The sentence we had to make longer

for a long time we said one sentence about how these clothes are made, and it was almost true.

What we used to say

All of our work is done in homes, never factories. That was the line. It was on the website, in my emails, in interviews, and it was the sentence people quoted back to me most often. I liked it. It was short, it was warm, and it drew the picture I wanted you to have.

It was also wrong. Not by a lot. Wrong in the direction that matters, though, because it was tidier than the truth, and tidy is usually a sign that someone has rounded something off.

What is actually true

Around thirty Balinese artisan families make everything we sell. About half of them work from their own homes. About half work from small workshops that the artisan tailors own and run themselves. Neither of those is a factory. Neither of them belongs to us.

The home half is the part everyone pictures when they read the word handmade, and it is real. In those houses the sound of a sewing machine sits alongside children finishing homework and rice cooking for dinner. I have sat on those floors. It is the best thing about this work.

The workshop half is less photogenic and I think more interesting. It is usually a tailor who has grown. She has taken on two or three people, rented a room with better light and a fan that actually turns, and she runs it. That is somebody's business, not ours. We are a client of it. Calling that a home would flatter us and shrink her.

Why we do not use factories, which is not about romance

It would be easy to tell you we avoid factories because handwork is beautiful. Handwork is beautiful. It is not the reason.

The reason is influence. Inside a factory we would be one buyer among many, with very little real say over what happens on the floor. With a family, and with a small workshop a tailor owns, we are in the room. We know what the space is like. We know what the hours are, and what is missing. And when something needs to change, we can have that conversation directly with the person who is able to change it.

That is a smaller, less impressive claim than most ethical fashion language, and it is the one that holds up when you push on it.

What this way of working costs us

It costs us paperwork, and the paperwork is how most people judge a brand. Chain of custody certification is priced per facility, per year, which means thirty sewing sites is thirty audits. The cheapest way for us to look more ethical would be to become less ethical: rent one building, move thirty makers into it, put them on shifts. Every measurable fact about their lives would get worse and our credentials would improve. I wrote the whole argument out, with the numbers, in a piece about what certification actually costs a small brand.

So here is what we do hold, stated precisely. Our linen is certified to OEKO-TEX Standard 100, which tests the finished fabric for harmful substances. The lighter colourways also carry European Flax, which traces the flax back to Western European fields grown without irrigation or GMOs. Our mills are GOTS certified at mill level. We do not hold chain of custody ourselves, and I would rather write that sentence than let you assume otherwise. If you ever want to see the documents, ask us and we will send them.

A piece made this way

The Suka is the one I would point at. A matching button down top and wide leg trouser, both cut from 100% French linen, stonewashed before it ever reaches you so the softness you feel on the first day is the softness it keeps. It runs generously through the shoulder and the body, and the trouser sits high and easy. Thirty seconds and you are dressed, and still you look like you thought about it.

It was made by the same families, in those houses and in those workshops. Allow 3 to 6 weeks from order to shipment, then 5 to 15 business days with DHL, because it is made after you order it.

I am not going to pretend the longer sentence is as lovely as the short one. It is just the one that is true, and I would rather hand you something true that you can check.

With love from Bali,
Myrah