Careste Is Building a Sustainable Brand For Women, By Women

By Alex Assoune Aug 14, 2020

Sustainability is a growing movement in the fashion industry. Many brands are driving meaningful change by designing sustainable collections. One of them is Careste, a new fashion start-up based in San Francisco.

Careste represents the next wave of sustainable luxury fashion. It creates sophisticated, relaxed made-to-order silhouettes with zero-inventory. It offers on-demand couture, made to measure and made to order garments.

The American women’s luxury brand wants to disrupt traditional retail with a unique direct-to-consumer model including an inclusive measuring experience and personal, customized fit.

Founded by Chief Executive Officer Celeste Markey and Creative Director Elizabeth Rickard Shah, the new label is committed to sustainability. It aims to eliminate waste and pollution while offering its customers high-quality luxury products at reasonable prices.
“We founded Careste to address the huge problem women face in finding clothes that fit well. Styling, as well as the speed and frequency of change, is far greater in women’s fashion, which makes it more challenging to create individual patterns and make custom one-at-a-time garments for women."

- Celeste Markey, Careste co-founder, and Chief Executive Officer
This ambitious goal is supported by a collection of made-to-order tops and dresses, without inventories of pre-made garments in predetermined and often wasted sizes and colors.

Customers can either select one of the 21 standard sizes from 0 to 20 or contact the brand directly to create a full made to measure item with preferred drape, sleeves, and garment length.

All garments from Careste are made-to-order and crafted exclusively for each of its customers. The luxury label can make almost any size adjustment for bust, hips, waist, neck, or arms.

Careste uses only natural materials such as cotton, silk, and wool, and avoids synthetics, including polyester, nylon, and acrylic, as well as semi-synthetic fabrics like rayon, viscose, lyocell, and acetate.

Both Careste founders have run successful startups in the past and have together over 40 years of experience. They also previously worked for fashion brands and clients such as Bulgari, Giorgio Armani, Sonia Rykiel, and more.

Careste creates each piece of clothing individually and on-demand to eliminate excess waste and avoid mass-production. It follows a sustainable business model and offers a new way of shopping for conscious, luxury fashion.
"Our entire business model is sustainable, we are a small team, and that we started with sustainability as one of our core brand promises as well as our raison d’etre, it has been easier for us then perhaps for others. From the beginning, we mapped out not only a timeline to reach the coveted B Corp status, but also a timeline of attaining all of the elements of sustainability possible."
All Careste luxury pieces are handmade in Shanghai. Its collections are named 29 Palms and Cornerstone. Prices start at USD 255.

Discover Careste sustainable collections at careste.com.

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About the Author: Alex Assoune

Alex Assoune (MS) is a global health and environmental advocate. He founded Panaprium to inspire others with conscious living, ethical, and sustainable fashion. Alex has worked in many countries to address social and environmental issues. He speaks three languages and holds two Master of Science degrees in Engineering from SIGMA and IFPEN schools.

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