Malaysian fashion labels go back to basics – T-shirts made from organic cotton – to create a sustainable future

Scuba-diving friends in Malaysia set out to make marine conservation cool by selling minimalist T-shirts and using part of the proceeds to fund coral replanting

Founders of another label, Spheraco, couldn’t find affordable, sustainably made organic cotton T-shirts locally, and decided to produce their own

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Plain white T-shirts from a newly launched Malaysian label, Spheraco. It and another new label there, Sea Bells, make a point of sourcing organically produced cotton and adopting other environment-friendly practices.

Published: 7:45am, 1 Jun 2020Updated: 6:54pm, 2 Jun 2020

Fashion-based social enterprises are nothing new. Back in 2006 American company Toms pioneered the then-revolutionary one-for-one concept, giving a pair of shoes away for every pair bought, and since then, purpose-driven brands the world over have adopted similar concepts, pledging portions of their proceeds to charitable and environmental causes.

To Southeast Asians, some of these charitable causes can seem physically distant and foreign in purpose, but local brands are beginning to change the way the region looks at purpose-driven fashion and what it can do – by serving causes nearer to consumers’ hearts.

Social enterprises such as Earth Heir and Tanoti Crafts work with underserved Malaysian artisan and refugee communities; Real Material channels a set portion of the proceeds from sales of its natural, sustainable fabrics to reforestation in Malaysia. These brands are gaining a foothold among a more aware, activist youth who want to know that the money they spend on new clothes is going to a good cause.

One of the past year’s most interesting launches is Sea Bells. The brand sells just one thing: minimalist T-shirts, but everything from the shirts’ production to how the proceeds of their sale are used has been designed to create the greatest ethical impact.

Damaged coral in Tioman, Malaysia. Sea Bells replants a piece of rehabilitated coral for every T-shirt it sells.

Every customer who buys a Sea Bells T-shirt becomes the adoptive parent to a piece of rehabilitated coral that the Sea Bells team replants in an ocean nursery off the island of Tioman in Malaysia.