About Kuwaii

The concept of Kuwaii has always been the same: to provide a beautiful and thoughtful alternative to trend-driven, mass-produced fashion.

Established in 2008 by designer Kristy Barber, Kuwaii clothing and footwear is carefully considered
and meticulously made to last.

As one of Melbourne’s original slow fashion brands, our values of kindness, respect, honesty, environmental accountability, and empowerment of all people inform how we make our clothes,
the people we work with and how we run our business.

To this day, each Kuwaii clothing item is proudly produced in Melbourne, Australia, within 15km of our design studio in Brunswick.

In 2023 we were very proud to reveal our ethical accreditaion with Ethical Clothing Australia (E.C.A). To secure accreditation, we underwent a thorough audit of our operations, spanning from design to dispatch. This comprehensive review ensures that all our workers, including outworkers, are fairly compensated, receive their legal entitlements, and work in safe conditions.

Our Melbourne made footwear is made by one of the very last surviving footwear factories in the country, with our team of amazing craftspeople taking up to a day to make a single pair of Kuwaii shoes.

With a perfectly balanced harmony of form and function, the Kuwaii aesthetic is both strikingly simple and intricately precise. Clean lines, classic silhouettes, and perfect proportions create a sense of effortless beauty. However, upon closer inspection lies a hidden world of subtle intricacies: the quality
of workmanship, the fabrics and finishings, and precise tailoring techniques. An intelligent study of design and production where nothing is accidental. Kuwaii garments are graceful in their strength, feminine yet never frivolous, modern yet timeless, and equally suited to a bustling city street,
a busy cafe or shaded laneway dinner as they are to giggling bike rides and meadow-larking,
sun-kissed afternoons.

Kuwaii is the soft-spoken genius, the quiet beauty, the champion of delicate deliberateness.

Our approach takes more time and is a little more complex, but we know it’s worth it.
Everything we do is slower, more deliberate and more intentional.