Most of us have a favourite pair of jeans. Many of us live in them. Yet slave free jeans are a rare commodity. There is a risk of forced labour being used at every stage of the process in creating a pair of jeans.
Denim is made from cotton and 9 out of the top 10 countries producing cotton use forced or child labour. If the cotton is spun in India, 60% of workers in spinning mills are under 18 and 10-20% are under 14. Many of these children live as slaves. Once spun the cotton needs to be woven. 20-30% of the Malaysian workforce are migrants. There is a high risk they have been charged recruitment fees they cannot repay and their passports have been taken away from them by their recruiters until the fee is paid.
The garment workers who sew the jeans may be lucky enough to be paid a minimum wage, but that will scarcely cover their rent and food, even if they work 12 hours a day.
We are looking for jeans brands which pay a fair living wage to their garment workers and ensure that all workers involved in the making of their jeans are treated well. We have added a few of these brands below, but if you know of any more, please let us know at ethicalrebel@outlook.com
MUD Jeans
MUD Jeans are a sustainable Dutch fashion brand aiming to make fashion circular.
Buy a pair: purchase your jeans directly.
Lease: pay a monthly fee of €7,50 for 12 months and a one-off 29€ subscription fee. After the 12 monthly payments, you stop paying and can choose to keep them longer, switch them or return them for recycling. There’s also a free Repair Service for Leasers in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
Send your jeans back for recycling at the end of their life, either way.
MUD Jeans denim is made out of virgin organic cotton mixed with recycled cotton from old jeans.
Outland Denim
Outland Denim began by providing training and employment to women who have experienced exploitation. They equip the women with skills, living wages and education for a sustainable career path. This and a holistic approach to supporting staff has resulted in true social change for them and their families and communities. Their jeans are designed with quality, the environment and garment workers in mind. Every jeans component is researched as safe for the environment. Every supplier must mitigate the risk of exploitation in their supply chain. Plus industry-leading technology helps to reduce water and energy consumption.
Nudie Jeans
Nudie Jeans are made to last but the brand will also repair, resell and recycle your jeans. “It is a deeply rooted part of Nudie Jeans to encourage the care of things that actually get more beautiful as they age.”
Nudie Jeans are made from 100% organic cotton denim sourced from suppliers who look after their garment workers. “…we want to be fully transparent, from cotton field to ready-made garment. This means we have to know and trust all our suppliers…visiting cotton fields, joining the Chetna Coalition and doing more to pay our own share of living wages at our suppliers in India.” Joakim Levin (Co-founder)
By joining forces with other brands as part of the Chetna Coalition, Nudie Jeans improves the organic cotton supply chain by planning procurement a year in advance. Their requirements are communicated to the farmers within Chetna Organic who can then plan their farming as they know they will have a market for the cotton they grow. It also means brands have an assured source of organic fabric when planning their products.
Eileen Fisher
Eileen Fisher’s vision is “Changing the world, one garment at a time.”
“Everyone needs to understand that the little choices they make matter. Our salespeople can make a customer feel a little more confident to walk out into the world, because they’ve found her the right garment, or maybe they’ve simply taken the time to connect with her. We have impact in all the ways we touch people. How long will the styles last? Are the fabrics sustainable? Does it cost too much? Will it sell? It’s this constant balance between making things work for the business, the customer and the environment.
It’s about how we work with our suppliers. We have to agree on a price that works for us, but we also need to understand their costs because we want them to be able to pay their people fairly and get them the programs they need. It’s all the little ways we see ourselves as a community, as part of a larger whole, and knowing that our decisions do matter.”
