At the bustling hub of Paris Fash­ion Week, we sat down with Oliv­er Abreni­ca, the co-founder of the inno­v­a­tive fash­ion brand Isnurh. Immerse your­self in the sto­ry behind this design-cen­tric com­pa­ny and its com­mit­ment to using avant-garde mate­ri­als and eth­i­cal process­es for their lat­est col­lec­tion.

Who is Isnurh?

Launched in 2017 by long-time friends Oliv­er and Kasper, Isnurh serves as their cre­ative out­let, deeply influ­enced by the vibrant cityscape of Copen­hagen. Hav­ing shared a bond for over 16 years, it seemed only nat­ur­al for them to join forces and pour their pas­sion into a last­ing endeav­or. Pri­or to embark­ing on the Isnurh jour­ney, Oliv­er had already dab­bled in the fash­ion indus­try, hav­ing launched his own epony­mous brand a year ear­li­er. He even­tu­al­ly shift­ed his undi­vid­ed atten­tion to Isnurh to cul­ti­vate the brand’s dis­tinct iden­ti­ty.

The soul of Isnurh lies in its ded­i­ca­tion to slow fash­ion. This phi­los­o­phy isn’t mere­ly a trend for them, but a cen­tral tenet that informs their design process. By tak­ing their time to metic­u­lous­ly craft each piece, they ensure that every cre­ation stands the test of time. This mind­ful approach pro­found­ly impacts the qual­i­ty of their gar­ments, all of which are thor­ough­ly con­ceived from start to fin­ish. Each col­lec­tion is also graced with unique art­works, mak­ing every sea­son a fresh can­vas for their cre­ative explo­ration.

Spring/Summer Collection 2024 at Paris Fashion Week

Isnurh’s lat­est col­lec­tion blos­soms with vibrant, lumi­nous hues, infused with inno­v­a­tive, tech­ni­cal fab­rics strate­gi­cal­ly incor­po­rat­ed into the designs. The col­lec­tion paints a dreamy, beach-friend­ly ambiance, aug­ment­ed by their unique in-house art­works and prints which evolve with each pass­ing sea­son.

For this col­lec­tion, Isnurh has formed a note­wor­thy col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Ker­ing group’s mate­r­i­al divi­sion, an enti­ty devot­ed to the devel­op­ment of inno­v­a­tive fab­rics pro­duced sus­tain­ably. This divi­sion holds some of the top eco­log­i­cal cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and col­lab­o­rates with numer­ous mills across Italy, both large and small, with a keen empha­sis on inno­va­tion and fiber research. Cur­rent­ly, these rev­o­lu­tion­ary mate­ri­als aren’t pro­duced on a large scale to meet the high-demand of Ker­ing group’s major brands. This lim­i­ta­tion, how­ev­er, presents a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty for small­er brands like Isnurh to exper­i­ment with these mate­ri­als and inte­grate them into their avant-garde col­lec­tions.

A prime exam­ple of this inno­va­tion is a shirt from the new col­lec­tion, fea­tur­ing a pock­et craft­ed from recy­cled poly­ester, a mate­r­i­al derived from reclaimed plas­tic bot­tles and dis­card­ed fish­ing nets. The padding mate­r­i­al inside the pock­et is made of waste mate­r­i­al from the con­ven­tion­al cash­mere and silk pro­duc­tion, mak­ing for a full-cir­cle sus­tain­able look.

For the rest of the col­lec­tion, with no par­tic­i­pa­tion of the Ker­ing Group, their shirts are dyed with ful­ly biodegrad­able ink, fur­ther under­lin­ing the brand’s com­mit­ment to sus­tain­abil­i­ty.

The art­work on these shirts is print­ed in a micro­fac­to­ry in Copen­hagen, employ­ing a water­less print­ing process on cer­ti­fied Ten­cel fab­ric. These shirts are not only aes­thet­i­cal­ly pleas­ing but also ful­ly biodegrad­able. As Oliv­er proud­ly shared with us, if left on the ground, these shirts nat­u­ral­ly decom­pose, return­ing to the soil from whence they came.

Towards the Future. Sustainability

Isnurh is deeply root­ed in sus­tain­able prac­tices, an ethos that radi­ates through all their oper­a­tional aspects. This com­mit­ment is under­pinned by two key doc­u­ments avail­able on their web­site:

The Code of Con­duct (CoC), which focus­es on:

• Human Rights: Align­ing with the Unit­ed Nations Uni­ver­sal Dec­la­ra­tion of Human Rights, Isnurh’s CoC ensures equi­table treat­ment for all indi­vid­u­als.
• Labor & Oper­a­tional Prac­tices: Adher­ing to the Unit­ed Nations ILO 2030 Agen­da for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment, the brand insists on decent work­ing con­di­tions and pro­duc­tive employ­ment. They staunch­ly oppose child and forced labor and dis­crim­i­na­tion while advo­cat­ing for free­dom of asso­ci­a­tion, humane employ­ment con­di­tions, and a safe, healthy work envi­ron­ment.
• Envi­ron­ment & Eco­log­i­cal Impact: Isnurh is com­mit­ted to ener­gy con­ser­va­tion, waste reduc­tion, and pru­dent water usage. It fol­lows a strin­gent no-burn pol­i­cy for waste dis­pos­al and ensures that any ani­mal prod­ucts used are byprod­ucts of the food indus­try, with an empha­sis on humane treat­ment.
• Imple­men­ta­tion & Trans­paren­cy: Isnurh pri­or­i­tizes trans­paren­cy, man­dat­ing its part­ners to pro­vide detailed infor­ma­tion regard­ing pro­duc­tion, stor­age, and dis­tri­b­u­tion process­es. It also reserves the right to per­form audits and demand cor­rec­tive mea­sures if non-com­pli­ance issues are detect­ed. Per­sis­tent non-com­pli­ance can lead to the ter­mi­na­tion of busi­ness rela­tion­ships.

The Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Com­mit­ment Doc­u­ment, fea­tur­ing a pro­gres­sive action plan for tack­ling envi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges:

• Embrac­ing Slow Fash­ion: Isnurh strives to reduce resource flows by launch­ing only two annu­al col­lec­tions designed for longevi­ty. It incor­po­rates resid­ual tex­tiles (dead­stock) into its designs and pro­vides guide­lines for opti­miz­ing the longevi­ty of clothes.
• Local and Region­al Pro­duc­tion: Isnurh aims to lessen envi­ron­men­tal impact by shift­ing pro­duc­tion clos­er to its inven­to­ry and end-cus­tomers. As part of this ini­tia­tive, Isnurh has moved its man­u­fac­tur­ing oper­a­tions from Turkey to Ukraine.
• Con­scious Mate­r­i­al Selec­tion: Isnurh assumes full respon­si­bil­i­ty for its mate­r­i­al selec­tion, phas­ing out harm­ful mate­ri­als and replac­ing all con­ven­tion­al cot­ton with OEKO-TEX cer­ti­fied cot­ton. It also uses wool as a byprod­uct from the live­stock indus­try and inte­grates dead­stock.

Dis­cov­er with us the brands mak­ing real sus­tain­able com­mit­ments in our ded­i­cat­ed sec­tion, and make the switch to a more eth­i­cal way of liv­ing with us.