Founded in Montreal in 2020, &Or is a zero-waste clothing brand set on transforming fashion’s sustainability standards through technology and circularity. At the heart of its mission is, of course, the clothing: chic, elevated, ultra-wearable pieces for women and men that suit all aspects of life, from everyday ease to more formal occasions and even travel.
The women-led company is the brainchild of public-relations and marketing professionals Katie Green and Kristen King, who launched the brand-marketing agency August Strategy after they met while working at L’Oréal. Inspired by the likes of Flamingo Estate and Métier Creative—marketing agencies that have successfully made the leap from storytelling to creating their own products—in 2020 they decided to try their hand at entrepreneurship.
To bring their vision to life, the duo reached out to Rosa Halpern, creative director behind Toronto-based leather atelier By the Namesake and an expert in apparel design. With her involvement secured, &Or Collective was born.
While Green’s and King’s extensive experience in the beauty space may have made cosmetics or skincare a more obvious choice for their foray into product development, the pair felt a calling to right the wrongs of the fashion industry.
“In fashion, while there are people in sustainability, there are still a lot of the same problems to solve,” Green says. “We decided to start with the premise that we’re going to build &Or from the idea that we can do things differently: create a beautiful, timeless brand and completely rethink the traditional production methods. And we had no idea how we were going to do it.”
That’s where Halpern’s expertise came in. Known for her custom leather garments, she introduced Green and King to technical knitting—a production technique that Green refers to as 3-D knitting technology.
“Our garments are printed from yarn to garment. There are no cut-offs,” she explains, referring to leftover pieces of fabric that are typically discarded. “It’s less than one per cent waste versus traditional cut-and-sew, where you have 20 to 30 per cent waste from the moment you start production.”
This technique also allows the line to be produced on demand, meaning the brand can accommodate small production runs and easily replenish them when required.
The brand’s tight collection of knit designs for men and women brings a laidback relevance to capsule dressing, with figure-flattering cuts that are easy to wear and colours that never go out of style—coffee brown, eggshell, charcoal and sky blue.
“‘Timeless’ is a term we’ve all heard, but it doesn’t need to mean ‘basics,’” says Green. “We still have a point of view, and when you wear our pieces, there’s something special to it. But we’re definitely not looking to drop a hot-pink garment just because that’s the colour of the season.”
Eschewing trends, the designers approach their styles with a long-term perspective, hoping customers will wear the garments for as long as possible. When a piece inevitably reaches the end of its life cycle, &Or has partnered with Supercircle, a New York–based company that diverts textiles from landfill to ensure they are properly recycled.
That unwavering commitment to sustainability has already caught the attention of major fashion retailers like Holt Renfrew. In 2024—just a year after &Or Collective’s soft launch, following three years of research and development—Holt Renfrew invited the brand to join H Project, the retailer’s curated collection of purpose-led products.
“&Or Collective’s commitment to innovation and sustainability perfectly aligns with our mission,” says Alexandra Weston, vice president of brand and creative strategy at Holt Renfrew, who created H Project in 2013.
From materials to design, &Or’s ethos is evident in its Spring 2025 collection. Titled “New Beginnings,” the line invites the wearer to reset, refresh and renew. To bring a sense of seasonal airiness to the garments, the team developed a new eco-viscose fabric that is silky and lightweight.
“It has a little bit more of a luxe, fancy vibe to it,” says Green.
The new styles focus on versatility and maximum wearability. Skirt 02 is an evolution of their bestselling skirt, updated with an ankle-grazing length and a concealed waistband that allows it to be worn low, mid or high on the waist. Tank 02, meanwhile, is fully reversible and can be worn either as a mock-neck or a plunging V-neck.
Because the eco-viscose proved especially compatible with swimwear, the brand also introduced Bikini 01, a triangle top and mid-rise bottom set that balances minimal coverage with confident style.
As big-picture thinkers, Green says she, King and Halpern hope to eventually expand &Or into a complete lifestyle brand offering forward-thinking, zero-waste products such as throw blankets and travel accessories. They also plan to live up to the latter half of their name through meaningful collaborations with other brands.
“We’re building this brand for the long haul,” says Green. “We’ve tried technical knitting and we will always have that—but what’s next?”
