Knowing your materials can be tricky and with so much green washing out there lately, we decided to do a mini series about the materials we use, why we use them and what makes them sustainable. Hoping to shed some light in this deep dark and often not transparent world of fashion and we’re starting with a big one— cotton!
Cotton seems like an innocuous guy— natural and hey, the fabric of our lives, right? Well hopefully not… at least if it’s not organic! Cotton is one of the dirtiest crops out there and accounts for 16% of global insecticide usage. Why does it matter? First off, pesticides are bad for our health. Adverse effects of exposure ranges from mild symptoms of dizziness and nausea to serious, long-term neurological, developmental and reproductive disorders. Because of this, pesticides are particularly hazardous to cotton farmers who work in the fields all day. The EPA has estimated that between 10-20,000 pesticide-related illnesses occur among farmers and farmworkers every single year, but the agency believes these numbers are actually conservative.
Pesticides also contaminate our water ways, are toxic to fish and sea creatures, and negatively affect entire wildlife eco systems.
We care so much about how cotton is treated (for your health, the soils health, the farmers and workers health) that even all of our linings are GOTS certified organic cotton. Unlike conventional cotton, our organic cotton is not treated with pesticides, insecticides, herbicides or GMOs and is grown using systems that replenish soil fertility and build biologically diverse agriculture instead of strip the soil of its nutrients.