At Poetry and our sister brand Wrap London, we feel lucky to have a stable and extremely skilled supply chain. We have worked with some of our longest standing suppliers for nearly 20 years, and we truly value these relationships. Our suppliers are not only the hands who make our clothes but also our advisors and companions in developing our unique styles. We do not take them for granted and we are continuously improving and investing in these relationships.
Where
Our suppliers are high-end factories with skilled and experienced workers making relatively small quantities of high-quality garments. All of our suppliers are chosen because of their unique skillset and craftmanship and therefore often located in areas with rich textile and clothing heritage. The majority of our suppliers are based in China with a small number of suppliers based in Europe.
Social Responsibility and Fair Wear
Decency and respect for our fellow human beings, whether suppliers, customers, or employees has been always at the core of our business. We have long-standing relationships with our suppliers and we know them very well, however, we also recognize that there is always room for improvement, especially when it comes to global supply chains and the ever-evolving political and economic fluctuations.
We are proud to say that in 2021 we teamed up with the Fair Wear Foundation to deepen our knowledge of our suppliers and to continue learning and improving our supply chain.
All of our suppliers have agreed to comply and work towards the 8 elements of Fair Wear’s code of labour practices. These include no exploitation of child labour, no discrimination of employment as well as payment of a decent wage without extensive overtime.
Monitoring
We normally visit our suppliers on a regular basis, however in the last two years because of the global pandemic and restricted traveling this has not been possible. To ensure our understanding of conditions at our suppliers we have increased the communication with our factories, and we are checking in with them regularly. In 2022 we have gradually restarted the visits to our supplier factories.
We have also introduced third-party audits that follow the Fair Wear code of labour practices and ethics standards. The audits monitor progress made rather than making a pass or fail judgement on a factory. They include a physical inspection of the factory, document inspection and offsite worker interviews. Once an audit is finished the Fair Wear Foundation provides directions on how to make improvements and we work with the factories to implement them. Almost all of our factories have been audited for social compliance at least once in the past three years.
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| Photos from a visit to our Italian denim laundry. |
Transparency
We believe that honesty and transparency is the best approach when tackling complex topics like ethics and sustainability.
Our suppliers have agreed to be disclosed in the Fair Wear Foundation system which allows other member brands to work with us on improving conditions in the factories and helps NGOs in their research activities.
To be transparent to our customers each year we will be publishing the Fair Wear Social Report and the yearly Fair Wear Brand Performance Check.
Our first Fair Wear Brand Performance Check for 2021 can be read here.
