Written by Stelliana R. Siswanto

One of their organic cotton t-shirts.

Currently making waves in the Singapore fashion industry, Etrican has received numerous coverage and acclaim for its clean, casual clothing, manufactured using eco-friendly organic cotton. We sat down one evening with owner Dragos Necula to discuss his organic cotton t-shirts, future plans, and whether making profits is more important than raising awareness.

Q: So what is Etrican about?

A: We are an eco clothing label, meaning we use environmentally friendly fabric for our clothes. Currently, this means organic cotton, which is cotton grown naturally, free from any harmful chemicals.

Q: Will you expand your product line?

A: We’re already doing it. Our next collection, out soon, will include more that just t-shirts. Expect different types of tops but also skirts, dresses, etc.

The reason why we started out with t-shirts was cost – as an independent new label we didn’t have a lot of funds to invest in production. Plus we didn’t know how people were going to react to organic clothing in Singapore at that time.

Q: How have the responses been?

A: The responses have been very good! The media loves us. So far, we  have been featured in local fashion media at least once every single month since launch, including in Straits Times Urban, Elle, Teens and many others. That helped us a lot because to start with  a lot of people weren’t aware of the existence of organic clothing and its benefits for the environment and for those wearing it.

Boatneck long tee.

Q: So what is it that makes these organic products different?

A: Not a lot of people know that cotton, even though it’s the most used fabric in clothes making, is quite difficult to grow as it is sensitive to weather conditions and pests. This leads to a habit of using a lot of chemical pesticides and fertiliser when farming it. For example, it’s estimated it takes 150g of chemicals to grow enough cotton to only produce one t-shirt. And most of these chemicals are toxic, some can even cause cancer; not healthy for us nor the cotton farmers.

Unlike normal cotton, organic cotton is grown naturally without any chemicals and is harvested by hand. The downsides of organic cotton are its low production quantity; its dependence on weather; and labor intensiveness. These make organic cotton more expensive than regular cotton. Surprisingly though, it is not as expensive as people might think. We make a point of trying to make our prices accessible for most people, while keeping a high quality. A product that only a few can afford cannot  make a real difference to the environment!

Q: Was searching for the supplier difficult?

A: Yes, we need to make sure that the cotton we are sourcing is indeed organic, and international certification for this is hard to get. One thing about being environmentally friendly is that you have to be transparent. We import our organic cotton from Shanghai, China, and planning to import from India as well. Eventually we would like to grow our own cotton, to ensure it’s done properly, but at this point, we don’t yet have the resources to do that, so we always make sure that the supplier has a Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certification.

Q: Are you issue-driven or demand-driven? Make profits or raise awareness?

A: Both. Of course you want to raise awareness, that’s why we started the label in the first place. However, to grow the business, we will need to make profits too. Once the business is big enough, people will definitely take notice.

Q: What’s your biggest challenge?

A: Awareness. Although organic cotton is naturally softer than regular cotton, you can’t really feel its effects unless you’re skin sensitive. What’s happening now is that many people buy our t-shirts because of their design, not necessarily because they are eco friendly. Hopefully, people will gradually also recognize the importance of using eco fabrics in clothing and think more about how their shopping affects the environment. The more popular we are, the more people would want to know.

Etrican clothing may be found at the following locations:

spin the bottle

#03-13 The Heeren Shops
Tel: (+65) 6735 9689

Extreme Shop by San Street
Far East Plaza #04-26
Tel: (+65) 6734 2610

Extreme Shop by San Street
Iluma@Bugis #03-04
Tel: (+65) 6238 7370

CHOOSE by Olive Ventures

26A Sago Street
Tel: (+65) 6323 0651

DRESSCODE:
The Cathay #01-07
Tel: (+65) 6732 4606

Etrican Online Store
http://www.etrican.com/
http://twitter.com/Etrican