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✦ Ethics & Sustainability

Two homes.One standard.

Every Empress piece is made either in our own facility on the Sunshine Coast, or by a partner we have chosen, checked and held to the exact same bar overseas. Same ethics. Same quality. Same women making the call. That isn't a compromise. It's how we build size-inclusive activewear real women can actually afford.

✦ Meet both our homesThe standard we hold →
Sunshine Coast · QLD · Australia Our vetted partners · Offshore

Why we bother

Clothes are made by people. How they're treated is the most important thing about what you're wearing.

Every Empress garment passes through someone's hands. We think you should know whose, where, and under what conditions. That's the part of sustainable that most brands quietly skip.

Dual manufacturing

Made here. And made there.

Most brands pick one and defend it. We do both on purpose. Reviving Australian manufacturing matters to us, and so does making activewear a woman on any budget can actually buy. Here's exactly what happens where.

Australian made

Sunshine Coast, QLD

Our Aussie factory

We're revitalising Australian manufacturing from a shed on the Sunshine Coast. Our machinists are employed directly by us, on Australian wages and conditions. We're staunch advocates for local employment, giving Australian women the chance to gain independence, forge friendships, build skills and find real fulfilment in meaningful work.

  • Cut and sewn in-house, by our own team
  • Directly employed team, on Australian award wages
  • Labelled AUS MADE on the garment
  • Local jobs for Australian women
Made in Dongguan, China

Dongguan, CN

Our Overseas factory

Some styles are crafted offshore, and we're not going to pretend otherwise or bury it in the fine print. These are long-term partners we chose deliberately, and we check every facility against our own ethical standards before a single piece is made. Same expectations, same trademark Empress quality.

  • Held to the same expectations as our own factory
  • Long-term relationships, not lowest-bidder shopping
  • Same quality testing as everything we make here
  • Keeps size-inclusive activewear affordable
✦ Both must clear exactly the same bar

The standard

What “ethically produced” actually means to us.

It's an easy phrase to put on a website. Here is what we mean by it, and it applies identically to our own factory and to every partner we work with.

  1. Safe conditions

    Clean, safe, properly equipped workspaces. The kind of room we'd be happy for our own daughters to work in.

  2. Fair pay

    In Australia our team is employed directly on award wages. Our overseas partner is required to meet local labour law on wages and hours.

  3. Reasonable hours

    We don't set deadlines that can only be met with forced overtime.

  4. Dignity & respect

    People are treated as people. Made by women, for women, means something about how we treat the women who make it.

  5. We check constantly

    We meticulously assess every facility against our standards before production begins, and we continue to monitor.

  6. Long relationships

    We don't chase the cheapest quote each season. Stable partnerships are how standards actually hold.

“We aim to make a difference in the world, and believe that leaving it better than we found it is a true win.”

Brittany Lewin · Founder

What your order changes

Small brand. Real ripples.

We're not going to claim we're saving the planet. We will tell you the two things that genuinely shift every time someone chooses Empress.

  1. An Australian job

    Every AUS MADE piece is hours of skilled work for a woman on the Sunshine Coast, in an industry most people had already written off. That's not a marketing line. It's a wage, a skill and a friendship group that wouldn't otherwise exist.

  2. A floor that gets better, not abandoned

    Choosing brands that actually check their offshore partners is how standards rise over there. Pulling out and buying elsewhere doesn't lift a single person. Staying, paying properly and holding the bar does.

Why presale

We make garments for you, not for landfill.

Fashion should be fun and inclusive to every woman, whatever her size or shape. It shouldn't cost the earth. Our presale model means we make what's actually wanted, in the size that's actually wanted, instead of guessing and burning the leftovers.

  1. You order in your size

    Every size from AU 6 to 30+ is available on presale. No more “sold out in my size before I got there”.

  2. We make exactly that

    Presale ranges are cut to the order. No speculative bulk runs, no warehouse full of stock nobody asked for.

  3. It ships to you

    Slow fashion, minimal waste. You wait a little longer and almost nothing is thrown away.

Slower on purpose. Wasteful on nobody's watch.

Find out more about presales →

It starts with packaging

More than just our compostable mailers.

You will never receive an Empress garment in a cheap cellophane bag. Here's exactly what arrives at your door, and what happens to it after.

Mailing bag

Fully compostable. The bag your order travels in breaks down instead of hanging around for centuries.

✓ Compostable

Garment bag

Also fully compostable. Never cheap cellophane, the detail most brands quietly skip.

✓ Compostable

Swing tag

Made from recycled cardboard, so the tag on your new favourite pair has already had a life.

✓ Recycled

Thank you card

Recycled cardboard too. A little note that doesn't cost the planet anything.

✓ Recycled
✦ Still working on it

The string on the swing tag.

That tiny piece of string is the one part of our packaging that isn't compostable yet. We could quietly not mention it. Instead we're telling you, because we're actively hunting a sustainable alternative. We'd rather be honest about the last 1% than pretend it's finished.

Our aim is every element compostable or recyclable.

Built to last

The most sustainable garment is the one you keep wearing.

Durability is a sustainability strategy. Premium fabric, quality threads, and every style tested before it ships, from either factory. We don't ship a style that pills, sags or goes see-through.

Do you think we could do more?

Of course we could.

There is always room for improvement, and as a customer you hold real power to change what we do. If you have an idea for how we can be better for our people, our partners or the planet, we genuinely want to hear it. No idea is too small, including the string.

✦ Send us your idea

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