Sutton Stracke is hoping to make the planet a bit greener — one fashionable step at a time.
The 51-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star exclusively opened up to Us Weekly about her new sustainable business, Sutton Brands.
“I think we don’t realize how much fashion is injuring our planet,” Sutton told Us. “So, I thought, ‘How can I be a part of the solution and not be a part of the problem?’ We all know I love fashion, so my business partner and I created a new business called Sutton Brands. It’s a circular fashion house.”
Circular fashion aims to minimize waste by repurposing and recycling garments in hopes of reducing the environmental impact of the fashion industry. Under her new venture, Sutton — who already owns a popular clothing boutique in West Hollywood — is her own “green line,” which is currently available at her store, as well as a label made in collaboration with RHOA alum Cynthia Bailey.
“I’m so excited about this,” Sutton told Us, adding that her friendship with Cynthia was “love at first sight.”
She added: “When I started the company, I was thinking who would be a good person to bring on, and I thought of Cynthia because she’s got such a great personality and she’s so caring.”
Sutton also has “other [projects] waiting [to launch],” she told Us. “We’re going to use celebrities to help educate everyone on how important sustainability is. We really need people to understand that we don’t need all of these clothes going into our landfills on the earth.”
Sutton is doing her part with Sutton Brands as her lines will “take excess inventory, items that have been returned and remanufacture what’s left over, so that it doesn’t go into our love landfills.” She asserted that the goal is simply “don’t waste, let’s use it all.”
Building Sutton Brands was a learning experience that has changed the way the Bravo star views fashion. “I’ve seen too much,” she told Us. “I think now, when I buy something, I think in a very sustainable way. I’m not going to just give it up. I’m going to pass it down to my daughter.”
Sutton revealed that fans will be able to see the development stages of her new business on the next season of RHOBH. She also teased possible drama and spilled on what it was like to film without Lisa Rinna.
“I always liked Lisa. I mean, I didn’t last season … but I always liked Lisa for what she did. She was dynamic,” Sutton shared. “But no, we kinda forgot about it a little bit because we had so much to do. We were busy. All of us had busy lives and interesting things going on, and we got to travel to Europe.”
Lisa, 60, announced her departure from RHOBH in January. She joined the Bravo series as a full-time Housewife in 2014.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
