#WesternFashion – Meet Mi Terro, The Sustainable Fashion Brand That Makes Clothing Items From Milk

​​​The fashion industry is slowly turning to sustainability in fashion due to concerns for the environment. As this is happening, many are speaking out against fast fashion and various fashion businesses are turning to slow and sustainable fashion.

Every fashion brand has its way of creating sustainable fashion, be it by turning old clothes into new ones, or by using old milk to make clothes. 

The Mi Terro fashion brand is a Los Angeles based sustainable fashion brand that was founded in 2018 by Robert Luo. The brand was birthed out of a desire by its Founder to reduce the amount of food waste going on in the world.

The Mi Terro Fashion Brand and Sustainability

According to CEO and co-founder, Robert Luo, “Mi Terro is a green fashion brand that aims to solve world problems through means of sustainable fashion.”

Since its inception, the Mi Terro fashion brand has dabbled into a few sustainable projects, the latest of which is their Milk Tee. 

Robert first gained interest in the idea of the Milk Tee when he found out, from watching a YouTube video, that 128 million tons of dairy products are wasted every year globally and this troubled him. From the number of dairy products wasted, Robert Luo found an opportunity. Upcycling unused waste into high-quality shirts. 

By upcycling unused milk and turning it into shirts, Mi Terro has given a new narrative to sustainability in the fashion industry. As part of its move towards sustainability, Mi Terro partners with Eden Reforestation Projects to plant 10 trees for every product they sell. 

How are the Mi Terro Milk Shirts Made?

The Mi Terro milk shirts are made from a four-step process. The process of turning milk into shirts takes up to 2 months to complete resulting in five shirts made form one glass of milk. 

1. Excess milk is sourced from a partner dairy farm of the fashion brand in China.
2. The milk is fermented and skimmed to remove fat from it then it is dewatered, turning it into powder. 
3. The powdered milk is then dissolved, dried, and purified to remove substances that are not casein (a substance that makes up a large proportion of milk).
4. This casein is then processed to form fibres that are stretchy and formed into yarn. 

The resulting fabric is said to be three times softer than cotton, stretchy, odour free, anti-bacterial, breathable, and many more. 

To make the shirts even more comfortable and breathable, the milk fabric is combined with micromodal, another environmental-friendly fibre made from the beechwood tree. The micromodal fabric is similar to cotton but is manufactured more sustainably.

Owing to the softness of the fabric, the shirts have a luxurious feel to them that gives its wearer comfort. The fact that the mill fabric is lightweight also makes it perfect for exercising, long journey, warm climates, and everyday wear.

As the fashion brand grows, they hope to go into the production of other clothing items like pyjamas, socks, scarves, and underwear.

Other Sustainable Practices by the Mi Terro fashion Brand

The first product the fashion brand released was a tote bag made from sustainable items – natural cork and ocean plastic. This product was made from a need to reduce the amount of waste plastic in the oceans. 

The bag is lightweight, durable, and spacious enough to pack a bag all anyone will need for a weekend getaway. 

What’s to Learn from the Mi Terro Fashion Brand?

The Mi Terro fashion brand has taken sustainable fashion to a new level with its milk shirts. They have succeeded in making turning their pain into gain by reducing food waste and making environmentally friendly clothing items.

As a fashion designer, you can take a pain point in your life, or society, and see how you can turn that into a gain point for you and everyone around you. Fashion designers can also be superheroes and change the world one outfit at a time.