Sustainability

All of our products are 100% designed in Finland - starting from the print and fabric, all the way to the final model you see on our shop. Our founder Paola Suhonen is the architect behind each and every collection, and she is personally involved in every stage of new collection preparation.

We introduce only one main theme for yearly collections, with two drops. By aligning the collections under one umbrella, we enable collections to maintain unified look in the shops even after first season has passed. Combined with our signature look visible year after year, this gives us and our retailer shops possibility to mix and match pieces from different seasons, without the urge to get rid of older pieces.

We want to make clothes for real people - our sizing is very standard and as a new element in 2020 we introduced wider size range going up to size 50.

We have never followed the trends as our main guide - our aim is to provide timeless high-quality pieces, "everyday luxury", that our customers can enjoy year after year.

We aim to use environmentally friendly materials in our designs, focusing on organic cotton and modified fibers like viscose (as example in SS20 collection Flashes 36% of the garments are made of 100% organic cotton, 32% of 100% viscose). 

PRODUCTION // PARTNERS

As we plan our own prints, fabrics for our products are custom made for our collection so leftover amounts are cut down to minimum. After collection pieces are done, we usually purchase also leftover fabrics and create small items like accessories out of them. At times we also offer leftover fabrics for customers to buy and create their own Ivana Helsinki design pieces.

Our main production partner is located in Izmir, Turkey; it´s a family owned production company with whom we've cooperated for decades. Paola herself has visited the factory multiple times to ensure that not only quality but also sustainability requirements are met. 95% of our own collection happens here. You can read more about them here and see their take on social responsibility matters like human rights and environmental and nature care matters here. 

With smaller goods like accessories or B-to-B product production we also work with Finnish companies Sulattamo and Kodinka Ltd.

STORAGE // DELIVERIES // RETURNS

We aim to keep our collections exclusive - meaning that the amount of each collection piece is relatively small. This combined to the fact that our collection pieces are planned to fit together over time enables the us to function with relatively small storage.

Our webshop orders are packed in recyclable paper bags without any plastic wraps around the product. In case of return, we encourage our customers to use the same paperbag to eliminate additional waste. We also only use paper bags in our own gallery shop. All packing materials coming from suppliers to us are re-used, whether it´s cardboard boxes or recycled plastic wraps.

Our delivery partner is DHL, who has committed to aim to be a climate neutral company by the year 2050. We only have deliveries on demand and we always aim to centralize deliveries from several days to make sure the delivery truck never travels for only one parcel. You can read more about our delivery partners sustainability promise (& report) here.

We never dispose returned pieces - each returned item is carefully checked by our staff, and when quality allows, item is returned back to the store. In case of reclamation, our first option is always repairing the piece - we even have a separate sewing room at our office for such cases. If item is non-sellable, we offer it for staff to purchase before trying to figure out another purpose for the cloth (like pattern making, trainee projects etc).

To maximize the lifetime of our products, we maintain our own "Ivana Helsinki Second Hand" Facebook group. Feel free to check it out here. 

GENERAL

At Ivana Helsinki we recycle all waste, aim to minimize printed paper handling, monitor our heating and electricity consumption and overall aim to green solutions at all stages of daily office life.  All plastic and non-plastic packing material coming to us with the deliveries from our production partner is re-used, nothing is thrown away. Our Ivana Helsinki House, where all of our operations are located, is run with renewable energy.

All events organized, whether PR event, party or even Superwood Festival, we only offer vegetarian or vegan food.  Also we are very strict about supporting animal rights, and regularly donate to our partner Rescueyhdistys Kulkurit. In addition, we do a variety of different charity work, as example Paola's photshoot for breast cancer awareness association Tunne Rintasi.

As we do a lot of cooperations in our business, we always ensure our partners are also living up to the same core values as us. 

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

To ensure transparency we will keep working with these matters on daily basis - as an example, we're currently working on re-usable packing solution for both webstore and gallery shop purchases! Overall our aim is to publish even more comprehensive sustainability report on yearly basis, so stay tuned.