Our Standards
Where it comes from, who made it, and who checks. Named, where we can name them.
Quality is not an upgrade. It is the baseline.
This page is that baseline, written down: the bar we set, the places we buy from, and the people outside this company willing to check both.
We set the bar as a number. Microns, millimetres, staple length, fabric weight. Adjectives are free; measurements can be checked against the thing in your hands.
We name the place. Region, mill, and the family that runs it, wherever we are able to. Where we are not, we say so rather than reaching for a softer word.
We publish what isn’t finished. The last section of this page is the work still open. It stays there until it’s done.
What each fiber is, and how to tell good from bad, lives in the Fiber Guide. How to keep it lives in the Care Guide.
Six places, and what each one is for
Every fiber on this page begins in one of them. None of it is a figure of speech.
Cashmere
Royal grade on every piece. Not most of the collection — all of it.
The bar we set
Cashmere is graded on two numbers and most brands quote one: fineness in microns, length in millimetres. Fineness is what you feel in the shop; length is what you feel in year three. We buy on both.
Every cashmere piece we make is spun at the grade the trade calls Royal. Every lot is tested, and in three years none has come in above 15.4 microns. Some have run as low as 14.7.
We quote the ceiling rather than the best lot we have ever had, because the ceiling is the only number that describes the sweater you are actually holding. That range sits inside every published Grade A band we can find.
A few styles are made in baby cashmere instead: 13 to 14 microns, staple 34 to 36 millimetres, from a kid goat’s first combing and gathered once in the animal’s life. Where a piece is baby cashmere, the product page says so.
“Grade A” is not a standard. There is no enforced definition behind the phrase and no body that audits it — anyone may print it, and most do. We meet it and we still won’t print it, because a badge nobody checks is not evidence. Microns and millimetres, on a certificate, batch by batch. Those can be checked.
Staple length is measured on the same certificate and held to a long-staple spec. We are not going to print a millimetre figure here until we can quote one that holds across lots the way the micron figure does.
Where it comes from
Three of the coldest places fiber is produced: the Alashan region in the west of Inner Mongolia, and the highlands of Qinghai and Tibet. Cold is the point. A goat only grows an undercoat worth combing if the winter demands one, and these are the winters that demand it.
The fiber is combed out by hand in spring as the goats shed. Combing takes only the down and leaves the animal its guard coat; it is slower than shearing and yields far less. Herd sizes are held down deliberately — too many goats on a grassland is how a grassland becomes a desert, and the herders who have worked this land longest are the ones least willing to let that happen.
We name our weaver for linen and our spinners for wool. We don’t name our cashmere spinner, and it’s fair to ask why: the yarn programme took years to build and it is the one piece of sourcing we keep to ourselves. The numbers above are the part that matters to you, and they are on the certificate either way.
Who checks it
Our suppliers hold membership in the Sustainable Fibre Alliance and the International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare, and operate a chain of custody that follows the fiber from the herd to the spinning mill to the factory that knits it. That last part is the one worth caring about: without it, an origin claim is a sentence anyone can type.
Sustainable Fibre Alliance
A non-profit standard holder for cashmere and other animal fibres. Its Animal Fibre Standard v1.0 took effect 1 April 2025, replacing the earlier Codes of Practice, and sets five principles at herder level covering animal welfare, rangeland management, and livelihoods.
ICCAW
The International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare, covering the treatment of the animals themselves at the point the fiber is gathered.
Chain of custody
The fiber is followed from the herd to the spinning mill to the factory that knits it. Without this, an origin claim is a sentence anyone can type.
The Sustainable Fibre Alliance replaced its earlier Codes of Practice with the SFA Animal Fibre Standard v1.0, effective 1 April 2025, setting five principles for herder-level production covering animal welfare, rangeland management, and livelihoods. Certifications move; we would rather tell you which version is current than let a date quietly age on this page.
