Sustainability Q+A with LiiLU

INTERVIEW WITH BETTY KNILLMANN
MARKETING & SALES LIILU

WHAT IS THE COMPANY ETHOS AND WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED?

LiiLU is a German brand with a history with a small collection of handmade pieces. As we got a little bigger over season, we moved with our production to a well selected factory in Portugal. To be closer to production and logistics, the founder & designer Sibylle Pal moved with her husband Janos and their two kids to the Algarve in March 2019. While the family started a new life in Portugal, I (Marketing & Sales) still live in Germany. A family business! We are a very small team of only 3.

WHERE ARE THE COLLECTIONS PRODUCED? ARE YOU ABLE TO CLOSELY MONITOR YOUR PRODUCTION?

Our production is completely in Portugal, which is one of the reasons why we have moved. We want to be close to the production and to assure short ways for daily business. As a sustainable brand we have a high standard and want to make sure to provide our visions the best. We believe we owe it to our customers and want to be able to grow within this field.

WHAT KIND OF FABRICS DO YOU MOST USE? ARE YOUR FABRICS GOTS ORGANIC OR OEKO-TEX CERTIFIED?

In every collection we mainly use 100% org cotton muslin, which became our signature fabric from the beginning. Meanwhile we are able to create our own one, as there are slight differences in the strengths and haptic of the fabric. Our winter muslin is a little thicker compared to our summer one for example. That way we can keep the red-line without reinventing the classics. For our knits we also only use selected (Zusammensetzungen) to create a different look every season.

HOW DO YOU SELECT THE FABRICS YOU USE AND WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?

The selection depends on the collection. Sibylle creates each collection independently from any fabric choices. Of course she knows she knows which fabrics would fit the best while being in the creative process. While being within the creative process you start picturing the styles with different fabrics and only need to choose the once you aim for. Together with a design team, we choose the fabrics of the suppliers here in Portugal. They have a well known experience and provide a great quality. We make sure to have only organic fabrics of course and look close on the qualities and composition of each individual one.

CAN YOU PLEASE TELL US ABOUT HOW YOUR FABRICS ARE DYED?

We have our fabrics garment dyed with colors we have chosen for the collections.

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR OVERSTOCK OF MATERIALS AND FABRIC SCRAPS?

First of all, we produce by order. So all the orders we receive from our retailers worldwide will be produced + a little extra for our own webshop. So we always work with a limited stock to avoid mass production. Once the collection is „old“ we still offer the styles in our webshop with a little discount. That way the collections are still available to buy. It works quiet well and our customers love it.

Our production tries to avoid left over fabric pieces as good as possible. We are currently working on some little projects where we can use the left over fabric parts for other things. We’ll let you know when there is something coming up.

CAN YOU PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOUR PACKAGING FOR SHIPMENTS TO CUSTOMERS?

We are currently shipping all styles in compostable poly bags to our end customers. Mainly for hygienic reasons. But there are some alternative concepts which we are interested in and are working on another solution.