We Chat to Seljak About the Highs & Lows of Building a Sustainable Brand

Sam (left) & Karina from Seljak 

Knowing who designs and makes your products is very important for us at MM, particularly in this age of mass-production, fast fashion and fast homewares where the makers are often forgotten. For us, it's the people behind the product that make the product that little bit more special and so we asked all of our makers to answer two of a selection of questions for us to share with you here and on our social media 

Meet Sam and Karina, Australian based designers, sisters and the driving force behind Seljak blankets. Driven to create without impacting our planet, Seljak is carbon neutral, offsetting their emissions through the Rimba Raya project in Indonesia, which conserves 65,000 hectares of peat swamp forest in Central Kalimantan in Borneo. Using recycled fabrics, which to date have diverted 6,900kg of textile waste from landfill, the Seljak brand has been built thoughtfully and considerately. If that's not enough, Seljak Brand has donated $17,270 and 284 blankets to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and with every year these numbers increase, they are the most admirable brand we have ever met. ⁠

The Seljak Pyramid Blanket 

Sam from Seljak shares what has been most rewarding and most challenging about growing their brand:

What have you found most rewarding since starting your brand? 

The most rewarding thing is the wonderful community we’ve been able to create – it’s enabled us to collaborate with other brands, grassroots groups, industry, tertiary institutions, government – a real spectrum of society. It’s inspiring seeing so many individuals working towards a common goal. A more just and equitable life for people and planet.

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What are some of the main challenges you've faced on your journey with your brand?

Keeping as much manufacturing in Australia as possible has been difficult. 

While we really enjoy working with our excellent mill partners in Europe, and designing for the Jacquard looms that aren't available in Australia, we would LOVE the local manufacturing capacity to enable us to make everything here. 

Localising manufacturing is part of the transition to sustainable cities and a regenerative economy.

See more from Seljak here.