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- “I’m Obsessed With Creating an Optimistic Future”: Madre Natura Wins the 2023 Sustainability Award
“I’m Obsessed With Creating an Optimistic Future”: Madre Natura Wins the 2023 Sustainability Award
Instagram / @themadrenatura
On Thursday, March 9, at the National Designer Awards, presented by David Jones and in conjunction with PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival, the inspiration was far-reaching.
Designer Dylan Best (of Best Jumpers) took home the 2023 Designer Award and Jemyma Kavanagh (of Hyde & Stone) nabbed the People’s Choice Award. But it was the Sustainability Award that you were most interested, because I think we can all agree, sustainable fashion is a hot topic. It was Jackie Galleghan’s madre natura that won the coveted prize.
On the runway, Galleghan’s pieces captured our attention.
A silk organza twin set, hand beaded with pearl sea shell beads and styled with thick-framed sunnies and Mary Janes. Perfect for the ‘it’ girl or the cool bride-to-be.
A silk blended white suit, with wide pants and an oversized blazer — giving off elegant glamour vibes of a working woman who oozes timelessness.
A gender neutral denim bomber, made with a stiff denim cotton blend and styled off-the-shoulder, but would look cute worn at least three other ways.
Galleghan’s collection gave versatility, impeccable finishing and most importantly — an unparalleled commitment to circular sustainability.
“If I hadn’t won this award then I think it would’ve been a little silly because I’m slightly obsessed with sustainability,” an emotional Galleghan told POPSUGAR Australia post-win. “Being completely transparent, I think that if I was going to win one award, it had to be this one. Sustainability is something that’s part of my DNA.”
Having been in the industry for over a decade, Galleghan actually started out her career at her local Vinnie’s store, which is where her concern for the number of clothes being thrown away and going to landfill was ignited.
“When I was studying fashion I worked at Vinnie’s in Newtown, which really showed be the after-life of fashion,” she says.
“I physically saw the tonnes and tonnes of clothes going into landfill, which was a really scary and emotionally-inducing thing to see at the beginning of my fashion career. I just used to think like ‘what can I do?’ ‘how can this be fixed?’ but just felt helpless. I always knew that when I started my own business, it had to be purpose-driven.”
Her brand madre natura — which translates to ‘mother nature’ in Italian — works under four pillars of sustainability: sustainable, ethical, circular and slow fashion. This sees her think outside-the-box, working within sustainable practises in every facet of the production and distribution and lowering environmental impact in a way that can actually help us to see an optimistic future.
“I’m obsessed with creating an optimistic future for Australia fashion,” she said tearfully in her acceptance speech, “this means so much to me.”
madre natura is doing so much for sustainable fashion, that it’s actually overwhelming to know where to start in explaining it. With an upmost effort to engage in a circular way — meaning that the entire system is sustainable and works together — the brand offers free mends, so that you don’t have to throw your broken or outgrown garment out, and care instructions, so that the piece can last for as long as possible.
And that’s just two small ways that Galleghan is promoting and living sustainability in fashion.
“We use certified, natural fabrics, dead-stock fabrics, circular trims,” she says. “We avoid using virgin materials and threads at all costs.”
And, if your garment is beyond repair or you simply want to do a wardrobe clean-out, the brand has a mn_Reprocess initiative, that sees them reprocess it back into fabric. This ensures their vision to keep their products out of landfill and the customer will receive a gift for sending it back!
“We also have an offsetting program, which offsets all the carbon emissions we create.”
Designing ethically out of Sydney, Galleghan’s vision for the future is to create a madre natura Atelier, where they can “continue to be transparent and make ethical clothing for other brands”, to carry their passion for creativity through the Australian fashion industry, educating and making sustainable process more accessible.
You can shop everything madre natura here.
