Highlights
- Newly launched brand of bedding and sleepwear; sustainable design, materials use, and production.
- Strong environmental goals; looking to the future to maximise sustainable business practices.
- Completely online retail, reaching out to socially-minded customers worldwide.
- Use of digital platform to communicate with their Portuguese factory.
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, manufactured facemasks from fabric off-cuts in return for donations to local food bank.
Irregular Sleep Pattern is run by husband and wife team Jolena and Mil. It is an independent Glasgow based brand of organic bedding and pyjama suits tailored for “socially minded sartorialists”.
Their ambition is to make fabulous and durable products in a way that is ethical and with the lowest possible environmental impact. The couple had carefully planned their brand for three years after spotting a gap in the market for organic bedding and sleepwear. They went into production with a Portuguese manufacturer, launching in September 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company is solely web-based to keep prices down, but is selling direct to customers all over the world.
The Irregular Sleep Pattern brand is centred around two themes: pattern and colour; and an environmental commitment; with a kick-start campaign of gender-neutral tailored pyjama suits and reversible duvet sets.
Their sustainable practices include:
- A design incorporating twin needle construction - more expensive than normal stitching, but ensures increased durability and longevity of products.
- Using sustainable materials - certified organic source cotton is used across the entire range.
- Minimising packaging waste - garment bags and stickers are compostable; postal bags and packing tape are recyclable.
- Not supplying spare buttons as standard, but instead keeping a stock of them to post out when required.
Their design and manufacture practices also minimise fabric waste, with any off-cuts reused for other projects. During lockdown, just before launching their company, they made around 60 facemasks from fabric off-cuts and gave these to people in exchange for donations to the local foodbank.
The owners are continually researching innovative and sustainable ways to make better quality and longer lasting products and are willing to take a financial hit as they believe there is a growing appetite for garments manufactured ethically and sustainably. The company believe customers are attracted by not only the aesthetics of their products, but also their environment commitment. Future plans include sourcing the most planet friendly dyes and sampling other fabrics such as lyocell. To make their products last even longer they are also planning a free mending service and holding mending workshops.
Launching during the pandemic had its challenges with the company having to communicate via Skype with their factory in Portugal. Although they found it a slower way to work, it was completely manageable and post-COVID the company plan to continue to minimise air travel.