At Little Cotton Clothes we believe it is essential to care for the environment and the people who make our clothes. We are a very small team but this is a hugely important part of what we do and we feel a great responsibility to make the right choices.  Please be assured that our ethical policy is always at the forefront of our minds.  If the below information doesn’t answer any questions you might have please do feel free to send us an email and we’ll try our best to answer.

We are not a fast or throwaway fashion brand. It takes over a year from start to finish to perfect our collections and we produce considered and very small quantities to ensure we have little to no unwanted stock - we don’t always get it right but we try our best. We are inspired by nostalgia rather than fashion and have no desire to be a big business, we are quite happy being the small business that we are .  We encourage our customers to shop mindfully and only buy the items they need and love and will wear on repeat and nothing makes us happier than to see our garments being handed down and re-loved. The quality of our items is extremely important to us and we hope that with this focus that the clothes we make and sell will last for many years.  It is also hugely important to us that our clothes are affordable but more importantly that we always pay a fair price for them.  

We work with a small number of very carefully chosen factories in India and Turkey, with whom we strive to develop long-lasting and trustful relationships and ensure from the start that they are committed to regularly evaluating their ethical standards which align with our own.

Our factories adhere to the standards set within the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code and all of our factories are ethically audited. Our ethical audits and standards set by the ETI base code ensure that minimum working age is adhered to, that employees are cared for, employment is chosen freely, working hours are adhered to and employees work in safe and hygienic conditions.  Our factories in India are GOTS certified and Wages paid to our tailors in India are never less than the ‘skilled worker wage’ set by the government which is around 20% higher than the Indian minimum wage.  Our makers also receive benefits such as Providence Fund, health care, bonuses and medical support.  We feel a great responsibility for the makers of our clothes and are happy that our little business provides ongoing employment for them in a safe and happy environment.

Sustainability

We are constantly looking for ways of being more sustainable and are proud to say our clothes are nearly always made from Organic Cotton, as we make our clothes in such small numbers we need to consolidate base fabrics to achieve this but if an item isn’t made from Organic cotton it is because we haven't been able reach the high minimums required for Organic.  This decision will have been made to ensure that we don’t have wasted fabric left over from our production.

Not only is Organic cotton farmed in a more sustainable way by using them we can be sure farmers are paid fairly for their cotton and that no harmful chemicals are used to produce them.  We also print and dye our fabrics in Oeko-Tex certified print houses to ensure that no harmful chemicals or toxins are present in our clothes. 

Our postage materials are all reusable and or recyclable.

Any offcuts of fabric from our production in India are donated to Goonj (please refer to our Charity page) and also made into cotton rag paper.

We make our clothes in single batches and in very small numbers and we try to make the perfect amount so there is no overstock at the end of each season but any unsold items or samples are donated to charity or to a local crisis centre for women who have suffered the trauma of domestic abuse.

We do not tolerate any kind of discrimination in relation to race, age, gender and disability. 

Please do take a look at our charity page to find out about the charities you enable us to support.