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Sustainability

A sustainable philosophy of the kARTu handbag studio and the never-ending search for sustainable consumption.

As humanity reached the top of the ecological crisis, consumers began to look for more environmentally friendly solutions in their daily habits. The pursuit of a conscious and less harmful life is gradually bringing change to the 21 st. century human kitchen, heart and closet. Sustainable fashion is a term that is heard almost daily, interesting, frightening, mysterious, seems to be undoubtedly important to everyone, but not fully known. What is it? Is a beige garment automatically more sustainable than bright? Does a recycled cardboard label with a green inscription make your purchase sustainable?  

The topic of sustainability is multifaceted and confusing. But kARTu team believes that the path to a better, cleaner and more sustainable tomorrow is based on openness and clear values.

We invite you to take a look at kARTu studio sustainability ideas:

kARTu studio bags are made from a natural leather that is a secondary raw material from the meat industry.

Natural silk, wool, the skin of exotic animals, the breeding of rare animals for fluffy fur – all these processes, which used to symbolise luxury, nowadays reflect unnecessary pollution and raise ethical questions. kARTu studio is looking for balance in this difficult debate. We strongly oppose the exploitation of endangered animals due to short-term fashion, so you won’t find exotic reptiles or other rare animals leather in our assortment. In order to achieve ethics and balance, the meat and leather industries need to go hand in hand to equalise the demand and supply of both products. Thats why kARTu studio only use high quality secondary cattle leather from the meat industry.  

Product personalisation: individual customer needs create exclusive and long-lasting accessories. 

We want to eliminate the habits of fast, reckless, impulsive shopping, so we offer customer full personalisation of products. Each model of kARTu handbag, backpack, clutch or wallet can be adapted to your individual practical and aesthetic needs. kARTu studio gives you the opportunity to personalise products according to everyone’s creativity and guarantees you a perfect and pleasant purchase

Together with you, we dive into a responsible process: to choose the size of the handbag, to match the colours of the leathers, to balance the totality of details. All that just to make each backpack lie comfortably on your shoulders, to fit your favourite drinker in your handbag, or to make the clutch zipper fit perfectly with festive high heels. When every detail of an accessory is adapted to a personal wardrobe and lifestyle, then the desire to decorate it does not disappear for years, two, tenths.

We invite you to leave fast, spontaneous impulsive shopping in sweet movies and choose a creative, personal process! You will be able to personalise the desired kARTu model both in the studio in Kaunas and on the kARTu website.

The secret of exclusive accessories is a wide palette of leather patterns, colours and thicknesses.

kARTu palette includes a wide range of colours, thicknesses, textures and sensations, allowing you to play with your mood and create unique accessories for any style. With the help of modern leather processing technologies, patterns, textures and interesting surfaces are created on the surface of cattle skin. This means you can have a handbag with crocodile or snake skin patterns without contributing to the destruction of rare animal species. Such a process of creating textures not only stops the excessive use of animals, which is no longer relevant to the conscious modern human, but also gives fashion lovers the opportunity to enjoy playful accessories.

Instead of a discount code – an invitation to take responsibility.

In times of spontaneous shopping and endless discount codes, kARTu studio refuses to be part of the sales culture. The answer to the questions when you can expect special kARTu prices, says the company’s founder Ingrida Jasinske, is that we have nothing to sell. We have not accumulated an excess of products that should be reduced. At first sight, the dark side of fun and festive sales is a lost time and countless unnecessary purchases. Respect for the employees of the fashion house is another reason why we do not support a culture of discounts. By enticing customers with reduced price of products, we would underestimate the work of masters and waste their time and energy. We are confident that style can (and should) go hand in hand with responsibility. An accessory that has been recovered, waited for and personalised is one example of responsible consumption.

New collections – only twice a year.

We invite you to take a break from the world of shopping that is too fast and screaming too easily and to remember that the handbag purchased in October will really delight you and in November too. At the end of a new collection peak, the models of handbags, backpack and accessories do not disappear. They sit quietly on the shelves and wait for THAT client until they are able to shine in new colours. The design of the handbag, originally created for a bright summer collection, will be reborn in a rich burgundy and perhaps coquettish pink colour. And the design will be reborn all over again.

Sustainability in universality.

One of the most important modern human goal is to find balance. Balance between work and leisure, the city and nature, the attention to others and time for yourself, that’s why kARTu accessories are adaptable to a variety of environments and context. The most handbag models have several wearing options that change constantly according to function or mood. A sustainable accessory is the harmony of an eye-catching style accent with its everyday personal function: comfort, strength, versatility. Dynamic accessories respond to the daily life of an energetically active person and embody one of the most important values ​​of kARTu – the courage to be yourself.

No scraps becomes a rubbish.

We strictly follow the philosophy of minimal waste in the production process. Small pieces of genuine leather turn into playful accessories: wallets, card holders, cosmetics. Also, we donate part of the leather scraps to children’s day care centers, small artists’ communities and handcraft creators. In this way, we ensure that the maximum amount of raw material is meaningful and turned into useful products, rather than being dumped in a rubbish bin.

