The Swiss fashion designer sits in his studio where creativity is tucked away from the bustling city outside. The place is surrounded by collections created from the lack of openness in the fashion market. Where countless customers come along to catch a glimpse of the astonishing collection before they have their hands on it. This was more than just a collection—it was a movement, a statement that resonated with everyone who believed in the power of fashion to transition their lives.

For now, keeping up with the latest trends and the thrill of a good deal outweighs any openness of the market’s sustainability. The fast fashion cycle is sped up by microtrends, where clothes are ending up in landfills faster. According to Ontario Nature, 37 kg of textile waste per person ends up in landfills yearly in Canada where they take hundreds of years to break down.

When Dan Dwir launched his sustainable clothing brand House of Dwir four years ago, he wanted to make sure his products were genderless and planet-friendly.

Dwir has a tailoring background and has been in the industry for more than ten years, mostly doing custom garments for private clients. So he moved out to Toronto in 2019 and decided to launch his ready-to-wear brand.

“I was not able to find garments that I like for myself. Because when you go to menswear, it’s very basic, like shirts, suits and things like that. I was seeing all the red carpets, It’s men’s always in the black tuxedos,” he added “but then if you go to women’s wear in stores, very often the fit doesn’t work for all body shapes.”

A lot of brands don’t follow this genderless guideline Dwir has adapted. His genderless concept does follow the typical “unisex” label, all of his details in his collections are worked to be completely genderless where he raises all these gender norms setting him apart from the rest.

“That’s why I created, really this genderless brand that embraces is size inclusive, embraces anyone? A lot of my pieces you are able to style them your own way as you want. Because I like versatility as well. You buy one piece, but it’s for many, many years and you can wear it in different ways and style differently as well. It’s going to fit you whatever your body shape is.” he said.

All of Dwir’s fabrics are eco-friendly, using certified fabrics such as oeko-tex where everything is locally made. That’s as much sustainability as he can be, being in a small rented studio.

Dwir decided to do everything himself in-house, having utmost two people alongside him. Where big productions do occur, they are produced locally as well. He has contractors in Toronto or the rest of Canada, but there is no overseas shipping and this back-and-forth is not very eco-friendly. He had a hard beginning trying to place himself in a brand, involving many different decisions including production, designing, and creating all the fees just to produce locally. He produces around 30 pieces for each production of one garment because of the slow fashion methods used.

Nikki Byrne is a director at Fashion Takes Action, a non-profit organization that focuses on sustainability in the entire fashion system through education, awareness, and collaboration. They work with educating brands as well as consumers on their usage. Saying that this is a very intersectional topic, and you can’t have reduced environmental impact if no social or ethical problems are solved.

“People just have the ability to buy and want more and more social media, obviously, a huge impact, with consumption. And then the cheap products, polyester, being a very cheap and seemingly disposable product that brands are creating things at higher and higher volumes, and pushing the cost down and down and down. And nobody needs as much clothing as we’re buying.”

Fashion brands are a for-profit business, Byrne says. In order to provide affordable sustainability, a system needs to be created where brands put more value on sustainable choices and come up with solutions. She mentions that brands really need to understand their supply chains, and if that improves, they would inherit more investment in who was making those clothes and the conditions they’re in

Fast Fashion is still very prominent where the average person buys 60% more clothing compared to 15 years ago. Dwir says there are going to be trends coming quicker than we need and that there is no need to just buy too much and then discard it afterwards. The market is very small and niche and as House of Dwir grows even more, Dwir plans to face challenges as they come and keep in mind the sustainability and focus that he started this business with.