How we select our brands

Our goal is to offer eco-responsible and authentic brands: even if imperfect (all clothing has a carbon footprint), they do things much, much better than the standards of the textile industry !!

We therefore take the time to select them. We speak with the founders to understand their commitments, and how their brand is sustainable:

  • Which workshops do they work with? Can they visit them regularly?
  • Where does their organic cotton, their tencel, their upcycled fabric come from? Do they have labels such as GOTS or GRS?
  • What manufacturing and dyeing methods do they use?

This also allows us to discern sincere ecological commitment from greenwashing . And when we can, we visit them, and share these moments with you on our social networks!

So yes, we will never offer an endless assortment, and without filter! Follow our gaze... Because even if we want to offer choice, it is a reasoned and responsible choice!

For a brand to join our collection, it must meet the following criteria:

Manufacturing less than 1500km

The majority of brands offered are made in France, Italy, Spain or Portugal. In addition to reducing transport distances, this is our best way to ensure that working conditions and wages are dignified, and that environmental production standards are stricter and better respected. Why 1500, and not 1000, or 2000? This distance was the right compromise for us, to find enough brands, without extending the geographical area further. But there is no clever calculation behind it 🙂.

Raw materials

The garment must contain at least 70% recycled materials (wool, cotton, cashmere, nylon, etc.), natural and organic materials (linen, certified organic cotton, tencel), or upcycled materials . And whenever possible, materials that have a label. You will have understood, a t-shirt with 10% non-certified organic cotton has no place with us, when others will attach a pretty “eco-responsible” label to it!

Come on, here we present to you some of the eco-responsible materials that you will most often find in slow fashion clothing at Clother

Raw materials

Organic cotton

Conventional cotton is not really friends with the planet: pesticides, GMOs, intensive irrigation, working conditions, transport. Organic cotton is not perfect, but it has a much lower impact on the environment: it grows without GMOs or pesticides, and does not require additional irrigation. And when it can be labeled GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard), it’s even better!)

Recycled cotton

Some of the eco-responsible brands at Clother (MUD JEANS, RIFÒ) are experts in recycling cotton. Concretely, they recover used cotton clothing, and through a mechanical process, manage to transform them into recycled cotton fiber. Because yes, cotton can be recycled, and rather 4 times than once! As recycled cotton fibers are shorter and therefore more fragile, they must be mixed with virgin cotton (ideally organic) to form a new durable and strong yarn.

Linen

Ah linen!! At Clother we love it, because it's difficult to do anything more eco-responsible. It is already the only natural fiber to grow near us, between Normandy and Belgium. it requires no additional irrigation, no pesticides, and very little fertilizer. Abandoned for a long time, this fiber is "reborn" from its ashes, and the sector is being rebuilt, particularly in Framce.

Wool

Wool is certainly the most eco-responsible material. Renewable (and yes, it constantly grows back), biodegradable, GMO-free, pesticide-free, irrigation-free! It is also a solid material, for clothes that we keep for a long time. For wool (especially merino), you must especially pay attention to the animal breeding conditions, and ensure that the wool is mulesing-free; mulesing is a very painful shearing technique for animals (which can suffer after-effects).

Upcycling

Upcycling, or surcycling, does that mean anything to you? This involves recovering unused fabrics, intended to be thrown away, to give them a second life. This could be production scraps, the ends of unused fabric rolls, or even fabrics with a defect for conventional fashion. The credo of upcycling: nothing is lost, everything is transformed!
vêtements écoresponsables en Tencel

Lyocell (or Tencel)

Lyocell is an artificial textile fiber derived from cellulose, extracted from wood pulp. Lyocell is an ecological version of viscose. When the manufacture of viscose releases large quantities of chemical solvents and is a cause of deforestation, lyocell is manufactured in a closed circuit (no release of chemical solvents), and uses wood (beech, eucalyptus, bamboo) from sustainably managed forests. . Tencel is like Lyocell, but is a trademark registered by the Austrian company Lenzing.

2 collections/year and sustainable production

Our brands offer a maximum of two collections per year, while highlighting timeless or classic clothing, sold several seasons. They also avoid overproduction by limiting the quantities produced.

Transparency at production sites

These brands have a limited number of suppliers and workshops, which they know, visit, and with whom they often work from the start. Above all, they make the name of their workshops accessible, for more transparency. And this is certainly the best proof that they have nothing to hide.

By combining these slow fashion criteria, we are much stricter in our selection than most “eco-responsible” platforms.

We don't say that we are perfect, but it is our method to ensure that the selection work has been done seriously.

Thus, our customers can come with complete confidence to discover clothing that is more respectful of nature…

and eco-responsible brands that we are proud of!