At ELECTRA Universe, shells are more than an embellishment. They are one of our signature materials. Sustainably harvested, naturally formed, inherently individual and deeply connected to the islands and waters from which they come.
For a luxury brand working with natural materials, beauty is only part of the story. Provenance matters too.
CITES — the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — is an international agreement that regulates international trade in protected wildlife and plant species, including their parts and derivatives. Its purpose is to ensure that international trade does not threaten the survival of species in the wild.
CITES operates through permits and certificates. For species covered by the Convention, these documents provide the legal framework for international trade, recording what is being traded, its origin and whether the relevant requirements for trade have been met.
For ELECTRA Universe, this is particularly important because our shells originate in Indonesia and ultimately become part of designs travelling across international borders.
Our Indonesian CITES Documentation
Our shells come from Indonesia's marine environment and are sourced through relationships with coastal communities. The relevant CITES documentation for our marine shells is handled through Indonesia's Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (Kementerian Kelautan dan Perikanan), the Indonesian government authority responsible for marine and fisheries matters within Indonesia's CITES system.
This documentation forms an important part of the provenance and legal traceability of our shells as they enter international trade. We only use species that are not protected, harvested sustainably from beaches not the marine environment and carry proper legal papers.
Species identification is central to this process. CITES does not apply to every shell or marine species in the same way. Different species can have different levels of protection and different requirements governing international trade. The documentation therefore connects the material being traded with the regulations applicable to that particular species, as the endangered shell trade thrives in Indonesia.
Why It Matters to ELECTRA Universe
We believe luxury should have provenance.
Our shells are sourced directly through relationships in Indonesia rather than anonymous bulk global suppliers. This allows us to understand more about where our materials originate and the communities connected to them. CITES documentation provides an additional layer of accountability as those materials move into international commerce.
It is also important to understand precisely what CITES represents. CITES is not a sustainability certification, nor does it mean that every shell is automatically sustainable. It is an international regulatory framework governing the trade of species covered by the Convention.
For ELECTRA Universe, compliance with that framework is part of the documentation and traceability behind one of our most distinctive materials.
Once in Bali from the islands of the Indonesian archipelago, our shells are cleaned, prepared and incorporated into our designs by Indonesian artisans. Their natural variations are retained rather than concealed. Each shell brings its own shape, texture and character to the finished piece.
There is a particular luxury in a material that cannot be made identical.
A shell carries its own history: formed by nature, gathered from an island environment, documented for international trade and ultimately transformed by hand in Bali.
Environmental Compassion means that we do not take any shells directly from the sea, we make sure they are properly certified in line by the Indonesian Government and that at the end of the garments life we offer to repurpose them as part of ELECTRA Returns, continuing its journey into another garment.
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