The world of local fabric sourcing – Fil Etik

‍BM: How do you select the best fabric? What do you look for?

F: There are different ways to approach sustainability when it comes to fabrics sourcing, but we, at Fil Etik, always favour natural fabrics, above recycled polyester for example. So far, we have not considered artificial fabrics yet, but we are open to the possibility of lyocell, which is the eco-friendly version of the viscose process. Above all we work with Organic cotton, Hemp and Organic linen, as these last two have a history of being produced locally in Europe.

We are facing the problem of the growing costs of organic cotton, the demand is higher than the offer, so we have to consider alternatives.

We are working with European organic linen weavers, and another company who is planting their own hemp in France. They are not organic yet, but by working with them and trusting their mission we can support their transition towards producing local organic hemp.

80% of linen is grown in France, Belgium, and The Netherlands but most of the production goes to Asia to be spun into yarn and woven or knitted. This doesn’t make sense to us and that’s why we are looking for ways to support initiatives to redirect a bigger part of this local production to the local market.

Besides tracing down the origins of all our materials one of our 2022 goals is to get GOTS certified. We also have been asking all our sourcing partners from the beginning for full traceability and being GOTS certified from the raw material to fabric. Next to that we occasionally buy deadstock from ethical and sustainable brands to resell to smaller businesses or home sewers who need smaller quantities, but are looking for high quality.

BM: What would you recommend to someone who is thinking about starting their own clothing label and doesn’t know which fabrics to select?

F: The word sustainability is complex on its own, it tackles many problems and you have to find what is the most important problem you want to solve. Is it circularity? Not using virgin materials? Or do you only want to use fabrics that have the smallest impact on the people and environment? For example bamboo has been made popular as an eco-friendly material because it uses a lot less water than cotton and is easy to grow, but bamboo fiber is not directly spinnable into yarn and has to be transformed through a viscose process which uses lots of chemicals and the people who produce it are exposed to dangerous hazards, so to me it’s definitely not the best material. Synthetic textiles, even recycled ones, have lots of issues with shedding microplastics, this is why we have made the choice, at Fil Etik, to only work with organic and/or endemic natural fibers so far. So I recommend you find one cause you feel strongly about and start from there.

BM: Which role do you think textiles play in our society?

F: Everyone is wearing clothes, so it’s very present in everybody’s life. The fashion industry employs a lot of people in the world, from farmers, to weavers, knitters, manufacturers, designers, retailers etc., so if it would change it could have a high level of impact not only for our industry but for the entire world. The impact is huge, we can potentially go from one of the most polluting industries to one of the most innovative and inspiring industries. One of the keys to this systematic change is to rethink where we put value. We attach so much value to designing, ideation, marketing, but no value at all to the making of those fabrics and garments. This needs to change.

BM: What’s your next step regarding improving your sustainable practices?

F: Getting the company GOTS certified, it will give us that extra credibility as we are the last step in the transparent supply chain that we have put in place that needs to be certified. We want to carry on discovering knitters and weavers here in France, and we want to support new initiatives in Linen and Hemp in Europe. We feel there is lots of potential for short circuit production here. What is also important for us is that we want to keep on creating modern, timeless fabrics, so people can express themselves with their designs in these high quality fabrics and move away from the trends and seasons.

If you would like to contact Florence or work with the beautiful fabrics from Fil Etik please go to their website or Instagram for more information.

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