About Lite Apparel
Lite Apparel is a small sustainable fashion brand based in Brighton, UK. We make minimal-silhouette pieces in considered fabrics, run small production batches, and publish our supply chain in detail on the sustainability page.
Where it started
Lite was started in the mid-2010s by Kai, who'd spent years working inside the garment industry — first as a buyer for a mid-market UK retailer, then as a product developer at a large fast-fashion brand. The experience that led to Lite wasn't a single moment. It was an accumulation: visiting factories in Bangladesh after the Rana Plaza collapse, working with QC teams who flagged dyeing-effluent violations that got ignored at the buying level, watching season after season of unsold stock get incinerated in the brand's regional distribution centre.
Lite is the brand that came out of leaving. Small enough to know every supplier personally, slow enough to refuse the pressure of seasonal drops, transparent enough to publish what most brands keep behind closed doors.
What we believe about clothing
- Most clothes are worn 7–10 times. That's the fast-fashion average. We design ours to be worn 200+ times. That changes everything about what fabrics are worth, what construction is worth, what designs are worth.
- Consumption is the problem. "Sustainable" fast fashion is a contradiction. We can use the best organic cotton in the world and we're still part of an industry that produces too much. Our answer isn't to scale; it's to stay small.
- Transparency beats certification. Certifications are useful but limited — they tell you what was audited, not how the supply chain operates day to day. We publish our specific suppliers, not just certificate logos.
- Slowness is a feature. Out-of-stock periods are part of the model. So is shipping that takes 4 weeks for a made-to-order piece. The alternative is overproduction.
The Brighton connection
Brighton is the brand's home, partly by accident — Kai moved to Brighton after leaving the corporate fashion job — and partly because the city's small-business, independent-retail, sustainability-curious ethos has been a good fit for the brand from day one. Our smallest production partner (Atelier Brighton, used for restocks and made-to-order pieces) is local. Several of our retail stockists are independent shops in Brighton and Hove.
We stock at our own pop-up in the North Laine occasionally, but most sales are online. The studio is on the edge of Brighton's industrial estate — closer to a workshop than a showroom; visits are by appointment only.
Who we are now
Lite is still small. The team is four people including Kai — two part-time, two full-time. We're not VC-funded; we're not pursuing rapid growth. The business is financed through revenue and a small founder loan. The aim is sustainability in both senses of the word: environmental and economic.
What we don't do
- Greenwashing. If a claim isn't backed by specifics, we don't make it. "Eco-friendly" without context is a phrase we won't use.
- Wholesale at scale. We work with a handful of independent retailers but we won't supply department stores or chains. The volume would compromise our production model.
- Collaborations. Brand collaborations are a fast-fashion mechanism for stoking constant novelty. We don't do them.
- Press releases. If we have news, it goes on the website. We don't hire PR agencies.
Get in touch
Email [email protected] — for sizing questions, pre-orders, stockist enquiries, or to talk about anything on the sustainability page. Replies usually within 1–2 working days. If you're a journalist or writer working on a piece about sustainable fashion, we're happy to talk; we don't have time for vague PR pitches but real research questions are welcome.