Pair Up is a clothing line that brings thoughtful basics to life through the power of color. By releasing and celebrating a few designs at a time, we honor those pieces and their own unique form.
Our name was inspired by the process of getting dressed. You pull a few special items from your closet and pair them up together, as an expression of your own unique self. Pair Up also embodies the idea of collaboration. Whether that's cotton and color, ingredients in the kitchen, a friendship, a song, a film... they're all created through the process of coming together.
Most importantly, we view fashion as an opportunity to create mindful art, not disposable waste. Keep reading, to learn more about our team and the creation process.
There's only two of us, and we like it that way. We work out of our San Diego based studio, to create (almost) everything you see in the shop.
We take pride in owning the majority of the production process. It comes from our hands — we design, sample, dye, cut, sew, experiment, quilt, screen-print, snack, chat, etc.
You name it, we probably do it!
The New Denim Project is a third-generation family-owned textile mill based in Guatemala. Their sole purpose is to create natural fabrics by upcycling textile excess. To do this, they collect pre-consumer industrial waste from various textile mills, grind the scraps back into fiber, then respin them to fabricate new yarns and fabrics. Their circular manufacturing process is chemical-free, dye-free and uses minimal water and energy. Wow, right?
We are beyond proud to be using their fabric and think they are a prime example of sustainability at its best!
Simply put, it's unused fabric that has been abandoned for a handful of different reasons. Sometimes brands overestimate their needs, a fabric mill might accidentally produce too much, or a dye house doesn’t match a requested color perfectly. Whatever the reason, it needs to find a new home.
This is a great option for small brands like Pair Up, because it allows us to access an insanely large library of fabrics at a more affordable price. We are lucky enough to live close to the Los Angeles Fashion District, so we drive up to search for dead-stock in person. It's like a treasure hunt — you never know what you’re going to find!
Depending on the project, we'll either hand-dye garments at our studio or we'll outsource it to a Dye House in Los Angeles. In both instances, we use Fiber Reactive Dyes that have an incredibly strong wash and light fastness.
We get all our dyes from Dharma Trading Co, an incredible family owned and run business. It was founded in 1969 in Berkeley, CA - on the principle that it's possible to be involved in business while maintaining good ethical values.
Yes, please!
From day one, we've saved our cutting scraps instead of throwing them in the trash. Sounds like a no brainer but its hard work, keeping it all organized and making room to store it. We give them a second life by working them into smaller, one-of-a-kind pieces, like our coveted Scrap Bag.
Current Environmental Goals: We want to achieve as close to zero waste as possible, through our in-house scrap program and by partnering with a fabric recycling facility. We're also in the process of outfitting our San Diego studio to be run by 100% solar power. YAY!
We screen-print our garment tags in-house, on the same Upcycled Cotton we sew the pieces in. The goal is to use this sustainable fabric as often as possible, creating as little cut off waste as possible. We're also now using outsourced tags printed here in Southern Calif.
We ship all of our orders in EcoEnclose products. They have developed a recycled, recyclable and naturally biodegradable packaging that we absolutely love. No single use plastics, baby!
