Our materials
To create our products we choose our materials with care and purpose. We prioritise the use of organic, natural materials.
Organic Cotton - We preference the use of GOTS certified organic cotton in our collection - we use organic in all our cotton jersey, french terry and all HOME bedding. Organic cotton is grown without the use of pesticides or synthetic fertilisers.
Linen - We use linen throughout our collection - it is a sustainable fibre made from the flax plant, and requires less water to grow and process than cotton or man made fibres.
Wool - We use certified, tracable wool yarns that are ethically sourced from UPW or Novotex yarns.
Lenzing Proviscose® - Used on some of our flowy dresses, this soft, drapey fabric blend (70% Lenzing Viscose and 30% Lenzing Tencel) has excellent environmental credentials, using fibres derived from certified sustainable wood sources and using a closed loop production process recycling 99% of water and solvent.
Handwoven Cotton - We're really proud of our partnership with Kala Swaraj Foundation, a non-profit collective of weavers based in Sausar in Central India. Cotton is handloomed, hand dyed, hand woven using human powered looms. The collective supports a whole community and ecosystem that work together to create this special fabric.
Vegetable Tanned Leather - We only use leather tanned using tannins, a naturally derived material from tree bark. This is a slower method of tanning, and does not use heavy metals such as chromium which is the most common (and less environmentally friendly) tanning method.
Material Guidelines
- we use organic cotton, standard cotton, linen, Lenzing Viscose/Tencel, wool and vegetable tanned leather
- any man made fibres such as spandex or fusing are sparingly and carefully used, when they add important functionality to a product, such as pants and jumpsuits
- we do not use standard cellulose fabrics (such as standard viscose or rayon) due to the damaging chemical residue in production and the sourcing of wood from non-renewable forestry (such as ancient or endangered forests)
- we do not use PU (sometimes called vegan leather) - it is a crude oil derived material, and unfortunately can take 500 years to break down
low production quantities
We are very careful each season to only produce where there is demand for it. This is less wasteful and makes our designs more special.
We work with makers who can make very low quantities (as low as 20 pieces in a design), as well as makers that can make higher quantities for our most popular items, like our T-shirts.
We are also mindful that a small amount of sale items make our products more accessible for those on lower incomes, so we are comfortable for small amounts of stock to reach an end of season sale.
Textile Printing and Dyeing
We digitally print all our fabrics using AZO-free inks. Digital printing reduces material wastage and requires less washing and water usage in production.
Our dyeing mills use the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 - a testing standard which means that no harmful substances have been used in production.
Dust Bags and Bag Lining
From our AW24 season onwards, all dust bags that each bag and wallet are delivered to you in, as well as all bag and wallet lining will be GOTS certified organic cotton.
Trims and Tags
- we preference coconut shell buttons, a sustainable material that is a by-product of coconut farming
- our fabric labels are cotton, and we are transitioning to organic for future production (AW24 onwards) for all suppliers
- paper tags use either recycled or FSC approved materials. We are transitioning to 100% recycled paper for all suppliers by our AW24 season, with most suppliers also moving to organic cotton cord
Shipping and HQ
- we ship the bulk of our products via sea freight - this emits 100 times less carbon than air freight
- we use compostable, corn starch mailers in all of our online orders, unless a box is required
- we use 100% recycled paper in all our office printing
- rechargable batteries are used, and recycled correctly at end-of-life
- ink catridges are collected and recycled through Planet Ark
- our marketing materials are printed on either recycled or FSC accredited stock
- we recycle all paper and cardboard
- we have solar panels on both our studio and warehouse
- we use a green cleaning business to clean our studio and warehouse that only uses natural, low-tox cleaning products
- we have vastly reduced the use of plastic in our production packaging. We only use plastic to line the cartons of our leathergoods boxes, and sometimes during wet seasons a box will be cling wrapped to prevent water damage
- we use corn starch bags for all garment packaging
- we recycle all soft plastic waste through local social enterprise Reground
Leather VS Waxed Canvas
We have been slowly introducing waxed canvas as a leather alternative, reflecting the change in consumer habits of less meat consumption (therefore less leather is available) and our aim to use materials with less environmental impact.
Waxed Canvas, especially when combined with some leather trims in heavy wear parts of a bag is an excellent alternative material.
This is our changed material mix for bags over the last four years:
2019: 91% Leather / 9% Waxed Canvas
2020: 93% Leather / 7% Waxed Canvas
2021: 65% Leather / 35% Waxed Canvas
2022: 53% Leather / 47% Waxed Canvas
Mix of apparel materials
In our Spring Summer 2022/23 collection, our apparel styles were:
26% Organic Cotton
24% Hand Woven Cotton
6% Lenzing Tencel™ or Lenzing ProViscose®
12% Linen
32% Standard Cotton