ABOUT OUR WEAVING PARTNERS
We work with many suppliers. These companies are our main weavers and knitters:
Kadeks in Turkey
Kadeks Textile make most of our jerseys and sweatshirt fleece. This is what they say:
The
origin of cotton is Aegean region of Turkey (Near İzmir). We always
obtain our own cotton from contracted farmers. Our spinning house is
in Denizli. Depending on the quality or lead times we may use
different knitting and dying houses placed in Denizli, İzmir or
İstanbul. All facilities are certificated otherwise it is not
possible to give GOTS certificate to the final items (fabric or
clothes).
All of the facilities (Farms, Spinning, Knitting or
even warehouse where the finished fabrics are controlled and packed)
have to carry the responsibilities that certification requires. The
certification is made by non-profit certification companies like ICEA
or Control union.
Silk n Fab in India - silknfab.com
Silk n Fab make many of our poplins, twills, cambridge, some jerseys, and unusual weaves like lappet and embroidered fabric.
Liahren in China - liahren.com
Liahren make our bamboo 'silks' and bamboo drape, which are 100% bamboo viscose. The process for these fabrics is done in a closed loop system.
There's
lots to know about bamboo, it grows freely without chemicals but the
process of converting it to yarn uses chemicals. The same chemicals
are used to make paper and soap.
Our
bamboo yarns are certified by Oeko-Tex 100 as being free from harmful
chemicals.
This
is a good article about bamboo, viscose, Tencel etc
https://oecotextiles.wordpress.com/category/fibers/viscose/
Our
first partner was Genesh in Kerala
We
work with Genesh and his family to make a wide range of handmade
fabrics.
He makes around half of our fabrics. They are made in small batches of 100 to 300 metres. The process is very artisan and hands on - the yarns are dyed by hand, the weaving is done by hand on small powerlooms or handlooms. The printing is also done by hand.
Through Genesh, we also work with a Women’s Co-operative in Kerala called Gramodaya, who sew up our squares, scarves, cushions, aprons etc...
This
is what Genesh wrote about the Co-operative in 2019:
Gramodaya, the ladies collective is self working / administered group for sewing. We give the fabrics and Gramodaya sew the made-ups. ... In 2009 a group of 12 ladies were formed and named the institution "Gramodaya". The objective of the formation of this group is to bring the ladies to the main stream of the society by the guide line of the Govt project named "kudumbasree" which means "family prosperity". ... Now 18 women are working in the co-operative. ... By supporting Gramodaya, a new story was written in patronizing a venture to attain their goals to live a better way, and now we are @ 10 years co-operative working with a bonded togetherness. Regards Genesh