each collection is its own ecosphere we develop over months of work. We spend vast periods of time looking for inspiration, studying fashion trends, illustrating and designing, creating color-palette harmonies, whilst always aiming for the best garment quality.
Giving back
In the last week of November each year, we donate part of our online and in-store revenue to a local charity who take care of homeless people in Antwerp, to ensure they have a warm bed during the Christmas holiday period.
Occasionally, we release a capsule collection related a specific theme and then give a portion of our revenues to an associated charitable cause. For instance, as part of SS20, 5% of all revenues from our embroidered marine life collection has been donated to a local fundraising company that aims to reduce plastic waste in our oceans.
Growing sustainably
To us sustainability is not just about doing our best to tackle environmental problems today, it’s also about continuously improving and building for a better tomorrow. Whilst we strive to achieve more in this crucial area, we acknowledge that we are a long way from where we plan to be in 20 years time.
We frequently experiment with organic materials and critically evaluate our production process to reduce environmental waste, using ecological materials to help preserve our planet for future generations. The vast majority of our products are made of 100% biodegradable materials. We’re also constantly experimenting with a variety of organic fabrics such cotton, linen, wool as well as recyclable and biodegradable fibers like lyocell or hemp to make our products last longer.
While adding to the obvious comfort, by making this choice we also help to reduce the amounts of toxic chemicals and excessive water supply that is associated with mass textile production. Synthetic fabrics are only used in exceptional circumstances. Zero plastic is used in the packing process when shipping any of our online products.
Creating durable products
A key initiative of our brand is to design items that are built to last. That’s why every season we visit our manufacturers to examine the production process closely and find new ways of creating products that will be with our brand-believers for years to come.
Our 2025 goal is to implement a repair, reuse, and recycle program to maximize the lifecycle of fashion items. For now, don’t hesitate to send us your old items of clothing & we’ll find a way to recycle it.
Working with ethical suppliers
We are working with ethically principled people in whom we trust and are proud of. We’ve worked with many of our manufacturers for over 15 years and prefer to know precisely what we are working with. That’s why we shifted our personal approach from sales to manufacturing. Before the work starts, we really get to know the faces behind the sewing machines. It is our own requirement that we know both the origins of the people who work with us, as well as the origins of the materials.
Many of the fabrics used in our trousers, sweaters, shirts and t-shirts are designed by us and then produced in certified textile Portuguese companies. We aim to turn Portuguese textile knowledge and precision into value and authenticity. For high-end knitwear, produced using a local intarsia machine with or without patterns, we work with trusted manufacturers in Italy and China. We love using the local expertise of different countries to create perfect material compositions by mixing different fabrics. As our relationship with each manufacturer has flourished, they understand exactly what Castart is aiming for and most importantly, all of them align with these same key pillars.