- Origin
- Alashan, western Inner Mongolia; the Qinghai and Tibetan highlands
- Collected
- Combed by hand in spring, as the undercoat sheds. A kid is combed once
- Grade
- Royal across the line; baby cashmere on select pieces
- Fineness
- 14.7–15.4 µm across three years (Royal) · 13.0–14.0 µm (baby)
- Staple
- About 34–36 mm on baby; long-staple spec on Royal, measured per lot
- Standards
- Sustainable Fibre Alliance; International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare
- Traceability
- Chain of custody, herd to spinner to factory
Cotton
Supima only. Anyone can say pima; only Supima is checked.
The bar we set
Cotton is bought on staple — the average length of the fibers in the boll. The upland cotton that makes up most of the world’s crop runs about an inch. Our bar is extra-long staple: 1.375 inches and up, which is the Supima specification.
Length is not a refinement, it is the mechanism. Longer fibers spin into yarn with fewer ends poking out of the surface, and fewer loose ends means a smoother hand, more even dye uptake, and far less to give up to friction. Pilling, fading, and thinning at the elbow are all consequences of short fiber.
Supima is under one percent of the world’s cotton crop.
Where it comes from
American-grown, on family farms across the US West and Southwest — California, Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas. Long, hot growing seasons and dry harvests are what extra-long staple cotton needs, and those four states are where it gets them.
Where we use organic cotton, our suppliers work to the Organic Content Standard 100. Textile Exchange’s life cycle assessment of organic cotton found it produced 46 percent less global warming potential, consumed 91 percent less blue water, and required 62 percent less primary energy than conventional cotton. Those figures come from a published study you can go and read, not from us, and they describe organic cotton generally rather than any single farm.
Who checks it
The two words get used interchangeably, including by people selling cotton. They are not the same kind of claim, and the difference is the whole reason we buy one and not the other.
Pima is a cotton, and also a word nobody owns. There is no association behind it, no licence to hold, no audit to fail. A label reading “pima” may be describing genuine extra-long staple fiber, or a short-staple upland cotton with a nicer word on the tag, and there is no one to write to either way. The same is true of “Egyptian cotton,” which is why both turn up constantly on cloth that is neither.
Supima — Superior Pima — is not a different plant. It is the same species with a verification layer on top: a registered trademark owned by the American Supima Association since 1954, licensed only to mills and brands that can demonstrate the fiber is 100 percent American-grown ELS Pima. Bales are tracked from the gin, and origin is authenticated forensically through Oritain, whose testing reads the trace-element fingerprint the soil leaves in the cotton itself. Substituted or blended fiber shows up as a failed audit, and Supima investigates it.
American Supima Association
Founded 1954. Owns the Supima® trademark and licenses it only where the fiber is 100 percent American-grown extra-long staple Pima.
Oritain
Forensic origin testing. Reads the trace-element signature the soil leaves in the cotton itself, so substituted or blended fiber fails an audit rather than passing quietly.
Organic Content Standard 100
Where we use organic cotton. Independent verification of organic content through the supply chain.
Pima
A cotton- What it is
- The ELS species, Gossypium barbadense
- Grown in
- United States, Peru, Australia, Israel
- Who owns the word
- Nobody. Generic term, no trademark
- Who checks it
- No one. There is no audit to fail
- If the label is false
- Nothing happens. No licence to lose, no body to appeal to
Supima®
A verification — what we buy- What it is
- The same species, licensed and authenticated
- Grown in
- United States only — California, Arizona, New Mexico, West Texas
- Who owns the word
- American Supima Association, est. 1954 — a registered trademark
- Who checks it
- The Association, plus forensic origin testing by Oritain reading the fiber’s own trace-element signature
- If the label is false
- The audit fails, Supima investigates, and the licence is at risk
Why we say Supima and not pima. Not because it is a finer plant — it isn’t a different plant at all. Because “pima” is a word and Supima is a licence. One can be typed by anyone selling anything; the other has an owner who tests the fiber and can take it away. A claim nobody audits is a preference, not a fact.
If a label says pima, the useful question is where it was grown and who confirmed it. If it says Supima, someone already has.
- Origin
- US West and Southwest — California, Arizona, New Mexico, West Texas
- Staple
- 1.375 in. and up, against roughly 1 in. for upland
- Rarity
- Under 1% of the world’s cotton crop
- Standards
- American Supima Association licence; Organic Content Standard 100 where organic
- Traceability
- Bale-tracked from the gin; origin authenticated by forensic fiber testing
Linen
European flax, woven in Belgium. Both halves of that, not one.
