Our Story
Our approach
We are JUNGL, an environment friendly brand that has been established to offer a sustainable alternative. From an early age, we (Anouschka and Natascha Hendriks) have been working on sustainability and we have discovered that the impact of fashion and textiles on the environment is huge. By offering sustainable collections, whereby the environmental impact is kept as small as possible, we hope to be able to reduce this negative impact.
Sustainability
We consider honesty, sustainability, quality and transparency to be very important. Sustainability is reflected in all aspects of our company (fabrics, transport, packaging). We have chosen to have our collection produced in The Netherlands and Portugal, in order to limit transport and CO2 emmissions.
Every single JUNGL piece is recycled and/or organic. For our apparel collection we use undyed recycled and organic cotton. For our swimwear collection we use ECONYL® yarn, a 100% regenerated nylon fiber made from nylon waste otherwise polluting the Earth, like fishing nets, fabric scraps, carpet flooring and industrial plastic rescued from all over the world. Our Renewed by JUNGL collection consists of pre-loved items.
Fair production
Unfortunately, most fashion is still produced under poor working conditions. We have searched for a long time for transparent producers who are committed to the environment and guarantee good working conditions for their employees. We ended up at ONS Label Breda in The Netherlands and Ecovest in Portugal. Ons Label Breda is a small sewing atelier working with newcomers and (re)starters. Their goal is to train people with a distance to the labour market and offer them work experience. Ecovest is GOTS and SMETA certified, which are the highest possible certificates. The factory has LED lighting and solar panels. Our Renewed by JUNGL items are locally remade by our talented tailor Mohamad in a small village nearby Amsterdam.
Our designs
Our designs are timeless and we ensure that we do not go along with fast fashion. Slow fashion is the future and we would like to contribute to this. Products can be worn longer if the quality is good. We looked for strong, long-lasting recycled fabric. For our apparel collection we have focused on 100% cotton where possible, so the products are easy to recycle after their lifetime. The fabric we use for our swimwear is made with ECONYL® yarn, a 100% regenerated fiber from pre and post-consumer waste such as fishing nets and other nylon waste. The timeless items of our Renewed by JUNGL collection are carefully hand-selected for their quality and fabric.
Packaging
We try to keep the packaging as small as possible. Our boxes, shipping bags and postcards are made of recycled paper, we use eco tape (made of paper and natural rubber) and we deliver our swimwear items in a Fairtrade bag made of organic cotton. Besides this, you can reuse or/and recycle all our packaging.
We have chosen to use boxes and shipping bags made of recycled paper instead of packaging made of biodegradable plastic. Biodegradable plastic is made for single use, while our boxes and shipping bags are strong enough to be used several times. This kind of plastic is only biodegradable under specific conditions that a consumer cannot create. The packaging is not allowed in the organic waste bin, because it will still look the same after a year. It should also not be disposed of with the plastic waste, because it pollutes the plastic recycling.
Awareness
By using recycled materials and to make sure that the production will take place under fair working conditions, we want to offer consumers an alternative to the polluting fashion that is offered by many brands and stores. We also want to make people aware of the plastic problem and the poor working conditions under which fashion is often produced. Besides the production and sales of our items, we also give lessons to schools about the plastic problem.
The Reef Collection
Every bikini or swimsuit in our SS21 collection is named after a type of coral. We want to create awareness for this special piece of nature because we have lost 50% of the world’s corals in the last 30 years. Coral reefs cover only 0.2 % of the earth’s surface, but are home to 25% of all ocean life. Worldwide, hundreds of millions of people depend on the reef for their food or income.
Click here for more information about The Reef Collection and corals.
Microplastics
All swimwear is made of synthetic materials such as polyester, nylon, spandex, elastane and neoprene. All these fabrics loose microplastics when washing and wearing them. Unfortunately, there is not yet a perfect environment friendly fabric that does not harm the environment. We think our swimwear is an alternative for producing unnecessary new raw materials. Our environmental benefit is the removal of fishing nets from the ocean and the reuse of materials.
Because there is no swimwear fabric on the market today that does not shed microfibers, it’s very important to make sure you care for your swimwear in the most sustainable way. Click here to learn more about taking care of your swimwear. We advise you not to wash our products in the washing machine, to keep the products beautiful for a longer time and to minimize the release of the microplastics. The fabric releases most microplastics in the washing machine. A solution for the microplastics can be a special laundry bag, but this is especially effective when washing in a washing machine.