Australian sustainable fashion labels on the world stage: Vege Threads & B Goods Label

Vege Threads and B Goods Label sharing the space at Open Studio Adl.
Vege Threads is one Australian brand to watch. 

With a focus on season-less, wearable style, Vege Threads founder, designer and all-round business gal Amy Roberts is motivated by making sustainable fashion accessible to all.

And with that, Amy has joined forces with fellow Adelaide-based designer, the lovely Anny Duff of B Goods Label, to launch a Pozible campaign to help the pair get to Paris next month where they have been accepted to showcase their collections.

Exciting news for sustainable Australian fashion!

I caught up with both Amy and Anny in their co-working space Open Studio Adl (which also hosts SALA artwork during August as well as regular yoga classes) during my recent Adelaide visit to learn more about their journeys and hear about their exciting plans.


Launched in May 2013, Vege Threads is now proudly 100% onshore with their Spring/Summer collection to be locally made in South Australia.

Vege Threads and B Goods Label garments.
“A lot of people said to me no one is going to care that you’re coming to Australia, no one is going to be prepared to pay more – and I’ve totally proved them wrong!” Vege Threads founder Amy says.

“Vege Threads is more about the accessibility to eco-fashion and that’s been really important to me. It shows people that there are other ways of doing things, it’s not just about making profit.”

Amy has worked in London and here in Australia for different brands, also studying fashion design in Adelaide and Melbourne. But she didn’t like what she was learning about the majority of the fashion industry.

“It was one of those things where the more I delved into everything, especially with the course that was being taught at the time, it was very much focussing on the unsustainable structure of the industry.
Anny Duff, B Goods Label and Amy Roberts, Vege Threads.
“We were learning things but anyone that really understands where we are at as a society in terms of mass consumption and wastage I was thinking, ‘why are they teaching us these ways?’ That just continues the cycle.”

It was the opportunity to do an internship with an eco-fashion brand in Paris that cemented Amy’s decision to play her part in changing the industry.

“Once you learn about it, it was hard for me to come back to Australia where there were no jobs in those fields because the brands didn’t really exist. I worked for a normal design house and I just didn’t want to be a part of it. It was either do my own thing or say goodbye to fashion as a career.”

It was the fast fashion focus and the wastage in the industry that turned Amy off – the monthly collections, the waste of materials, samples and resources. No decision seemed considered; it was all about the cheapest of the cheap from manufacturing to materials.

Amy initially started Vege Threads doing what she could in terms of sustainability. She sourced her organic cotton and lyocell fabrics in Indonesia, working with an artisan family-run business which used 100% plant dyes.

Vege Threads has since been accredited by Ethical Clothing Australia and Amy’s focus will now be on localising and driving the brand in a closed loop system – reinventing and reusing as much as possible, with a transparent supply chain.

If you’re in Adelaide, pop down and say hi to Amy and Anny at Open Studio Adl, Rear Entrance of 33 Sturt Street. And if you’re further afield, check out their Pozible campaign to learn more about these inspirational start-ups and support Australian sustainable fashion on the world stage.

Best of luck ladies!
-  Ash 

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