Kelly Thomas, Founder and Director of the Compostable T-Shirt, shares how she built her Geelong-based clothing brand with the intention of nourishing the earth rather than damaging it. She has created a product where every part of the process is sustainable, ethical, durable, and of course, compostable. Here’s her story in her own words.

6 years ago, an idea to create a solution to textile waste in Australia on paper, later became my mission to create a compostable T-shirt. With a fashion and textiles design background, I was very aware of the problems with the fashion industry, overproduction, overconsumption, and its relentless pace. Raising two kids under 6, I wanted to make a difference to their future. I thought maybe I can solve a problem by creating a solution, changing the formula of fast fashion for future generations. This is my 6-year journey, starting at the beginning and the end of a t-shirt’s life. 

Focusing on the end, when the garment is discarded, I sought to uncover what happens to unwanted clothes and how landfill handles textile waste. I started by cutting small fabric pieces from my wardrobe to compost in my homemade worm farm. The organic matter began breaking down the natural fibers, leaving some remnants behind. Even after six years, some fiber samples remain intact in the soil.

I researched fibers that lessen the impact on our environment and decided hemp was my preferred choice. It didn’t require the water or farming chemicals and was known to be most durable. I designed a basic prototype using natural, undyed, untreated hemp and organic cotton knit fabric. I needed to improve the fit, fabric and dye formula to get my quality fix and emotional fulfilment several times before I felt ready to move to the next stage which was to observe the garment breaking down. So I threw in my compost a tee, worn tested in full form. 

A T-shirt built to break down at the end of its life but most importantly, built to last. 

Exploring ecology and clothing was another reason for the experiment. Can we connect our clothing choices with the natural world? Watching bugs interact with composting t-shirt fibers has certainly inspired me to consider this connection. Also steps forward testing our soil once the Tee and waste is composted. Home composting and soil accreditation process has begun. 

We still have so far to go in Australia with fast fashion problems throughout the supply chain—the resources used to create on mass, the cost of making local clothing, and slowly watching and caring for humans and our natural world slows production and is costly. But it was the best way forward for me. 

I can’t solve all the problems at once but I can keep pushing back to smash the fast fashion formula. 

We finally have an Australian-made, great quality, compostable, plastic-free, zero-waste tee. So I decided to share it with the public. It is made 100 locally in Geelong. A few years later, I have collaborated proudly with people building a better world, Farm My School,  Global Sisters, Parents for Climate, and local businesses. We also make bi-products from our waste.

It feels like we have achieved so much breaking down systems, each day building relationships with people who can come together, observe the problems and buy better to execute change.