REPLIES...

At the weekend I emailed a few organic organisation hoping that they would answer a few questions that I had prepared to get a better understanding of sustainability. Fortunately, Annie Greenabelle( http://www.anniegreenabelle.com/) replied and gave me some answers that allowed me into the world of this industry giving me details about where the fabrics came from and production time period. The question and answers are:

1. Where does all your fabric come from?

Our Organic, Fair trade cotton is bought through a company who from their 12 rural centres across India, coordinate organic fibre cultivation with a selected group of local farmers. A team of agronomists is based at each service centre who monitor growing to international organic standards. The farmers receive a fair price for their cotton.

The cotton is then taken by road to the spinners to be spun into yarn and from there to the weavers to be woven. Finally the fabric is dyed and finished and transported by boat to Europe to be made into garments in our factory.

We also use reclaimed fabrics which are from ends of rolls.

2. Where does your inspiration come from?

At Annie Greenabelle we go to Designer Trend forums to see future trends, take inspiration from vintage clothing, catwalk and also street style- what people wear day-to-day.

3.How difficult is it to produce Organic clothes?

Once we have bought our Organic Fairtrade certified cotton, the producing isn't too difficult. Our clothes are produced either in a Fairtrade factory in Poland or locally in a Fair trade factory in Leicester shire.

4. Is it a longer duration whilst in production because their Organic or not?

Not really as we are a smaller company we don't produce as much as a very large brand. Our delivery time is about the same as any big company. Producing garments locally in Leicester shire means the process is an even shorter duration.