Designer Whitney Pozgay and Creative Director Parker Argote co-founded New York-based Whit in 2010 to inspire a creative and artful lifestyle. The womenswear showcases color, print and femininity while bringing a modern aesthetic to sustainable fashion.
The local production of Whit collections allowed for a hands-on approach to production and manufacturing. In spending a lot of time on the factory floors, Pozgay witnessed the excessive amount of waste that haunts the fashion industry from behind closed doors –sparking a vision for circular design at Whit.
“The amount of waste that comes from the production of clothing is hard to ignore,” Pozgay shared. “As our production has grown, we feel the increasing weight of our design decisions, and we are recognizing that waste is only one of many points of impact along our supply chain that we can improve.”
Diving into the CFDA + Lexus Fashion* Initiative 2.0 program as finalists, the duo renewed Whit’s commitment to holistic sustainability. As a small company, the nimbleness and flexibility allowed them to continually incorporate new design and manufacturing practices for impact improvement.
“When we started, we thought we were acting sustainably by using only natural fibers – organic when we could manage it – and focusing on local manufacturing,” Pozgay said. “Through this program, we’re learning how crucial it is to be engaged in the total lifecycle of our garments. We’re rethinking our relationship with each stage of the process from fiber origins to beyond the point the garments are discarded.”
While the label’s sustainable vision has always centered on fashion that stands the test of time through durability and timeless styles, Pozgay and Argote are now expanding that vision to include closed-loop systems as the industry continues to embrace the circular economy.
“We want our clothes to stay in circulation, and we want to become more aware of the entire lifecycle of the things we create,” Pozgay explained. “We hope to develop programs to close the loop so that we can aid in the recycling or repurposing of our garments when customers are finished with them.”
