Fashion Revolution Week calls for greater transparency, sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry. One brand ticking all the right boxes is ethical and sustainable fashion brand Kowtow.
Words Carolyn Enting.
Designer and founder of Kowtow, Gosia Piatek
When you pull on a Kowtow garment you can be confident about feeling as well as looking good. The brand just scored a straight A in the
2017 Ethical Fashion Report
(also known as the Baptist Report), and as most fashion designers will tell you, that is not easy to achieve but as Kowtow has proven it is doable.
Kowtow has been staunchly Fairtrade and ethical in its practises from the inception of the brand 10 years ago. It uses Fairtrade organic cotton grown in India and designer and founder Gosia Piatek personally knows the farmers who grow cotton for her beautiful garments to the people who weave the fabric and make her clothes. Kowtow is also committed to ethically-sourced trims and sustainable packaging. You will notice that none of its garments have zips because YKK Group (the world’s largest zip manufacturer) can’t provide clear enough policy documents of what their working conditions are like in their factories. Instead Piatek chooses to use Italian-made recycled hemp buttons as fastenings.
Piatek is proud to show that you can have a successful fashion brand without compromising on sustainability and ethics.
“Conscious fashion is not a trend anymore – it’s a fact and the only way forward. We’re happy to be on top,” says Piatek. “We forget that it’s all handmade that there’s a person operating that machine, or tucking the seam under with his or her finger.”
