Conscious Assembly Is Live: A New Chapter in Sustainable Fashion
November 17, 2025
Today marks the next step in a journey that's been evolving for years—a platform that reimagines how fashion works by uniting brands, makers, and customers as equal partners in creating positive change.
Conscious Assembly is now live.
Why We're Here
The fashion and consumer goods industries create immeasurable harm. We've seen firsthand how sustainability efforts often focus on policing suppliers rather than addressing the root causes: incentive structures created by brands and investors that prioritize low costs and quick turnarounds.
Suppliers are expected to make changes without adequate resources or support, while simultaneously being penalized by the very brands whose practices created these problems in the first place.
We exist to prove there's a better way—one where success is measured by progress towards shared goals and collective wellbeing.
How It Started: A Shared Vision in a Warehouse
Conscious Assembly was born from a chance meeting in a shared warehouse space. Jay Jones, who had spent over two decades building his career in fulfillment and operations—from showing up at a warehouse every day for a month until he was hired to eventually building his own fulfillment company—had a vision to help the brands he worked with move toward more sustainable production.
Rachel Faller, co-founder of tonlé and a leader in sustainable fashion, shared this vision. She brought deep expertise in ethical manufacturing, circular design, and the challenges of scaling values-driven brands.
Together, they recognized that the obstacles facing sustainable fashion weren't unique to any single brand. Small ethical brands were overwhelmed by operational burdens. Manufacturers faced misaligned incentives that made doing the right thing difficult. Customers wanted to support change but lacked clear pathways to meaningful impact.
What started as a shared conversation in that warehouse became Conscious Assembly—a platform built on the belief that collaboration creates more resilience than competition, and that fashion can be a force for good when we work together.
From tonlé to Conscious Assembly
tonlé, where Rachel spent years developing zero-waste production methods and ethical manufacturing partnerships in Cambodia, taught us that sustainable fashion needs more than individual companies working in isolation. It needs collaborative infrastructure.
tonlé has now evolved into two complementary paths:
KaTik - The production workshop in Cambodia, now run by members of the former tonlé team, continues the innovative zero-waste production developed over years of practice. Under local leadership, KaTik creates their own line while supporting other ethical brands and designers.
Conscious Assembly - The digital platform has expanded into a sustainable fashion marketplace that provides the infrastructure brands, makers, and customers need to work together as true partners.
How We're Different
Conscious Assembly addresses systemic challenges by transforming both economic structures and relationships throughout the supply chain.
For Brands: We provide operational support, manufacturing connections, circularity programs, and revenue-sharing that ensures success contributes to our shared ecosystem. Drawing on Jay's decades of fulfillment expertise and Rachel's experience scaling sustainable brands, we offer the comprehensive support we wished existed when we started our journeys.
For Makers: Our maker fund directs 10% of all platform orders to support production during slow seasons, more fairly distributing risk and reward. We help brands build mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers rather than adversarial ones—because Jay's work in operations and Rachel's manufacturing partnerships showed us that aligned incentives create better outcomes for everyone.
For Customers: We provide clear information about supply chains and power dynamics, helping you understand your role as partners in supporting systemic change—not just "conscious consumers" making isolated purchasing decisions.
Our platform integrates sales with operational support, investments, community connection, and meaningful education that prioritizes systems change and progress over perfection.
Our Approach to Sustainability
Here's something we don't often say out loud in the fashion world: "sustainable fashion" might be a misnomer.
We're all operating within extractive systems that prioritize growth over wellbeing. Within this reality, no brand can truly claim to be fully "sustainable"—we can only work to reduce harm while building better alternatives.
That's why we see sustainability as a journey, not a destination. We work with brands at different stages of their sustainability journeys, from those taking first steps with organic materials to those creating regenerative models. Both matter. Both deserve support.
How We See Impact
We categorize impact into three distinct spheres:
Sphere 1: Reducing Harm - Products that cause less harm than conventional alternatives. While still extractive, we strongly believe these improvements are good, necessary, and genuinely "more sustainable." They represent crucial progress and important first steps.
Sphere 2: Repairing Harm - Products that actively repair environmental or social harm created by the industry through recycled materials, upcycled garments, or regenerative agricultural practices.
Sphere 3: Creating Positive Benefit - Products that generate genuine positive impact through living wages, community ownership, fair risk/reward sharing, AND environmental restoration. We recognize that true positive impact cannot exist without addressing environmental harm—creating well-paying jobs while continuing environmentally destructive practices is not environmental justice.
Meet Our Community
We've curated brands and makers who share our commitment to transparency, continuous improvement, and collaboration. We're still at the begining and seeking new partnerships - don't hesitate to reach out!
Each brand brings a different approach to sustainable fashion, and we celebrate progress at every stage.
Building for Our Communities
Jay's primary motivation has always been building businesses and structural opportunities for his family and community, ensuring every opportunity is available to the next generation. Rachel's work in sustainable fashion has centered on creating systems where makers and designers can thrive while reducing environmental impact.
Together, these motivations drive Conscious Assembly's commitment to:
- 10% of all platform orders allocated to maker support and community investment
- Revenue sharing that ensures growth benefits the entire ecosystem
- Transparent supply chain relationships with regular maker spotlights
- Circular design support through take-back programs and resale initiatives
- Community over competition through shared resources and collaborative marketing
One Platform, Systemic Change
We know one platform alone cannot transform the entire fashion industry. But we can demonstrate that collaborative models work. We can show that shared success creates more resilience than competition. We can prove that alternative approaches succeed within our current economic reality.
Our goal extends beyond our platform—together with our community of brands, makers, and customers, we're building a collaborative movement where all participants can contribute to and benefit from systemic industry change.
Join Us
We envision an industry built on shared success rather than extractive consumption. While we can't achieve this transformation alone, Conscious Assembly aims to demonstrate that collaborative models can create positive change within the larger fashion ecosystem.
Whether you're a brand seeking support and community, a maker looking for fair partnerships, or a customer ready to be part of systemic change, we invite you to explore what conscious partnership looks like.
Welcome to Conscious Assembly. Let's build the future of fashion together.