An important part of the always changing kARTu leather range is the surplus of leather products and discontinued samples from warehouses in Italy. A small batch of high-quality genuine Italian leather reaches the studio just a couple of times a year. This not only facilitates the storage of materials, but also ensures the uniqueness of leather products. It is possible that the piece of leather that you choose for your handbag today is the last one in this world, so the happiness to decorate a product of this colour will go only to you. We turn the scraps of large companies into big fashion joys at the small manufactory.

No creative process can do without mistakes and failed attempts. In kARTu workshops, however, production samples that do not match the original vision or the idea of ​​the collection are never wasted. Experienced workers recycle them into durable and aesthetic accessories that meet the kARTu standard.

The purpose of packaging is functionality not beauty.

Exclusive boxes and impressive packaging elements really bring joy. But it’s so short-lived! Instead, we dedicate our experience and resources to the production of impressive and high-quality backpacks, handbags and other accessories. Together, we pack our products in easily recyclable cardboard boxes and paper. We invite you to extend the life of the packaging and reuse it at home: the paper is perfect for wrapping a bouquet of fresh flowers, and the sturdy cardboard box will hold the little things at home or in the wardrobe.

The importance of locality and the invitation to reduce air pollution.

In recent years, as never before, we have developed the habit of buying goods from all over the world just with one click. A trifle that costs a few euros comes from China and if it doesn’t meet our desires – we effortlessly send it all 7,000 kilometres back. For us, this is a trifle, and for nature it is a tragedy. This irresponsible consumer behaviour not only takes away profits from local developers in the country, but also pollutes the atmosphere with suffocating emissions.

kARTu seeks to move away from habits that are harmful to nature, people and the economy, and concentrates its production processes in Lithuania, or more precisely in Kaunas, under one studio roof. A key aspect of sustainability is that we can directly manage changes in production, save time and energy on transport, and minimise emissions in the production chain.

Respect for local workers and ethical standarts.

We strongly oppose the dehumanisation of an employee due to the rapid trends of fashion, and we strongly believe that only a person who is honestly valued and respected for his meticulous work can achieve high quality results. The study of Lithuanian leather handbags provides jobs for the people of our country and the production processes take place in Lithuania, without looking for cheaper labor in factories in India or China. When a small but efficient production team works together, we can not only easily ensure the quality of handbags, backpacks and accessories, but also inform specialists about changes in customer orders. In this way, we prevent excessive and untargeted work resources.

The circular economy and the possibility of a long-term guarantee.

kARTu’s future plans include new creative projects that invite you to contribute to the development of a circular economy and educate current and future kARTu customers about the traces of fashion in an ecological context. We are pleased to introduce the new kARTu service – a 5-year or 10-year product warranty! This certificate will ensure constant care of your leather handbag, backpack or wallet. It will be available for additional purchase by each of our customers when purchasing kARTu products both in the studio and in the electronic space. kARTu specialists will carefully strengthen the seams of the backpack if they are freed from the daily possessions of life; will replace the zipper of your favourite handbag if it did not withstand the stormy party dancing; or we will help if a metal fitting part is lost. The product warranty is an exclusive focus on people who trust our creations and a careful incentive to enjoy accessories for many years.

Future plans and endless lessons for sustainability.

It’s hard to believe but the handbag studio in Kaunas will celebrate its tenth birthday very soon. The colours, patterns and moods have changed, but the circle of our customers and fans, who are always warm, has grown and expanded with us.

We couldn’t count how many products live in your closets and go on a daily adventure with you! We are well aware of the feeling that a beloved handbag that has faithfully accompanied you throughout your life would withstand a few more trips and delusions, but its appearance is no longer as pleasing as it used to be.

We look forward to sharing our unique vision for the future – a collection of recycled handbags. We will very soon invite you to bring us no more joyful, perhaps historical kARTu products, without any remorse. You will receive a discount for a new stylish joy, and we will recycle old products into an exclusive collection.

This project will create a closed circular kARTu ecosystem:

Buy a new KARTu product – Decorate it and embark on the most unexpected journey of a lifetime – Return a bored or unhappy kARTu accessory back to the studio – Get a discount on a new product – Your old handbag comes to life in a recycled handbag collection – Buy a new kARTu product next …

We want to combine your daily joy and our long-term work into a sustainable and conscious circle of slow fashion. Will you join us?

Recent times have made it clear that the world does not stand still. Old beliefs are collapsing, people’s life and consumption habits are changing. So the rules of sustainability, both in everyday habits and in global fashion, are not constant. We are constantly looking for new ways to delight quality fashion lovers with products that do no harm to the planet, animals and humans. Today, we can only keep our promise firmly: to foster responsible consumption, to celebrate sustainable creativity and to continue to take a caring approach to the people who have contributed to the organic growth of the kARTu community.

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