The bar we set
The bar here is a sentence with two parts, and almost every linen sold fails one of them. The flax must be European, and the weaving must happen in Europe too. “Belgian flax” and “Belgian Linen™” are different claims, and the difference is deliberately blurred across the industry — cloth woven anywhere in the world from European flax gets sold under language that sounds identical.
We buy from a weaver certified on both counts, so the claim survives being read carefully.
Where it comes from
The best flax in the world grows in a narrow band of Western Europe running from Caen in northern France up through Belgium to Amsterdam. That strip produces around eighty percent of the world’s flax, for the ordinary reason that flax wants exactly the weather it gets there — a temperate climate alternating sun and rain, over heavy soil.
Because the rain arrives on its own, the crop takes no irrigation. It also takes markedly fewer pesticides and fertilizers than most fiber crops, and the fibers are separated from the stem by dew retting: the stalks are pulled, laid back down on the field, and left for the weather and soil microbes to loosen them. It is the slowest possible method and the one that uses nothing.
Every part of the plant is used. Linseed goes back out as next season’s crop or into food and oil; the shives — the woody core — become animal bedding and chipboard; the long fibers and the best of the short ones go to textiles, and the rest go to insulation and paper. At the mill, even the waste selvedge and shearing dust are recycled. At the end of its life a linen fabric returns: an independent study found it fully degrades in six and a half months.
Our linen is woven by Libeco in Meulebeke, about ten miles from Kortrijk — the town that was the centre of the Flemish flax trade when the company started trading there in 1858. The weaving mill went up at the turn of the century and the company still operates on that same site, run now by the fifth generation of the Libeert family alongside some two hundred and thirty colleagues. The fabric is inspected yard by yard and mended by hand where it needs it.
Who checks it
Three independent labels, each with a different job, and one of them is the reason we can make the two-part claim above at all.
Belgian Linen™
Woven in Belgium, from flax of European origin making up at least 85 percent of the fabric by weight. In use since 1960 and administered independently by the Belgian Flax & Linen Association, which assigns every certified batch a unique ID so the cloth can be traced back to its origin. Six weavers in the world hold it.
Masters of Linen®
Made entirely in Europe, flax to fabric, with transparent production and traceability. Monitored by the Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp and awarded annually after audit. Nineteen European weavers meet the conditions.
OEKO-TEX® Standard 100
Tested for substances harmful to human health. Held across the mill’s full standard collection since 2017.
The mill has been certified carbon neutral since 2014, and got there the unglamorous way: two years of measurement and retrofitting that cut annual emissions by a third, then solar in three phases — 1,252 panels, then another 1,026, then 1,646 more — roofs insulated and the vehicle fleet electrified in 2024, with the remaining balance offset annually. It also holds the title of Warranted Purveyor to the Court of Belgium.
- Flax grown
- Northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands — roughly 80% of world production
- Water
- Rainfed. No irrigation
- Retted
- Dew retting — laid back on the field, loosened by weather
- Woven
- Libeco, Meulebeke, Belgium — since 1858, fifth generation
- Labels
- Belgian Linen™ · Masters of Linen® · OEKO-TEX® Standard 100
- Mill
- Certified carbon neutral since 2014
- End of life
- Fully biodegrades in about 6.5 months
Denim
No distressing. The fade is yours to earn.
The bar we set
Denim is cotton, so everything in the cotton chapter applies to the yarn. But the fiber is not where a pair of jeans does its damage. Two other stages are: dyeing and finishing, and the years of washing afterward.
Our denim is not distressed. No stonewashing, no sanding, no chemical aging. Those processes exist to skip time — to sell a garment that looks like it has already been worn for five years. We would rather the wearer do it, which is the same argument the rest of this page makes about everything else we sell.
Indigo sits on the outside of the yarn rather than penetrating it, which is what gives denim its fade — and it means dyeing is a surface process run at volume, with the water and chemical load that implies. Skipping the finishing stage removes the second load entirely.
Where it comes from
We are choosing the mill now. Denim is the newest thing we make, and we are selecting against the same questions we asked of every other fiber on this page: where the cotton comes from, what happens to the water, who is certified and by whom.
