Shelly Xu Design

Sep 29, 2020

Shelly Xu Design is a sustainable fashion startup applying the zero-waste philosophy to create beautiful clothing in New York City.

Its founder Shelly Xu, an ex-Prada, ex-Instagram, and ex-McKinsey employee incubated her startup at Harvard University's Innovation Labs.

She aims to make zero-waste fashion the future fashion that’s accessible to people. She started by putting 82 original zero-waste fashion concepts to the test on Instagram.

Shelly Xu designs, creates and sells women’s clothing online with zero-waste design in mind. She uses minimal design and production to promote sustainable fashion.

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Sustainability Rating: 5/10

Rating FAQ

Category: Clothing

For: Women

Type: Dresses

Style: Chic, traditional

Quality: High

Price: $$$

Sizes: S, one size fits all

Fabrics: Waste fabrics

100% Organic: No

100% Vegan: No

Ethical & Fair: Yes

Recycling: Yes

Producing Country: USA

Certifications: No certifications

Sustainability Practices

"More than sustainability people cared the most about whether or not this clothing looks good on me, and whether or not I can afford it. Today’s sustainable fashion is often more expensive. And it doesn’t look that exciting.”

- Shelly Xu, Shelly Xu Design founder

Shelly Xu works exclusively with waste fabrics. Instead, of producing many units in bulk, she determines what customers want and takes the designs to specific on-demand manufacturers who produce garments with no fabric waste.

She sources fabric scarps from FABSCRAP, a 501(c)3 charitable organization that meets New York City’s commercial textile recycling needs.

Fabric scraps are collected multiple times per day from designers, brands, and manufacturers in New York City, and are then used to produce Shelly Xu's collections.

The brand uses a fair amount of recycled materials, natural fabrics, synthetics, and animal-derived textiles such as wool.

Sustainability Goals

Shelly Xu Design doesn't have any clear sustainability goal or timeline to reduce its water and carbon footprint in the future.

Buy Here

Discover Shelly Xu's sustainable collection at shellyxu.design.

Reviews And Experiences With Shelly Xu Design

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What We're Up Against

Multinational corporations overproducing cheap products in the poorest countries.
Huge factories with sweatshop-like conditions underpaying workers.
Media conglomerates promoting unethical, unsustainable products.
Bad actors encouraging overconsumption through oblivious behavior.
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