“ We’re
planning to
be small-scale
and intimate
so that we
can be an
educational
resource for
women”SPOTLIGHT
Wool jacket, £755.
Viscose blouse,
£390. Both Another
Tomorrow, at
Matchesfashion.
com. Vintage jeans,
from a selection,
Beyond Retroe-commerce website for their sustainable
brand Another Tomorrow. This month,
the label will launch exclusively on
Matchesfashion.com. Barboni Hallik
describes the clothes as a “foundational,
sustainably driven wardrobe for the
urban woman” – albeit one for whom
supreme quality is also non-negotiable.
Streamlined tailoring is front and centre,
next to relaxed shirting and generously
cut knits. The go-anywhere suits are
Barboni Hallik’s favourite element of
the collection, though there’s nary a lurid
Wall Street pinstripe to be found –
candy brights and tasteful neutrals are
more the vibe.
Barboni Hallik “pivoted” to fashion- to use the management speak that the
38-year-old occasionally reverts to –
after a six-month sabbatical in 2017.
“I was interviewing for sustainable
finance jobs, but I fell down a rabbit
hole of all the impacts of the apparel
industry, and it just gripped me,” she
recalls. “I approached it from a sense of
open-ended curiosity. As a customer,
I couldn’t find information or product
that aligned with my values at any price
point.” A mutual friend introduced her
to Chung – who co-founded DKNY
and now runs Summa, her own
independent label – in February 2018.
After four months of conversation,
they “inked the deal”.
The duo began by analysing supply
chains. “I was pretty naive,” laughs
Barboni Hallik. She has since enrolled
on the masters course in sustainability
management at Columbia University’s
Earth Institute. “We thought there were
going to be a lot of existing materials
that met our criteria from a quality,
sustainability and ethics perspective – and
we really did not find that to be the case.”
Instead, they traced raw materials back
to source, including two family farms in
Tasmania for wool and FSC-certified
forests in Sweden for viscose, a silk
alternative. Raw materials are shipped to
Italy, where they’re woven into custom
fabrics. Buttons are made from 50 per
cent recycled plastic, as well as from
corozo, a nut from a tropical palm.
How does Barboni Hallik define
sustainability in an industry in which
climate-change awareness, and with it
greenwashing, is on the rise? “For me,
it encompasses animal welfare, human
welfare, the environment and the
absolute minimisation of waste – but
it has to be holistic,” she clarifies.
Packaging is a challenge. They’ve settled
on recycled paper and non-wood-pulp
cardboard, but haven’t managed to find
a viable alternative to bioplastic wrappers
for their sharply cut organic cotton
T-shirts. “That’s our goal for next year.”You won’t find Another Tomorrow at
New York Fashion Week. Its approach
is purposely low-key. “We’re planning
to be small-scale and intimate so that
we can be an educational resource for
women.” To encourage mindful
consumerism, it’s launching resale off
the bat. Plus, there’s a full carbon-offset
programme, backed by Barboni Hallik’s
13-year-old stepson (she has three
stepchildren with her husband), who
asked how the brand would keep its
logistics footprint under control. “He
encouraged our family to go vegan in
response to the animal rights protest in
New York,” she laughs. “The questions
he sends my way are brilliant.” n03-20-FOB-Another-Tomorrow_1749631.indd 174 20/12/2019 09:49
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