When she moved to Los Angeles, jewellery designer Durrah Khalil discovered new ways of thinking, writes Aznim Ruhana Md Yusup
DURRAH Khalil used to be a sceptic when it came to products like vegan leather and recycled jewellery. For a long time, the London-based designer for the eponymously named Durrah Jewellery was happy to shop and spend without much thought beyond aesthetic values.
Then she moved to Los Angeles, and began a collaboration with an eco-friendly enterprise called Love Goodly. The LA-based company champions vegan and cruelty-free beauty and wellness products and this changed Durrah’s perspective.
“I wasn’t aware of sustainability before; I am now,” Durrah says during a visit home to Kuala Lumpur. “I am aware of things like the amount of waste in the garment industry and the pollution we cause through our buying habits, especially when things are not fully used.
She looks approvingly at the ceiling of Pulp by Papa Palheta cafe in Bangsar, located in an old printing plant, and says: “You can see they have put effort into reclaiming what’s already here. I’ve become more conscious of things like that.”
RECYCLING METAL
In terms of jewellery, sustainability means working with recycled metals, which is new to Durrah. Since 2013, her products have been manufactured in Italy and made using conventionally-sourced base metals and gold.
“My designs had a certain aesthetic which I could not explore using recycled metals,” she says. “But with Love Goodly, I had the opportunity to do a new design which we tried using recycled metals. The results looked as good as what I had been working with.”
Recycled metal comes from salvaged or disused items, which is then processed and refined. But it’s not as simple as old jewellery melted down and turned into new jewellery. There’s a certain level of trust that jewellers like her need to place on their suppliers.
She says: “Recycled metal costs more but you can’t tell the difference just by looking at it. We’re working with the same people in Italy that we’ve been with since the beginning, so I’m okay. I trust them and they trust that I’m doing this for the right reasons.”
Durrah plans to have her inventory 80-100 per cent sustainable within a year. She’s also looking at other aspects of sustainable practices, such as ensuring fair wages and good working conditions for the workers who make her products.
She’s currently revamping her website to further push online retail. DurrahJewellery.com should be up and running again sometime next month.
HELP AT THE READY
Also in Los Angeles, Durrah became resident designer for a mobile pop-up store called the Westside Collective. With a 1979 trailer truck as its base, the set-up is very much in the hippie spirit of the area, Durrah says.
The pop-up goes to different parts of Los Angeles, and Durrah plans to bring it to Malaysia next year. She won’t be bringing the trailer here though, perhaps just a mock-up to create a similar ambience.
A portion of her sales from these goes to OPCC, a charity organisation that helps the homeless and also victims of domestic abuse, among others. Durrah volunteers every fortnight, helping to cook meals and collect clothes for redistribution.
“The homeless situation in LA is serious,” she says. “In 2015, there were 50,000 homeless people in the Greater LA area and 7,000 of them are war veterans. OPCC rehouses them and trains them to go back into the workforce without prejudice or pre-conditions,” she says.
“Before I left for Malaysia, OPCC wanted a piece of jewellery that it could use to raise funds at a silent auction. I agreed to it even though I wouldn’t be around for the event. It means so much more to me than the sale of the piece because what’s important is the contribution to the community.”
PRODUCT EXPANSION
Furthering her sustainability goals, Durrah is launching a bag made of vegan “leather”. She would not even consider the stuff 10 years ago, she admits.
“Coming from a more traditional fashion and jewellery background, I was being a bit of an elitist,” she says. “How can you make veganism sexy? There’s nothing sexy about it. You think vegan, you think hippies with unwashed hair.”
But the vegan “leather” bag, currently in production, will be the first of (hopefully) many non-jewellery products from her. “The ultimate goal is to one day drop the jewellery from Durrah Jewellery,” she says.
Durrah is also working to create a lightweight sweater with a local company called Cherrybomb. It’s an online clothing manufacturer and retailer that works with deadstock fabrics, i.e. excess or rejects from large companies that would otherwise go into landfills.
“Fashion is such an indulgent part of society and people spend a lot of money on it,” she says. “Not everyone wants to buy sustainable but we’re happy to be in this pocket of the industry. I personally find it very important and believe it will grow even more,” says Durrah.
“But you have to commit. You have to be more stubborn and less greedy to be sustainable. It’s not just in terms of the eco repercussions, but also the reputation and sustainability of your brand.”