Sustainability Q+A with Little Cotton Clothes
Little Cotton Clothes
INTERVIEW WITH LITTLE COTTON CLOTHES
CO-FOUNDER IMOGEN DRIVER
WHAT IS THE ETHOS OF LITTLE COTTON CLOTHES?
We strive to create clothing that is loved and passed down through family and friends, so quality is extremely important to us as is timeless styling. We would always rather our customers buy one item they absolutely love from us that is worn time and time again than a whole wardrobe that won't be worn.
IS THE WHOLE TEAM LOCATED IN ENGLAND?
Yes apart from our production teams.
WHERE ARE THE COLLECTIONS PRODUCED? ARE YOU ABLE TO CLOSELY MONITOR YOUR PRODUCTION?
We produce in India and Portugal and our socks are made in Spain. Now our babies are a little older we have been able to start traveling to our factories and had our first trip to India to see our factories, we have known our buying agents for many years and trust them completely to be our eyes and ears. We also have strict policy in place (based on the ETI base code) which needs adhered to before taking on a factory but we keep our factory base extremely tight so that we can build strong and long lasting relationships with them.
HOW DO YOU ENSURE YOUR MANUFACTURERS ARE MEETING BEST ETHICAL PRACTICES? DO THEY HAVE ANY CERTIFICATION?
Our factories adhere to the standards set within the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code and all of our factories are ethically audited and visited by us (when travel is possible). Our ethical audits and standards set by the ETI base code ensure that minimum working age is adhered to, that employees are cared for, employment is chosen freely, working hours are adhered to and employees work in safe and hygienic conditions. Wages paid to our tailors in India are never less than the ‘skilled worker wage’ set by the government which is around 20% higher than the Indian minimum wage. Our makers also receive benefits such as Providence Fund, health care, bonuses and medical support.
We are constantly looking for ways of being more sustainable and are proud to say that our main factory in India holds the ISO14001 certificate for sustainability, and are a member of the HIGG index which is a global movement for sustainable energy conservation in product development.
WHAT KIND OF FABRICS DO YOU MOST USE? ARE YOUR FABRICS GOTS ORGANIC OR OEKO-TEX CERTIFIED?
All of our clothes are either made from cotton or linen and we have recently consolidated as many of our base fabrics as possible to enable us to reach the minimums needed to use BCI cotton. We are also starting to use organic cotton from SS22.
CAN YOU PLEASE TELL US ABOUT HOW YOUR FABRICS ARE DYED?
Absolutely no harmful chemicals are used in our printing or production. We recently visited the printing mill which dyes and prints our fabrics in India, they do the same for some very large high street shops and are strictly audited.
HOW DO YOU SELECT THE FABRICS YOU USE AND WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?
Our fabrics are woven, printed and dyed for us in the county of production.
WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR OVERSTOCK OF MATERIALS AND FABRIC SCRAPS?
Any offcuts of fabric from our production in India are donated to Goonj, they use them to make sanitary products and blankets for the poorest families in India. Any unsold items or samples are donated to Harmony House, a local crisis centre for women who have suffered the trauma of domestic abuse or are sold in our sample sale to raised money for charity.
CAN YOU PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOUR PACKAGING FOR SHIPMENTS TO CUSTOMERS?
We wrap in paper and paper mailing sacks, we also offer cotton bags as an add on gift packaging option - the profit from these sales is donated to @harmonyhouse. Our postage materials are all reusable and or recyclable.
DO YOU USE INDIVIDUAL BAGS FOR INDIVIDUAL ITEMS WHEN YOU SHIP TO RETAILERS? IF YES, ARE THEY RECYCLED AND/OR COMPOSTABLE?
Unfortunately we still do use plastic bags although we re-use them wherever we can. They are recyclable but we would like to do better and are currently trying to source a biodegradable cornstarch bag that can be composted easily at home. We asked a few of our stockists if they still need us to ship in these bags and the response was that they do so we do need to come up with a solution for this.
DO YOU USE RECYCLED PAPER FOR YOUR HANG TAGS, POSTCARDS AND MARKETING MATERIALS?
Yes our tags are made of recycled paper and the postcards are from a sustainable source and we try to keep paper useage to an absolute minimum.
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Last updated November 2021
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