Our brand touches the creativity and culture of many people and places: from those who grow the fibres we use, to those who make our clothes, to our customers and the places where our clothes end up.
We are committed to learning and adapting with these communities about how to create the lowest impact collections we can. Our clothes are made to last and be cherished for as long as possible and we want to make sure that we improve the social and environmental standard of our collections every year.
In the industry as it stands, no brand can be truly sustainable, but we are joining the push for change to generate better ways of creating and consuming fashion. We look forward to updating our community about our journey as we go.
MATERIALS
In 2019, we started shifting to using natural fibres only and since then have been working to phase out virgin synthetic fabrics from our clothing, due to concerns about plastic and microfibre pollution.
Every season we explore more sustainable fabric options with our suppliers, and we are proud to say that we reduced the use of synthetic fibres to under 8.66% of the total fabric selection. We look to use single fibre fabric options as much as possible.
We seek out more sustainable cotton fabrics, favouring organic and recycled cotton over conventional options where possible. Our preferred standard is Global Organic Textiles Standards (GOTS) certification.
Cotton
We use linen for its inherent sustainability properties; derived from flax, which requires no irrigation or hazardous chemicals in its cultivation. We look for Masters of Linen® certification for its environmental guarantees, as well as supply chain traceability, made in Europe from field to fabric.
Linen
All virgin wool fibres must come from farms that do not practice mulesing and have high animal welfare standards and we look for certifications that give social, environmental, and animal welfare assurances such as GOTS and ZQÔ certified.
Wool
We look for Forest Stewardship Council (FSCÒ) certification from our viscose suppliers as it confirms that the forest the wood pulp used in the viscose fabric came from is managed in a way that preserves biological diversity and benefits the lives of local people and workers.
Viscose
We are moving away from using synthetic fibres in our collections but where we do use them, we look for recycled fabric options for nylon and polyester. It is challenging to source non-synthetic trim for a brand our size due to industry minimums and cost, but we work with our suppliers every season to understand the more sustainable options available to us.
Synthetics
We mostly use the same core materials every season, with variations from Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter around performance and functionality of the fabric. There are materials that we do not use as a rule due to their impacts on animal welfare, people, and the environment:
- Exotic Skins
- Fur (including Angora)
- Synthetic fur
- Virgin Down and Feathers
- PVC
Materials We Do Not Use
Our manufacturing is done by three independent family-run workshops, who we have built up trusting relationships with over the last five years, two in Lithuania and one in Korea.
We source fabric and trim from around ten suppliers each season, across Italy, France and Korea. We are hands on in our relationship with our suppliers and are working to increase our understanding of their sustainability credentials.
All manufacturing suppliers have been visited by our production team and we are working to develop formal labour standard monitoring, so we have assurances that the human rights of everyone in our supply chain are being upheld and protected.
Who Makes Our Clothes & Where
We have been working to improve the environmental impact of our customer packaging, thinking through every aspect of its environmental impact: the box is made from 75% recycled cardboard and is recyclable and compostable, the sealing tape is made from paper and the tissue paper is acid free. We are looking to replace the sticker which is currently plastic with a compostable alternative. We have also started to extend our lower-impact packaging search to our internal packaging used between suppliers and we opted for a carbon neutral shipping service.
Packaging
WEAR & CARE
Our collections are created to have a broad appeal, classic pieces with a modern twist. They are intended to be easily loved, worn for a lifetime, and passed on as items to cherish.
Caring for your clothes in the right way can maintain their quality for longer, extend their lifespan and reduce their impact on the environment. The WRAP ‘Valuing our clothes: the cost of UK fashion’ report found that by extending the life of your clothes by 9 months, you can reduce their carbon, water, and landfill footprint by up to 30%.
We encourage everyone to look to the clothes you own, wear them often and care for them well. Check out The Clothes Doctor for tips and tutorials about ‘cleaning, protecting, repairing and altering, the way our parents and grandparents did’.
WASTE
We know that no matter how well we make clothes and support people to use them for as long as possible, inevitably they will end up as waste at some point in the future, as will all clothes. While we follow industry innovations around true circularity (fashion products, being turned back into fashion products), we are exploring options for how to keep our clothing in use for as long as possible.
A first step is a partnership with Rent the runway reselling and a pilot for rental for our Spanish customers with Olibati and UK customers with Ratoro. We will update our community as we put other partnerships in place. For now, we encourage you to explore the resources on Love Not Landfill and Love Your Clothes.
Going forward the brand are putting goals in place to ensure that they improve the social and environmental footprint of the collections year on year, looking for better ways to create timeless garments that are considerate of the natural world and the people who bring the collections to life.