Sustainability

Most "sustainability" pages in fashion are marketing pages — vague claims about "ethical sourcing" or "eco-friendly fabrics" with no specifics. Ours is the opposite. This page is where we publish what we actually do, what we source from, what we're certified to, and what we don't get right yet.

If you find something here that's misleading or out of date, email [email protected] directly. We'd rather fix it than be wrong.

Production model

We make in small batches. The smallest order we run is 80 units; the largest is around 400. We don't pre-produce inventory for hypothetical demand — pieces go on the website only after they're already produced, which means we sometimes run out and don't restock for a few months.

The trade-off: less overproduction (the fashion industry's biggest environmental cost is the 30–40% of clothing that goes unsold and to landfill). The cost: we're slower than fast fashion, occasionally out of stock, and our prices reflect the lower volume.

Fabrics

Organic cotton — GOTS certified

All our cotton is GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certified. This certifies the cotton was grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilisers and that workers in the supply chain received fair wages. Our cotton comes from a co-operative in Turkey (Aegean region) (about 70% of our cotton volume) and from a smaller GOTS-certified supplier in Portugal for the remainder.

GOTS certificates are available on request; they're renewed annually.

Hemp — European hemp, woven in Romania

The hemp we use is grown in France and Romania, both EU countries where hemp cultivation is well-regulated and largely rain-fed. The hemp is processed into yarn in a small mill in Iași, Romania, and woven into fabric at the same facility. Hemp uses roughly half the water of conventional cotton to grow, requires no pesticides, and produces a longer-life fabric than cotton — a triple win.

Our hemp blends are 55% hemp / 45% organic cotton; we'd ideally use 100% hemp but the texture is currently better-suited for outerwear than for next-to-skin pieces.

Merino wool — RWS certified

Our merino wool is Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) certified, sourced from Australian farms that meet RWS animal welfare and land management standards. The wool is spun and knitted in Bologna, Italy — a region with a long history of high-quality wool processing. RWS certification means no mulesing, certified land-management practices, and traceability back to the specific farm.

Linen — Belgian flax

European flax linen, primarily grown in Belgium and northern France. Belgian flax is the gold standard for linen — long fibres, durable fabric, low water and pesticide use during cultivation. We use a single Belgian weaver for the linen pieces; they're third-party audited annually.

Production partners (factories)

We work with three small factories, all named publicly:

• Atelier Brighton (Brighton, UK). Our smallest partner, handles low-volume restocks and made-to-order pieces. ~12 staff. Union-recognised. We pay above the London Living Wage equivalent.
• Tecidos do Norte (Porto, Portugal) — handles most of the heavyweight cotton pieces. ~45 staff. Portuguese minimum wage plus 35%, including 13th- and 14th-month pay per Portuguese employment standard.
• Iași Textile Cooperative (Iași, Romania) — handles hemp and hemp-blend pieces. ~25 staff. Worker-owned cooperative structure; we've been working with them since 2018.

We visit each partner at least once a year. We don't claim "ethical". We name suppliers and let buyers check what that means.

Dyeing and finishing

We use a mix of low-impact dyes (typically reactive dyes for cotton, vat dyes for hemp) and a small amount of natural dyes (indigo and madder root for specific seasonal pieces). Effluent treatment is part of the audit we run on each dyeing facility annually. We'd rather not work with a dye-house that can't show treated water leaving the facility.

Several of our colours are undyed. The natural off-white of organic cotton, the natural creamy beige of merino wool, the warm grey of unbleached linen. Undyed pieces use about 20% less water in their finishing than dyed pieces.

Packaging and shipping

• Compostable mailers (cornstarch-based) for orders shipped to the UK.
• Recycled cardboard boxes for larger or higher-value orders.
• Tissue paper inside is FSC-certified and unbleached.
• No plastic, including no polybags on individual pieces. We use small cotton dust-bags for any pieces we're worried about creasing in transit.
• Shipping is carbon-offset via a UK-based reforestation programme. Costs us about 12p per shipment; included in the standard shipping fee.

What we don't get right yet

The honest list:

• Synthetic threads. The stitching thread in our pieces is polyester — there isn't a good organic-cotton thread that's strong enough for the kind of long-life seams we want. We're testing a TENCEL-blend thread but it's not in production yet.
• Buttons and trims. Our buttons are corozo (a plant-based natural button material) where the design allows, but on heavier outerwear we still use metal buttons. The metal supply chain is less transparent than we'd like.
• End-of-life. We don't have a take-back programme yet — there's no clear infrastructure in the UK for recycling our specific fabric blends. We're working with a textile-recycling pilot in Bristol and hope to launch something within the next 12 months.
• Carbon accounting. We don't have a full scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions baseline yet. We carbon-offset shipping, but a proper company-wide carbon audit is on the roadmap for the next financial year.
• Pricing. Our pieces are more expensive than fast fashion — a £42 tee or £140 jacket isn't accessible to everyone. We don't see a way to fix this without compromising on materials or workers; we acknowledge the trade-off without pretending it's anything else.

Certifications and audits

Where we make specific claims, we can back them with documentation:

• GOTS certificate (renewed annually), for the organic cotton supply chain
• RWS certificate (renewed annually), for the merino wool supply chain
• European Flax certification, for the linen supply chain
• SA8000 certification at our Portuguese partner factory
• Annual third-party social audits at all three production partners (most recent: 2025)

Email [email protected] for the most recent audit summaries or certificate copies.

Questions

If you're shopping considering us specifically because of the sustainability practice, we'd much rather you ask hard questions than buy on assumed claims. Email any time.