Welcome to Poetry,
We love natural fabrics for their drape, the feeling against the skin, the texture, the irregularities in the yarns, and the richness of colour. The fabrics we use have character and that translates into clothes that over time, through wear and wash, become unique to their owner.
Whilst our focus is on creating beautiful clothes, of equal importance is respect for people and the environment.
We feel lucky to have such a dedicated team working for us, and our suppliers are an extension of that team. We have a small number of suppliers, all of whom we have worked with for many years, and each one a specialist with expertise in handling natural fabrics. It is important to us to know the people making our clothes and to know that everyone involved is treated fairly.
To stand behind our clothes we also need to know that their production has the most positive impact possible on the environment. In this respect, we believe natural fabrics are also the best choice. They are renewable and biodegradable, and their longevity means we can buy fewer clothes.
We have embarked on a journey to investigate the long and complex supply chains from fibre to finished garment, assessing at each stage the impact on the environment and the communities involved. Knowing more means we are able to make better decisions, identifying ways to improve what we do. In this short journal we share with you some of the findings and some of our initiatives for future change. 
Luke Dashper
Founder & Creative Director
| “99.44% of all fabrics used to make our clothes are from natural fibres” |
Our target is 100% biodegradable
We are proud of what we do. Made of 99.44% natural fibres our clothes are already better for the environment than most, but there is still a lot more we can do to reduce our impact even further.
Our ultimate aim is to produce 100% natural garments that are fully biodegradable, but this means everything has to be biodegradable – the buttons, the sewing thread, the dyes, and the labels, as well as the fabrics.
This is not a quick or easy thing to accomplish, but one step at a time, we are making progress.
No more plastic buttons
For years we have used mock horn buttons, which are essentially plastic. Not any more. Starting with Spring Summer 2023, we will be switching to using buttons made from the corozo nut, as well as buttons made from shell and a small number of real horn buttons, which are a by-product from the food industry.
Cotton garment labels
We are in the process of moving to cotton brand labels and care labels. We started with knitwear for Autumn Winter 2022. We are ready to move all garments to cotton labels but we have some stock of the old labels to use up first (wouldn’t be good to throw them away). By the end of next year all our labels will be cotton.
Sewing thread
Many of our woven and jersey garments are sewn with either polyester sewing thread or a blend of cotton and polyester. Polyester has the advantages of being strong, cheap and widely available with low minimums and short lead-times. Moving to alternatives is not going to be easy but we are working on it. We have found some alternative sewing threads that are natural and biodegradable and we have started discussions with our suppliers. Work in progress.
Dyes
Currently all our clothes are dyed with conventional industry dyes which are synthetic. Dyes are one of the most complex fashion sustainability issues to solve and naturally occurring undyed colour range is fairly limited. Finding alternatives will not be straightforward but this is now a priority for us.
