Interview and article by Sophie John, 3rd year geographer at Corpus Christi College.
Emily, although you may know her as Lemonem, graduated from Queen’s college in 2016 with a degree in Geography. Since graduating she’s documented her life and passions on Instagram and Youtube, and co-founded sustainable clothing brand Narna with her sister Holly, who is also Cambridge educated and a fellow YouTuber. Emily chatted to Blog Editor Sophie about Narna and sustainability in the fashion industry.
After watching the documentary ‘The True Cost’, which focuses on the impacts of the clothing and fast fashion industry, Emily felt compelled to make a positive change in the clothing industry. “I was like ‘I want to do something that will help, that will go against this and raise awareness of how bad the clothing industry is’”. So after talking with her sister Holly, Narna was born. “We created a brand that was sustainable from the beginning to the end. We wanted clothing to be sustainable and something that we would wear. We wanted it to be not overly expensive, just something that everyone could wear and afford. So we decided to create Narna”.
What sets Narna apart from mainstream clothing brands is the complete commitment to sustainability. All the garments are 100% ethically sourced comprising of either recycled, organic or sustainable materials, with all the packaging being biodegradable apart from the sellotape! All of the garments are audited by the Fair Wear Foundation, which ensures that no sweatshop labour was used in the production process.
“Obviously we first set out like ‘I don’t know how we’re going to do this’ because we’d never started a business before and it was all very new, so it was a lot of research time. And because it’s a start up you have to think of cost. You can’t say ‘right we’re gonna build a factory that’s gonna do everything onsight for us’. So, everything is done from the house, which is stressful at times but we found a wholesalers that make garments from organic materials or recycled materials. Then we decided that if we find a local embroiderer it cuts the transportation costs down and the emissions as well. So we found an embroiderer who embroiders our designs on there. He’s a guy called Pete and he lives not very far away from us. So, he does all the embroidery work for us and so again that cuts emissions and cuts cost down. Then once that’s done the packaging side of things, you can buy biodegradable bags, which we post the items in. The labels on it is just paper so that can be recycled, so yeah it’s just the sellotape”.
When Emily and her sister set up Narna, she felt there “wasn’t much about sustainability in clothing”. It is estimated that fashion accounts for around 10% of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, which is a growing concern as between the years 2000 and 2015, the fashion industry doubled its production to 100 billion items per annum (Gavranovic, 2020) consuming 79 trillion litres of water in the process (Niinimäk et al., 2020). This growing demand for clothing means that often materials are unsustainably sourced and/or produced under poor working conditions for those involved in the process. Recently, an undercover Sunday Times reporter was to expect £3.50 an hour at the Morefray factory in Leicester, which is involved with clothing brands Boohoo and Nasty Gal, despite the minimum wage in Britain for those over 25 is £8.72 (The Sunday Times, 2020).
It’s clear that not all clothing brands share Narna’s consideration for the environment. So where did the inspiration come from? Did studying Geography play a part in the formation of Narna’s vision?
“I don’t think this whole thing would have happened if I wasn’t vegan but I don’t think I would have been vegan had I not studied geography, interestingly. So I was in my final, year. I was vegetarian for my first year and my second year and the majority of my third year, so I had an awareness of animal cruelty, that’s why I went vegetarian. Then in my final term, which was really bad timing, I was obviously revising for exams and I started to come across all this stuff about veganism and the environmental impacts you study about in geography. And I was like ‘this really resonates with me, it means a lot’ and I went vegan overnight in my third term! I watched this documentary ‘Earthlings’. If you want to cry that’s the documentary to watch. I don’t think I watched five minutes of it and I was like ‘that’s it. I’m done. I’m vegan, that’s it’. When I graduated I had loads more time to research and find out all about sustainability and the environment and how you can make yourself more sustainable, and it all stemmed from there. I don’t think I would have created Narna without being vegan and I wouldn’t be vegan had I not been studying geography. Everything happens for a reason”.
