In recent years, there’s been a noticeable shift in the industry towards organic and sustainably sourced cotton, with many designers, and even some of the more mainstream labels, sporting organic cotton and linen ranges.

The shift is in part, being ‘pulled’ by consumer demand, and partly being ‘pushed’ by the designers themselves - as many brands make a deliberate shift towards using materials and processes that enhance, rather than harm, the wellbeing of workers and the environment.

This mindset is about more than consumer consciousness: it’s becoming urgent and necessary.

In India, many decades of creating cotton fabrics and garments to meet global demand has stripped the soil of its fertility. India is consistently one of the top three producers of cotton globally, and the second largest spinner in the world. Yet, up until recently, organic only accounted for around one per cent of India’s total cotton production. So you can see there’s still a long way to go to truly create change!

At the same time, over the last decade, India’s production of environmentally sustainable textiles and apparel has flourished, and not just in knits, soft separates and casual wear, but also in high quality woven fabrics. A decade ago, it was near impossible to source high-end woven fabrics in organic cotton in India: however, now they can offer numerous blends of different fibres and yarns that don’t compromise on aesthetics, performance and durability.

The factories I work with in India all have full traceability and transparency, right from the cotton farmer in the countryside to the high street store in New Zealand or Australia - what we call ‘seed to product’.

My knitted and woven organic clothing (both cut and sew and flat knit garments),are all fully Fair-trade audited and GOTS certified (Global Organic Textile Standard is the world’s leading processing standard for textiles made from organic fibres such as cotton). My denim is also fully certified and Fair-trade audited.

Closer relationships between fibre production, processing and manufacturing organisations mean that supply chains are more transparent than ever, making full traceability possible. And processes are changing too. For example, the factories I work with now have water-recycling units at their dye processors.

Most importantly, the workers are earning fair, living wages, conditions are safe and humane, and local workers and artisans producing these sustainable products are being fairly compensated.

Which, quite simply, is what Ethical Edit is all about.