The Big Favourite is a fan favourite of ours, embracing circular practices. A true diamond in the rough, they’re practicing what they preach—safe to say, we love them for the love they show the environment.
Their line of Pima cotton underwear and T-shirts is designed to be worn, sent back to the brand, and recycled into new garments. Yes, you read that right. The Big Favourite is at the forefront of the solution, designing undergarments with a one-year lifespan, recycling them, and redistributing them. Pure bliss. Solid stamp of approval from The Panty Pact. You may be wondering how this is possible? Co-founder Eleanor Turner explained that they specifically chose Pima cotton for its longer-staple fibre, which is easier to recycle. These considerations are essential but often missing in the underwear production process.
“We’re also building the experience of taking back garments and challenging people's behaviour around it.”
So, where did The Big Favourite begin?
Eleanor Turner’s grandfather founded The Big Favourite in the 1930s as a workwear brand for rural farmers. Turner noted, “We've taken the brand's high quality and reliable roots and repurposed them for a 2020 kind of daily grind." We couldn’t think of a better initiative to help you incorporate circular practices with no hassle. Once your garment is worn out, simply scan the QR code on the tag to generate a FREE shipping label. After TBF receives your items, you’ll earn credits to buy new ones or donate the money to climate-positive initiatives.
Turner’s team will collect, sort, and sanitise the garments before passing them on to their recycling partner. The recycled yarns are then sent to TBF’s factory in Peru, where they are transformed into new garments. With a staggering 11 million pounds of underwear ending up in U.S. landfills each day, TBF is playing a key role in preventing hundreds of undergarments from lingering in landfills for centuries.
Sìni Saavala: Reclaiming the stain By Eloise Barratt
A designer you need to watch.
The Helsinki- based designer is at the forefront of an important dialogue, positioning herself as an artist exploring stained undergarments in relation to societal stigmas. Saavala’s custom made pieces, dresses, combine an unusual fusion of silk fabrics and ‘stained’ undergarments. Historically, menstruation has been labelled as “dirty”, and this deeply ingrained notion had Saavala questioning:” is this a bit like too much? Am I even doing the right thing?
It begs the question: where does that leave us? If visual proof of our menstruation leaves us perceived as “dirty”. It’s unsurprising women feel pressured to discard these visual signifiers of their bodily functions. When interviewed Saavala said something so poignant, I found myself momentarily floored; “the most shameful stains are hidden”. I could only think to nod, knowing that she had dared bring to the surface the inner thoughts and turmoil I carried as a teenage girl.
I could almost feel myself regressing into a child like version of myself, solemnly ashamed of my stained underwear hanging up to dry. I remember one of my brothers pointed at ‘it’, with a look of sheer disgust that I could so boldly leave it there. Uncomfortability coated my skin so thick, I felt as though i might simply disintegrate. My thoughts? They were something like: Kill me. Shoot me. Please someone just hit me with a bus. The irony of this moment has only caught up with me, when the memory re-emerges alongside the array of stained and torn boxers draped next to my once- lonesome underwear.
At the core of Saavala’s art lies in this paradox: If menstrual or vaginal discharge stains are perceived as dirty, shouldn’t we take ownership of them? And how do those perceptions shape our behaviour’s, especially when women are taught to hide their most intimate markers? Sini’s work asks us to reconsider this narrative. Her work is pushing boundaries, exploring the intersection between fashion, stigma and the unspoken realities of womanhood.
Sini wrote to a facebook group in Finland, asking for used undergarments for her future collection. To her shock, she received an overwhelming response, gathering an influx of used intimate wear. Each piece was marked by the wearers most personal human experience. At first glance you may not even recognise the undergarments, so heavily distorted and manipulated, until you look again and again. I assure you this recognition does not full-on deaf ears, the weight of this collection is monumental, seeing intimate wear usually draped on hyper- sexualised models turned most shameful object in one’s wardrobe interwoven within this collection is a call to action.