Sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is at the heart of Park & Fifth, and the company has taken action actions to promote sustainable fashion on a number of levels:
- Paying fair wages to skilled cutters and seamstresses
- Promoting the concept of buying less, but choosing well. Our quality and timeless styles make for the re-wearability of each piece in our collection
- Purchasing dead stock, end-of-the-roll fabric before it goes to the landfull, creating eco-friendly and limited edition pieces for a large part of our Social Occasion Collection
Read on to learn more about how we incorporate sustainablity to the different areas of our business.
Sustainability
Production
The majority of our products are made local to our head office in Vancouver, Canada. We are immensely proud of our enduring partnerships with our local production facilities.
In order to meet the growing demand for our products, we have made the strategic decision to expand our manufacturing capabilities overseas. We worked hard to ensure we chose the right factory to meet our high standards in sustainability, ethical labour practices, and environmental responsibility. Our chosen garment manufacturer is a certified bluesign® partner, which is an accreditation of the facilities’ dedication to reducing environmental impact, emissions, and waste management. The health and safety of their workers is their top priority, in addition to ensuring fair wages, a comfortable working environment and opportunities for professional development.
We're excited to embark on this new journey, combining local craftsmanship and international expertise to deliver the best to you.
Low Textile Waste
Textile waste is an inevitable part of clothing production. At Park & Fifth, we collect all of our fabric scraps from the factory as well as our production facility. We then recycle them with de-brand, located in Delta, British Columbia.
Wearability
We curate our styles for maximum wearability and with the belief that every social occasion dress deserves more than one night out! We hope that you love your Park & Fifth pieces and will wear them for years to come.
While a long dress in your wardrobe may not be your go-to-piece, it has the potential to be! A dress that fits you perfectly is more likely to stick around in your closet. We offer 1-on-1 virtual fittings, over video chat, to help guide you into your perfect size.
Park & Fifth Preloved™
P&F Preloved™ is a project that launched in April 2022 with the goal of helping our customers repurpose their P&F items. We understand that you may not have a need for your dress anymore or you may be ready to make room for something new in your wardrobe.
You can now bring back your gently used P&F dress and receive a credit which can be applied to a new purchase! If the dress is not resellable, we will offer a $10 credit and we will recycle the dress for you.
This project is now offered at our Vancouver, Toronto, and Calgary studios. We want our dresses to see another dance floor, another party, and another good time!
Packaging
We live in an age where the unboxing experience is part of the thrill of online shopping! While we appreciate that beautiful packaging can add to your shopping experience, our brand places more value on reducing environmental impact.
All of our shipping bags and stickers are 100% compostable. This ensures that if the bag doesn't make it into the right bin, it will enter the earth in the least harmful way. We use fully recyclable paper products and boxes for bridal orders and larger orders.
In a world where we are increasingly shopping online, it is our hope that we can reduce the impact of this on our environment as much as possible.
Long Life
Taking good care of your clothes means not having to replace them as often. We encourage our customers to purchase high quality items so that they can live in their wardrobe for longer than one season or event. Many Park & Fifth dresses are machine washable! This avoids the need for harsh chemicals found in dry cleaning.
Here are some tips and tricks for taking good care of your items:
- Wash only when dirty. This is going to keep both your clothing and the planet happy
- When washing polyester items, use a Guppyfriend or Cora Ball to trap and properly dispose of microfibres that would otherwise end up in the ocean
- Hang/lay flat to dry
- Don't be discouraged by stains, many can be removed! For example, baby powder is a great way to absorb oil stains, for all other stains try colourless dish soap