Design and materials

how we do it

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Certifications and standards

Short about our certifications and standards, and what we think of them (meaning the concepts). 

ISO9001

Most of our factories have the ISO 9001 certification which is the international standard for quality management. In order to be certified to the ISO 9001 standard, a company must follow the requirements set forth in the ISO 9001 Standard. The standard is used by organizations to demonstrate their ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements and to demonstrate continuous improvement.

ISO45001

Most of our factories have the ISO 45001 certification, which is an international standard that aims to ensure a good working environment with a continuous focus on the employees' physical and mental working environment. The purpose of ISO 45001 work environment management is to improve the factory's performance in relation to the work environment by creating the framework for management and control of the risks that exist within the work environment. This helps to reduce accidents at work and create safe and healthy workplaces.

Global Recycled Standard

Our biggest supplier of nylon tights as well as all of our recycled yarns (polyamide, elastane, wool) are certified by Global Recycled Standard - a holistic certification for products and manufacturers working with recycled content. The desired effect of the GRS is to provide brands with a tool for more accurate labelling, to encourage innovation in the use of reclaimed materials, to establish more transparency in the supply chain, and to provide better information to consumers.

GOTS

We use organic cotton certified by The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) - the worldwide leading textile processing standard for organic fibres, including ecological and social criteria, backed up by independent certification of the entire textile supply chain. 

OEKO-TEX® Standard 100

Most of our factories are certified by STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® which is one of the world's best-known labels for textiles tested for harmful substances. It stands for customer confidence and high product safety. 

Responsible Wool Standard

When we do not use recycled wool we mainly use virgin wool certified to the Responsible Wool Standard, which promotes standards for animal welfare and land management. Our cashmere yarn manufacturers are certified by the Sustainable Fibre Alliance which encourage the adoption of responsible production practices that minimise environmental impact, safeguard herder livelihoods and meet high animal welfare standards. All wool we use is fully traceable.

EU Ecolabel

Our preferred nylon yarn - Q-NOVA® - is certified by EU Ecolabel - a label of environmental excellence that is awarded to products and services meeting high environmental standards throughout their life-cycle: from raw material extraction, to production, distribution and disposal.

CHOOOSE

We've partnered with Chooose, an organisation that makes businesses and individuals carbon balanced by investing in UN verified or Gold Standard CO2 reducing projects in developing countries - like hydro power in Laos and wind power in Vietnam. This creates the most effective combat to climate change - the fastest.

Material choices

We focus on durability and longevity and our material choices reflect that. Products that last longer reduce the environmental cost per use. Further, we assure that the materials that we use have the lowest possible negative impact.

 All materials are found in various qualities. Being a hosiery brand, most of our products are made of synthetic materials - however we use other materials too. We go for the longer lasting qualities to ensure that the end product has the longest life possible, and use as much recycled material as we can without reducing its quality. Some recycled materials cannot be made durable without mixing in virgin materials while others can, so when you see recycled and virgin materials mixed in some of our products, it’s to preserve the durability.

polyamide

Polyamide is a synthetic fibre that is highly durable and resilient. In our products we use Q-nova polyamide - an Ecolabel certified yarn which contains over 50% pre-consumer waste. The waste is derived from the yarn industry and would otherwise be unusable and disposed of as external waste. The recycled fibres are merged with virgin polyamide to ensure the quality and durability of the yarn. 

elastane

Elastane is a synthetic fibre used for elasticity. It is crucial to making the tights stretchy, creating comfort and keeping shape. We use Recycled Roica Eco-Smart™ for 99% of our elastane fibres (only one per cent virgin). With The technology available today, elastane is difficult to separate and recycle when mixed with other fibers, which is a great problem in the industry. That is why we are working with the Danish Technological institute to create a technology that is able to do this. 

COTTON

Cotton is a soft yet durable material that we use in some of our products. Not all cotton is equal in terms of working conditions and environmental impact. We use GOTS certified organic Egyptian Mako cotton. GOTS ensures a high level of social responsibility and a minimum use of chemicals when in the cultivation process. Mako cotton from the Egyptian highlands is grown and well-managed in a small part of the Nile Delta – representing only 0.5% of the total annual Egyptian cotton production. Mako cotton is picked exclusively by hand and that enables the avoidance of the usual usage of defoliants and other harsh chemical products that are commonly used for machinery designed for automatic plant-picking. Mako cotton fibres are remarkably long and therefore they have the unique and rare ability of being spun into a much smoother, finer, and stronger form of yarn than any other existing cotton in the world.

Viscose

Viscose is man-made natural fibres. They come from cellulose in organic materials that has gone through a synthetic chemical process. To ensure that the chemicals are not being emitted into the environment and that the input materials come from responsible sources, we use Lenzing Viscose™. 

wool

Wool is a natural fibre - an animal hair - from the fleece of a sheep, goat or other other animal. The fibre has many beneficial properties such as durability, breathability, heat regulating and is easy to care for. In our products we have included sheeps wool - mostly from the merino sheep - and cashmere wool from the cashmere goat, due to their unique warmth and softness. Our wool is either recycled or virgin, RWS certified, mulesing-free wool, and our cashmere follows the Sustainable Fibre Alliance standard for cashmere.