We will name it here when it is signed, the way we have named the others. Until then this section stays as it is — an empty space is more honest than a sentence that sounds like sourcing and isn’t.
Who checks it
To be added on signature, alongside the mill.
The part you control
Across a pair of jeans’ life, washing accounts for a large share of the water and energy it will ever consume. Denim is also the one fabric that improves when you leave it alone: colour stays deeper, the fit stays yours, and the fades land where you actually move. Wearing denim often and washing it seldom is the rare case where the better-looking choice and the lower-impact one are the same choice.
- Fiber
- Cotton, woven as twill; indigo on the warp only
- Finishing
- None. No stonewash, no sanding, no chemical aging
- Mill
- Being selected — named here on signature
- Certification
- To be added on signature
- Biggest lever
- Wash frequency, and it belongs to you
Wool
Responsible Wool Standard. Mulesing prohibited, every site certified.
The bar we set
The bar for wool is not a micron count — it is a certification that covers the animal, the land, and the people on the farm, and that follows the fiber all the way down the chain.
We buy under the Responsible Wool Standard, introduced by Textile Exchange in 2016. It covers animal welfare, land management, and working conditions, and mulesing is prohibited under it. Crucially, the standard requires every site from the farm to the last business-to-business sale to be certified — which is what makes it traceable rather than decorative. Our suppliers also hold Woolmark certification.
Where it comes from
Most of our wool begins with merino sheep in Australia, on stations working under the RWS.
Our lambswool is spun by Z. Hinchliffe & Sons in Yorkshire, an English firm at work since 1766. The fleece itself comes from the Geelong region of Australia and travels to England to be spun — an inefficient-sounding arrangement that exists because the two ends of it are each the best at what they do. Our extra-fine merino yarn is spun and imported from one of Italy’s oldest woolen mills, in operation for close to two hundred years.
Who checks it
Responsible Wool Standard
Textile Exchange, introduced 2016. Farms audited against animal welfare, land management, and social modules. Mulesing prohibited. Every subsequent site certified to the Content Claim Standard.
Woolmark
A quality certification carried on the yarn itself, held by our spinners.
Chain of custody
Certification required at every site from the farm to the last business-to-business sale — which is what makes the claim traceable rather than decorative.
The Responsible Wool Standard is administered by Textile Exchange and audited at every certified site. Farms are assessed against animal welfare, land management, and social modules; every subsequent stage is certified to the Content Claim Standard. Woolmark sits alongside it as a quality certification on the yarn itself.
- Origin
- Merino and lambswool fleece from Australia, including the Geelong region
- Spun
- Yorkshire, England (Z. Hinchliffe & Sons, est. 1766); northern Italy
- Standards
- Responsible Wool Standard (Textile Exchange, 2016); Woolmark
- Excluded
- Mulesing, prohibited under the RWS
- Chain
- Every site certified, farm to final B2B sale
Making, packing, and keeping
In the factory
We work with factories that pay fair market wages and have retooled to cut water and chemical use in knitting and finishing. Fewer corners cut upstream is worth more than any claim we could print downstream.
In the box
Pieces ship in reusable storage bags that protect them in transit and then hold them through the off-season. We use carriers with carbon offsets, and we don’t split shipments or oversize a box unless there is no other way to get the order to you intact.
In your closet
The most useful thing on this page isn’t on this page. A sweater kept ten years outperforms every choice above it. That’s what the Care Guide is for — washing, storing, and the small repairs that add years.
Still open
Three things we don’t have solved yet. They stay here until we do.
Emissions we can measure
We can name our mills. We cannot yet publish verified emissions data for them. Until we can, we have chosen not to publish an estimate dressed up as a figure.
The dye house
Dyeing is where a great deal of a garment’s water and chemical load sits, and it is the part of our chain we describe least well. Mapping it properly is the work in front of us.
Repair, and what comes after
We tell you how to keep a sweater. We don’t yet offer to mend one, or to take it back when you are finished with it. A brand that argues for longevity should be able to do both.
What Really Matters.
Client CareQuestions about a fiber, a mill, or a certification? Every note is read and answered personally.