Our Materials
We choose materials that reflect our values of organic, sustainability, renewability and Earth friendly. The materials we use and information on their properties and processing can be found below.
Organic Cotton
There is a world of difference between regular and organic cotton. Anyone who has used organic cotton products will find it hard to return to regular cotton. The benefits of organic cotton don’t just stop at the quality of products. Read on to find out the large number of benefits of organic cotton.
Purity
Organic cotton is handpicked. This preserves the purity of the fiber and ensures that no fiber is damaged during harvesting. Machine picking, of regular cotton, leads to loss and waste. Organic cotton tends to be softer than regular cotton because of the longer fibers. Organic cotton, being handpicked, ensures that these longer fibers don’t get broken or damaged, resulting in softer and more durable products.
Farming
Regular cotton farming starts with GMO or genetically modified seeds. The seeds are modified to increase resistance to bugs but when the bugs become stronger, more pesticides are required. Organic cotton is grown from natural seeds, and there is no use of pesticides or other harmful chemicals. Bugs are controlled using insects that kill the pests. As a result, organic cotton products are safer for the skin.
Regular cotton is grown on the same soil over and over again, degrading the soil quality, removing nutrients, and leading to unhealthy crops. These crops also require more water which results in water wastage. Organic cotton is rotated from one soil to another, and the nutrients retain water for longer, requiring less irrigation and leading to healthier crops.
Weeding
The weeding process of regular cotton farming also relies on the use of chemical herbicides that kill weeds. The use of these chemicals impacts the quality of the crops and drain moisture and nutrients from the soil. They also harm the farmers who grow these crops. More than 25 per cent of all pesticides used in farming is used for cotton. These include highly toxic insecticides and carcinogens. Repeated use of these chemicals can lead to serious diseases in farmers, and impact the overall environment. In organic cotton manufacturing, weeding is done by hand and manual hoeing.
Manufacturing
Processing of regular cotton uses a large amount of chemicals. The use of heavy metals, chlorine, and chemical dyes are not unheard of in the manufacturing of regular cotton. Even after washing the finished products, the residue of these chemicals remains and can cause skin allergies. Several people suffer from skin problems like eczema because of regular cotton products. Organic cotton uses safer alternatives to chemical dyes and whiteners. Natural or water-based dyes, peroxide for whitening, and other safer products are used to manufacture the finished goods.
Organic cotton tends to be softer, hypoallergenic, and lasts for a very long time. But the most important benefit is protecting the ecosystem, reducing water waste, and ensuring a safer working environment for the farmers and manufacturers.
Hemp
While hemp is harvested and processed similarly to other fabrics, the main advantage is through the hemp plant itself.
Hemp uses about 5% of the amount of water it takes to grow cotton. This water can often come from rainfall. Hemp can grow in almost all soil conditions, and unlike cotton (which drains the soil of nutrients) hemp’s deep roots preserve the topsoil and subsoil. Hemp grows densely which leaves no room for weeds and competing plants, leading to reduced pesticide use. Hemp is extremely resilient and less vulnerable to insects and growing it does not rely on pesticides.