Traceability

CHETNA ORGANIC

- SEED - (cotton grows on a plant.... crazy? yes)

Our organic & Fairtrade cotton is from Chetna Organic, a farmer-run cooperative in India. 

All our cotton is certified by Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO). Fairtrade empowers farmers to negotiate with buyers to secure better prices for their cotton. Every season, certified farmer groups receive a premium to be spent on community projects such as medical costs, irrigation schemes to conserve rainwater, books and clothes for school children, farmer education, training and upgrades.

Our cotton is organically farmed and free from genetically modified seeds to benefit the soil, cotton and farmers. Crops are rain-fed and hand-picked. Organic farming is achieved through companion planting, crop rotations and on-site green waste composting to eliminate the use of chemicals harmful to farmers and their families. Cotton is a sustainable, recyclable and biodegradable fiber.

 Our cotton mill, RCM also believe so much in the rights and lives of cotton farmers the have gifted a 10% shareholder stake in RCM - find out more about RCM in the knit/dye/cut&sew stage   

Chetna Organic Cooperative

H.NO. 1-305, Lakkaram Post Utnoor,Mandal, Adilabad district

Worker numbers: 8,120 Farmers (certified organic fair trade cotton)

(2,282 Female | 8120 Male)

Percentage of Female workers: (28% female workers),

started in 2004

annual production capacity of over 2000 tons Organic cotton

Product offering: Organic Fair trade Cotton, Non cotton crops include lentils, Soya Bean

 

- GINNING - (taking the raw cotton and removing the seeds)

Once the cotton has been picked and harvested it is trucked up to Sagar Fibre and stored in huge piles. The Ginning process starts with the cotton being sifted (separating the seed from the cotton). 

Its then sucked up in massive tubes (think a giant vacuum) and sorted by quality and squeezed into bales according to the quality.   

We love that the left over cotton seeds can be pressed to make oil or used as animal feed.

  

Sagar Fiber

AT. MOHA (VILLAGE) DHAMANGAON ROAD,

YAVATMAL PIN445001. MAHARASHTRA

1,000 Employees, started in 2004

 

- SPINNING - (turning the cotton bales into yarn)

The bales of cotton are then taken to the spinning factory, where they are processed and blended together to ensure consistency in a process called 'carding' Carding is one of the most important operations in the spinning process as it directly determines the final features of the yarn. The cotton is made into one long twisted rope called 'silver' and is put into big drums (like the picture above) from there it is twisted and wound onto large bobbin in a process called 'roving' as it gets ready for to be 'carded' (the removal of any short fibres, or last impurities) and is the ready to be made into t-shirt fabric as we know it!

Sagar Fiber

AT. MOHA (VILLAGE) DHAMANGAON ROAD,

YAVATMAL PIN445001. MAHARASHTRA

1,000 Employees, started in 2004

- KNITTING - (from yarn to fabric)

The knitting process is mesmerising and the machinery looks like its out of a sci-fi movie. At this stage of the the process the Rajlakshmi Cotton Mill (RCM) team take hundreds of yarn bobbins and the are all synchronised, looped and knitted into fabric rolls. 

RCM director Rajat Jaipur believes the fair trade principles should not only benefit the mill workers that make our products, but also embrace the farmers and rural communities that grow the cotton we use.

RCM prefinance up 30% of the cotton harvest ahead of time to instill confidence and allow growth and strength between Chetna organic and RCM. 

Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills

4th Floor, 234/3A, A. J. C. Bose Road, Kolkata, West Bengal 700020, India

Worker numbers: 812 (27 Female | 785 Men)

Percentage of Female workers: (3.4%female workers) Started in 1934

Product offering: Custom Knitted tshirt fabric

RAJLAKSHMI COTTON MILLS

- Dyeing - (choose you colour!)

We recognise that dyeing is a process which is traditionally water heavy and also can use lots of crazy chemicals. We want the best for our organic fabric and also the best for you - so we use a mix of GOTS and OekoTex certified dyes. 

Its a crazy process, but less crazy as our dyes are low impact and don't contain toxic metals and are also azo-free (azo is carcinogenic)

Good for everyone and good for the planet!

Our dye house also has an onsite 6 stage effluent treatment plant - sludge is converted into fertiliser and all residual waste products are disposed of through a state authorised facility.

Water is recycled from the effluent treatment plant and 50% of it is reused after going through reverse osmosis.

Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills

4th Floor, 234/3A, A. J. C. Bose Road, Kolkata, West Bengal 700020, India

Worker numbers: 812 (27 Female | 785 Men)

Percentage of Female workers: (3.4%female workers) Started in 1934

Product offering: Custom Knitted tshirt fabric

 

We work with Two factories in Kolkata to make our garments and where we're different. Freeset exists for the many women who have never had the choice to be free. We care about the thousands in West Bengal, India who are vulnerable to sex trafficking. These women don’t get to choose their occupation, and we want to change that. We make bags, tees, and hand-woven fabrics, and love that we are part of India’s long tradition of cotton and jute production.

 

Freeset Bags and Apparel

172 Ramesh Dutta St,Kolkata 700006

Worker numbers: 347 (312 Female | 35 Men) across 6 production units.

Percentage of Female workers: (89.9%female workers) 

Tshirt production unit: 65 workers (54 Female | 11 Male)

Started in 2001

Product offering: T-shirt and Bag production

The bulk of our production is with Freeset but we also produce in house with the amazing team at RCM who have also invited the Freeset t-shirt production unit over for a factory visit and some incredible insights and training, Thank you RCM you guys are awesome. 

At RCM fabric scraps are taken from the cutting tables and recycled to produce paper.

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Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills

4th Floor, 234/3A, A. J. C. Bose Road, Kolkata, West Bengal 700020, India

Worker numbers: 812 (27 Female | 785 Men)

Percentage of Female workers: (3.4%female workers) Started in 1934

Product offering: Hooded pullover production