TRANSPARENCY

TUA History

TUAessence was born in Costa Rica, in 2015, on a life changing trip, in which the fashion designer Fernanda Lopes Lima fell in love with that paradise and, inspired by it, decided to share her passion for the beach and nature with the world.

It is a slow fashion, vegan, eco and fairtrade beachwear brand ethically and proudly made in Brazil by the hands of valued women, with biodegradable fabrics that have UPF80 solar protection. All suits are double-sided (except for the pants), in order to make them more versatile, meeting the consumer´s demand more widely.

The prints are exclusive and printed with non-polluting water based pigment. They are developed in partnership with visual artists, in order to praise art, as well as the collaborative economy of care.

We value conscious consumption, so we produce in small quantities and only one collection per year, optimizing the use of fabrics and reducing textile waste. Any scraps are reused in the production of other handicrafts or destined for charities that use them for the same purpose.

Our packaging and labels also follow our conduct of respect for the environment, so they are also 100% ecological, since we do not use plastic.

Our mission is to share the appreciation for all that is natural by bringing information on the Fashion Industry, sensibilizing the public to a new environmental awareness and creating sustainable consumption habits; to strengthen female entrepreneurship, the local workforce and encourage the culture of handmade, with a lot of TUA – Transformation, Union and Amor (Love).

IT'S ALL THOUGHT TO CREATE THE MINIMUM ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT AND MAXIMUM SOCIAL IMPACT!

If sustainability and collaboration are also your thing, join us in this revolution!

Fernanda Lopes Lima is graduated in Fashion Design from Fumec University in Brazil, post graduated in Contemporary Art from Guignard University and has a Master degree on Fashion from Istituto Marangoni Milano.

She has always worked in this field, but never with Beachwear. It was on a trip, in 2015, to a fishing village of 2,000 inhabitants in Costa Rica that she fell in love with that paradise bathed in the Pacific and decided to work with bikinis so she could move there.

On a rainy morning with high tide, she was walking on the beach and the currents from Asia had brought a lot of garbage. The sand was full of plastic and she picked one of them. All the letters were in Asian languages so she only understood the expiration date numbers of the product that was once there... 1994! This little plastic that came out of somewhere in Asia had been floating in the sea for 21 years and ended up there, on that pristine beach in Costa Rica.

In that moment, she realized how environmental and social responsibility, valuing the workforce and female entrepreneurship, collaborative economy, conscious consumption and a healthy planet go all together, and one without the other loses strength and meaning.

She studied hard to learn more about the impacts of the Fashion Industry and Textile Technology and committed to making a clean, respectful, fair, empathic and inclusive fashion.

WE MAKE YOUR TUAs

Selma (Pattern Making)

Fernanda (TUA Founder and Designer)

Lezilda (Prototype Seamstress)

Sílvia (Production Adm)

OBS: Gleice (Seamstress) and Paula (Crochet Maker) are missing in the picture

BIODEGRADABLE

Light-(CO2) ®, the fabric used by TUAessence, is a Brazilian-pioneered technology developed by Santaconstancia®. It was the first knitwear to be produced using biodegradable 6.6 nylon yarn AMNI Soul Eco®, researched and created by Rhodia®, a company of the Solvay® group.

The formulation of this yarn has been improved to allow clothing to decompose* quickly after disposal in landfills, when it degrades into biogas and biomass. The decomposition of nylon (the generic name of polyamide), which takes decades to occur on the conventional yarn, happens in up to 3 years in AMNI Soul Eco®, when the fabric is properly disposed of in a place with the right conditions (including humidity, temperature, gases, bacteria and low oxygen levels), such as a landfill. While it has the benefit of a faster decomposition, the product’s wearable lifespan (with proper care) is the same as a conventional polyamide since it is not an oxo-biodegradable fabric (one that degrades when in contact with oxygen).

With a smooth-textured look and elastic structure, Light-(CO2)® is a fabric of extreme comfort and flexibility with a soft and pleasant touch, ideal for daily use in fitness and beachwear.

Its permanent anti-odor technology which is present in its yarn inhibits the proliferation of bacteria. This feature does not come out in the wash, thus making it possible to reduce the quantity of times that the piece requires washing. The Easy Care technology makes ironing unnecessary. A garment’s maintenance is responsible for about 40% of its environmental impact since its domestic care (washing and ironing) also contributes to CO2 emissions. These technologies demand less use of water and energy, helping to preserve our planet.

The article Light-(CO2)® has UV protection 50+ according to the protocol of ARPANSA Standard AS/NZS4399. In this protocol the samples are tested in dry non-stretched fabric. However, through a study carried out by Santaconstancia® in partnership with Rhodia® Solvay®, tests on the stretched and wet sample (Stretch + Wet®), resulted in a UV Protection factor of 80.

This fabric is free of toxic products for human skin according to international certification Oeko-Tex® 100 Class I.
With technical support and partnership with the Basic Sanitation Company of the State of São Paulo - SABESP, Santaconstancia® makes sustainable use of industrial water in the dyeing and printing processes, thus allowing the consumption of reused water and avoiding the use of drinking water. On top of that, TUAessence’s exclusive prints are made with non-toxic and non-polluting water based pigments.

*The composition of Light-(CO2)® is 90% Biodegradable Polyamide and 10% Elastane. Polyamide by itself has no elasticity and given that there aren’t any biodegradable elastic yarns, this combination is necessary. Therefore, the fabric presents 90% biodegradability and 10% conventional polymer decomposition. TUAessence does not use liners, padding, fixed tags or any other substances and/or materials that are polluting, toxic or plastic. Even our packaging and labels are made of eco-conscious materials.

Sources:

tua-historia

biodgradavel