18th-24th April 2022 marks the 9th Fashion Revolution Week, an annual campaign for fashion justice. This month’s theme is Money, Fashion, Power and calls for industry-wide transparency and for brands to disclose #WhoMadeMyClothes.
In response, we’re inviting you on a journey through our fully traceable supply chain, and visiting our fabric supplier, manufacturer and order warehouse along the way. We care about everyone and everything affected by our supply chain and did plenty of research to find suppliers with ethical and sustainable practices.
Who Designed My Wild Clouds Clothes?
Our clothing and print design starts in-house with our ideas being bought to life by an amazing artist and graphic designer, more to come on the design process and people in another blog. Once we have a garment idea and design we work through the sample creation and fit testing with our South London manufacturer, Tatiana has years of experience and expertly helps us create a final pattern which is then sent to our pattern maker and grader in North London, to create the patterns in 5 sizes.
Who made my fabric?
Our journey starts on the European farms where the fibres for our clothing are grown. Our 100% organic cotton is OCS certified (Organic Content Standard) and grown in Turkey. The linen is also grown in Europe and can come from a couple of sources, the latest being Belarus.
Our signature patterned fabric is then woven, dyed, printed and finished in Turkey by GOTs certified factory Altoteks, and is certified STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® . The factory adhere to environmental and employee health and safety policies and ensure people always come first. They also use professional consultancy to advise and ensure continuous improvement for their workforce. All materials and process inputs and outputs are safe for human health and the local area at all stages of product life. Throughout the entire production process, production points are monitored in order to reduce waste and promote resource recycling and reuse by, for example, powering the factory with renewable wind energy. You can view Altoteks facility’s GOTS certification for ecological and social responsibility here.
What’s in my clothes?
We’ve already mentioned that we use linen and organic cotton, but why? Our incredibly soft signature fabric contains 76% organic cotton and 24% linen, making it breathable and light in the summer, cosy in the winter and hard wearing all year round. Beyond feeling great on your body, our fabric was chosen with the planet in mind. Linen and organic cotton require less water than non-organic cotton, and are grown without polluting pesticides which pollute local waterways and pose a risk to farmers’ health.
It’s the same reason our supplier factory uses azo-free dyes! Conventional textile dyeing is water intensive and polluting. Azo-free dyes, by contrast, have a lower impact because they require less water in the dyeing process and do not contain any carcinogenic compounds. This also means the water retains its purity, and can be repurposed again and again.
The other great thing about our clothing is that it’s plastic-free, meaning your Wild Clouds order will eventually biodegrade and won’t shed thousands of microplastic with every wash! When we say plastic-free, we mean it and include our finishes in this! That’s why we use:
Buttons - made in the UK by Courtney buttons and co, from eco-friendly Coroza - a sustainably harvested material that supports communities in Ecuador.
Elastic - our elastic is made in Austria (the nearest producer we could find). It is made from organic GOTS cotton and natural rubber which actually has a longer lifespan than conventional elastic, but eventually is biodegradable unlike conventional polyester elastic. We buy our elastic from UK company James Tailoring.
Care labels – our care labels are made from organic cotton in Turkey, at the same factory our fabric is woven and printed at, also using low impact azo-free dyes.
Who made my clothes?
When Altoteks have finished with our fabric order, they send it over to our South London factory to be turned into our iconic silhouettes. Our clothes are made by talented pattern cutters, machinists and seamstresses with with over 25 years of producing ethically made clothing. By making our clothes in England, we’re supporting local manufacturers with the London Living wage and minimising our carbon footprint. We visit our manufacturer every couple of weeks, which for our founder Franny is only a short cycle away! Our focus on small batch, responsible production means there is little to no waste, and any factory offcuts are turned into our accessories.
How do my clothes reach my front door?
Our stock is stored in South London, in the same building where our clothing is made. We also fulfil orders from here, removing an additional step of transportation and keeping our carbon footprint as low as possible. Throughout our supply chain we make every effort to reduce packaging and keep it to a minimum. All our orders are sent in compostable mailers which can be reused for mailing again, used as a food waste liner or composted at home.
What happens next?
We hope you love our Wild Clouds order as much as we do! Every package arrives with a care sheet, so you can wash and maintain the quality of your clothes. Our clothing is made and designed to last, but sometimes older clothes need a little love and care. We'd like to support our customers by helping make repairs to their Wild Clouds easier; please do get in touch if you need spare buttons, fabric or repair advice. At the end of its long life, your order can be fully composted because the fabric and trims are fully organic. As part of our mission to become a more circular brand, we’re always looking for new ways to support customers at this disposal stage, and to become responsible for the entire lifespan of our clothes to ensure they never unnecessarily enter landfill.
And there you have it - the complete lifecycle of Wild Clouds clothes, from farm to factory, then straight to your front door. We hope you’ve enjoyed following us on this journey. Our customers deserve to know where their clothes come from, which is why we've shared this story from day one, and will continue to shout about our fully traceable supply chain!