Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base code basics: 

1. Employment is freely chosen    2. Freedom of association (=Unions)    3. Working conditions are safe and hygienic    4. Child labour shall not be used    5. Living wages are paid    6. Working hours are not excessive    7. No discrimination is practiced 8. Regular employment is provided    9. No harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed

In the sampling studio it had almost exclusively male workers, as did the fabric mill, however in the garment factory the split was roughly 50/50 male to female. After asking them why this was, I now understand that this is due to the fact that once couples have children it is the mothers that stay at home to care for the children while the fathers work to support the family financially. At the garment factory the female workers either had grown up children or were not yet married with children.

Despite some negative stigma, India is an amazing place to produce ethical products. My previous boss Katharine Hamnett (the godmother of green fashion) produced her collections there, as do many other eco and ethical brands. They are leaders in Organic cotton production and educators of organic farming practices (I have personally visited the organic cotton fields in central India and sat in on lectures given by organic farming scientists and local cotton farmers). They also have leading producers of recycled PET yarns (polyester that is made from plastic bottles collected throughout India). Like ours, many Indian factories weave the fabric themselves and make the garments too, cutting out transportation costs and emissions. You can find really great factories that comply with the ETI labour standards base code (providing a living wage) and that are powered by solar energy too. India can be an extremely great place to produce your clothing.  

What actually goes into making a garment?

Design, fabric and trim sourcing, pattern cutting, sampling, fittings, re-cutting, more sampling, more fitting, product testing, technical drawings, specification pack building, digitizing patterns, grading into size breakdowns, communication to factories, more sampling and size set production, couriers between factory and design studio, lab-dip colour matching, cotton growing, cotton harvesting, fiber ginning, yarn spinning, yarn sanforising, yarn wrapping, plastic bottle collection, yarn extrusion, fabric weaving, fabric dying, fabric QC, shrinkage calculations, pattern master amendments to include shrinkage, laying fabric ready for cutting, printing cutting templates, cutting out all the fabric pieces (27 pieces in our Mercury jean for example), embroidery, printing and screen making, zip & button production, trim shipping, wash labels, hanging loops, sewing components together to make the final garment, quality control, pressing, folding, packaging ribbon design, packaging ribbon production, hang tag design, hang tag printing, string attachment, attachment to garment, barcode allocation & referencing, shipping from facility to the port, administration fees, customs, shipping from port to warehouse, warehouse rent, more quality control in house (sometimes 100%!), and the coordination of all of those elements, to name but a few.

The cost of a garment is not solely down to the wage you pay the person that sews the cut fabric pieces together. We make sure that our supply chain complies with the ETI labour standards base code, this ensures the workers are pair a fair living wage.

It's important to understand what's included in the full cost of a garment. 

There are so many elements to clothing production, it’s an extremely sensitive and price driven industry with so many processes involved, there can be around 30+ individuals and 10+ businesses involved in producing 1 single pair of trousers, each needing to make a margin to function. Here is a list of the businesses usually involved in the product alone:

Brand (3^RD ROCK) / production facility / dying house / garment printing house / YKK and other trim producers / paper printers / farmer / recycling unit / yarn producer / shipping company / shipping agent / warehouse.