Global Garment Manufacturing: Turning Fabric into Fashion

This sector – ‘cut, make, trim’ – turns fabric into garments for world retail markets. Chinese garment manufacturing dwarfs nearest rivals, but brands may look to further d...

Faces and Figures: Who Makes Our Clothes?

From growing and processing cotton and other fibres to the cut-make-trim stage, fashion and textiles involves millions of people – roughly one in eight workers globally. Include ...

Sustainable Manufacturing: Size & Scope

An estimated 2.21% of fashion production facilities are manufacturing sustainably – using certified ecologically sound practices, meeting key labour or fair trade standards, or a...

How to Choose the Most Eco-Friendly Fabric For Your Garment

Choosing the most eco-friendly fabric is a complex process involving different data sets and tools. This guide seeks to de-mystify the fabric selection process, so that you can mak...

What Are Our Clothes Made From?

Clothes today are made from a wide range of different materials. Traditional materials such as cotton, linen and leather are still sourced from plants and animals. But most clot...

From Fibre to Fabric: a Look at Global Mills

A garment passes through several stages on its journey from raw material to retail market. Tracking data about these stages is key to tackling the environmental and social impacts ...

Synthetics & Sustainable Synthetics: Global Production

Synthetics derive from petrochemicals and comprise 62% of all fibres produced, with polyester used most widely. The race is on to perfect sustainable synthetics, used only in tiny ...

Silk and Sustainable Silk

Silk is a luxury commodity, produced mostly in a few countries but predominantly in China. ‘Preferred silks’ are: organically produced silk, ‘peace silk’ (more humanely pro...

Global Wool Production and Sustainable Standards

Although wool is produced in vast quantities, the amount used in apparel is small (1%) and decreasing. Sustainable wool sources are organically produced or abide by strict animal w...

Cotton and Sustainable Cotton: Key World Commodity

Despite being eclipsed by synthetics, when it comes to fashion cotton is still a key world crop. Global initiatives championing more sustainable cotton produce 30 percent of the wo...

Cellulosic Fibres and Preferred Cellulosics

Cellulosic fibres like viscose are widely used and produced from plant or tree cellulose in a chemical-intensive process. More sustainable types like modal and lyocell are increasi...

Bast Fibres: Size of Production

Bast fibres like flax (linen), hemp, jute and ramie derive from the inner fibrous layer of plants. They appeal as natural, low impact fibres but are only around 4.5% of all fibres ...

Leather and Sustainable Leather: Size of Production

Global trade in raw leather is buoyant and is set to grow by 4 percent a year. Developing countries supply more than half the world’s raw leather. Whie environmental audits asses...