What's in my clothes?

When I started searching for organic fabrics for our first ethical kids collection, I had not expected to discover so many natural fibers! There is ample choice: linen, banana fiber, hemp, alpaca, lyocell from eucalyptus, Lenpur from white pine, Ingeo fiber fromcorn sugar, fiberglass nettle, organic cotton, coconut fiber, bamboo fiber, apple leather and milk fiber. 

When we started out, Samantha and I had no idea of how toxic the fashion business really is. In the two years we have been working at The Extra Smile, we have read and researched many articles and sources, and we have felt shocked, scared and angry while reading them. 

Then, when we applied for referencing by the French app Clearfashion, we learned about the health harzards of some toxic substances.

When it came to embroidering our T-shirts, we came across an unexpected sustainability challenge: our supplier’s embroidery machines are set up to work with polyester yarn. Surely this was not a problem? 

Well, we thought it was. We had made all this effort to source and pay for GOTS-certified cotton, and then we’d pollute them with polyester embroidery? We couldn’t let that happen.