By Kate Monson

Good Energy customer and award winning eco-fashion company Rapanui has just launched its new clothing collection and is offering 10% off when you quote ‘goodenergy’ at the checkout.


I spoke to co-founder Rob Drake-Knight to find out how he and his brother Martin turned a box of T-shirts in their parents’ shed into an award-winning eco-fashion company after just three years.

Yes, the clothes are good – fashionable without being faddy, ethical without being preachy, and selling like hot cakes apparently – but where Rapanui has really got it right is in their impressive balance of intelligent innovations combined with a refreshingly honest connection with its customers. Their ground breaking Traceability and Eco Labelling initiatives have won them numerous awards and just a quick glance down their Facebook and Twitter feeds illustrates the fact that these guys see their customers as friends – some of them actually are – providing queries, compliments and the (very) occasional criticism with charming responses packed full of genuine ‘Rapanuiness’.

When talking to Rob I experienced this special brand of ‘brainy charm’ first hand. His passion is infectious and so well-conceived that your only option is to take him totally seriously. He mentioned Thomas Malthus in the first few minutes of our conversation for goodness sake! “It started off with me and Martin talking about sustainability. He was at Falmouth studying Renewable Energy Engineering and as part of that he had to learn a lot of the basics of environment and climate change, peak oil and Malthusian collapse. The name Rapanui stems from those initial conversations. Rapanui – or Easter Island – had a Malthusian collapse so we thought it was a good metaphor for what the world was doing to itself.”

And the sticky issue of Eco-Fashion being an oxymoron? “Obviously we are in the business of capitalism and selling products, but the inherent need to buy new stuff and encouraging consumerism is not what we’re into. Our designs transcend trend. They’re all about not falling out of fashion,” Rob responds. “If you buy one of our products a year then it’s going to last 250 washes or so. That’s 10p a wash. But if you buy a T-shirt for a quid from the ‘you know whos’ how much is it going to cost if it only lasts a couple of washes? The economics are starkly obvious.

“The way my brother sees it is that there’s a table with a bunch of different coloured marbles on it. Each yellow marble is a Rapanui T-shirt and every new yellow marble that’s added pushes one of the other ‘bad’ marbles off the table.” Sounds familiar…Good Energy’s fuel mix and dirty ponds?

Rapanui’s got ambitious plans for the coming year.They’ve taken their Traceability map instore using new QR code technology so people can scan the clothes label and see instantly how and where the item is made. “We wanted to make it quick and accessible,” Rob says. “We’ve literally brought all that information to the man on the street.” They’re also campaigning for an independent eco-labelling initiative spanning the EU. “We’re a clothing producer, we shouldn’t be the ones stating the specifications” he says, “And anyway, we don’t want to hoard it. Where’s the good in that? It needs to come from the politicians and it needs to be broad reaching otherwise nothing will really change.” Let’s hope it does. Show your support by signing the petition at the bottom of the page.

Buy a piece of Rapanui at their online store – or pop into their Isle of Wight shop. And don’t forget to claim your 10% discount by quoting ‘goodenergy’.

Join their online Facebook and Twitter communities.