Although, on going fully vegan overnight during exam term Emily commented “I wouldn’t recommend doing it that way!”
Yet, not all the blame for the damaging environmental consequences of the clothing industry can be placed with the clothing manufacturers themselves. As consumers, we are incredibly wasteful when it comes to clothing! The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that American’s alone throw away 12.7 million tons of textiles per person annually (Cline, 2012). Fast fashion is everywhere, so we can influence the supply and demand relationship by considering more ethical options when it comes to our wardrobes. Emily recognises that buying organic and sustainable products can be more expensive, but has some advice for those wanting to make a change on a more restricted budget.
“You can start with just really simple things like ‘do I need to buy more clothes’ because if you’re a student realistically you wear tracksuit bottoms and a hoodie most of the time. So really do you need to buy a dress that you’re going to wear on one night out? Just think about your everyday purchases and what you currently buy and question do you really need that purchase? Maybe think about buying one item of clothing that is going to last a good few years but is more expensive than buying say ten items of clothing that you’re going to wear once and then decide to throw out or give it to a charity shop. That’s something you can do that’s really simple. In terms of buying food, I think you can definitely shop a little bit more eco-friendly even if it’s not more expensive. So you can opt to buy things that don’t come in plastic from the supermarket and it doesn’t necessarily have to be more expensive. I know in Cambridge there’s loads of market stalls isn’t there, and things like that so think what money you currently spend, what you need to buy and adjust where you buy it from or what you’re gonna buy”.
It’s not all doom and gloom though! There are positive steps being taken in the clothing industry. New clothing brands are being set up with an increasingly sustainable focus, and some existing brands are developing sustainable lines. For example, fast fashion brand Primark has launched a new range that ecompasses recycled activewear, organically sourced materials and reducing the number of single use plastics in store as part of their Primark Cares initiative (Primark, 2020). Whilst this is of course a move in a positive direction, Emily highlights that despite these efforts, Primark retains many stereotypical fast fashion traits such as the quick turnover of fashion lines.
“Primark have a whole section that is their sustainability, eco range. It’s really funny because they have the clothes from that range on these sort of cardboard hangers and its all tailored to be sustainable or look sustainable which is good. I think it’s good that people are becoming more aware that ‘maybe I could shop in this section and be a bit more conscious of the environment’ and I hope that it’s fully transparent, that it’s not just the marketing side of things, that they are not just using it as a way to sell products. I think the issue is still the fast fashion side of it. The turnover of those products is still probably going to be very high and a design to keep no more than maybe a fashion season and then it’s out of fashion again”.
So what’s in store for Narna besides growing and expanding the business? “It would be cool to expand to different areas and have say not just clothes. That would be quite cool. We’ve always wanted to do athletic wear, like workout stuff”. Other goals include hiring an additional employee and finding a workspace outside of their home, as Narna has grown completely from within Emily’s home.
Chatting with Emily was such a delight. It’s so promising to see people who have turned their geography knowledge and passion for our environment into a successful, ethical business. Fast fashion is so ingrained into 21st century life, with social media putting increasing pressure on individuals to take part in the latest fashion and trends. Yet according to a study by Movinga, a relocation and removals company, the reality is that individuals don’t wear 50% of their wardrobe. Cutting down on fast fashion pieces may make investing in high-quality, ethical goods more attainable. With dedication and commitment to sustainability like Narna’s, there is hope for the fashion industry!
Read more about, and shop from, Narna here: https://hollygabrielle.com/narnastore
Connect with Emily on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/lemonem_ily/
Connect with Emily on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/lemonemofficial
Read more about the Fair Wear Foundation here: https://www.fairwear.org/about-us/get-to-know-fair-wear
DISCLAIMER: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY AND DO NOT REPRESENT THE VIEWS OR OPINIONS OF COMPASS MAGAZINE AS A WHOLE OR THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY.