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Small batch. Hand-made. Certified organic. See what we're doing differently.
Small batch. Hand-made. Certified organic. See what we're doing differently.
November 30, 2016
The word ‘organic’ can be used to mean so many things!
Which is why we strictly use only 100% organic cotton that is certified by the leading organic standard, the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). This means that our products are organic and non-toxic at every stage of production right from the farms to the finished product. GOTS works alongside the local Australian Certified Organic and UK Soil Association.
We also work only with small-scale, family run Fairtrade farms who importantly also teach farmers organic and sustainable farming practices and help secure affordable, high quality, non-genetically modified cotton seeds. Monsanto represents over 95% of the seed market in India, so that is a much harder task than one would think! [1]
Using only GOTS organic cotton and Fairtrade cotton together is known as the “gold standard”.
It means that 100% of our cotton is sustainably farmed and made, does not touch any harmful or toxic chemicals or bleaches throughout the whole process, as well as a lot other considerations like minimizing waste, water use, energy use and environmental harm. This means no toxic chemicals in the environment, but also means significantly reduced water, waste and positive benefits like improved food security too.
With no harsh chemicals or bleaches it leads to products that customers tell us are more durable and softer – without us needing to use anti-pilling, anti-creasing or softening agents commonly used across many types of fabrics.
In a nutshell it means:
All products must be traceable and transparent throughout the process – right back to the farm. Something all too rare!
So when we speak about organic, we really mean it is holistic, across toxicity, waste, water, sustainability, human impact, human rights and so much more at every single step, right from the farm to finish.
It can be hard for consumers when words like ‘eco’, ‘100% organic’, ‘ethical’, ‘pure’, ‘natural’, ‘chemical free’ – similarly to ‘free range’ – are often so casually used and often misleading. These terms can mean pretty much anything so do be careful of fabrics labeled as organic but without robust certification right from the farm to the finished product.
However, this is why we only use certified only 100% GOTS and Fairtrade grown cotton which is known as the ‘gold standard’ right from the farm to finish. GOTS works with other robust standards like Australian Certified Organic and the UK Soil Association.
To help consumers understand the differences, let’s we can look at other common certifications like OEKO-TEK 100. OEKO-TEK 100 solely looks at the residue tested on the end product (which is a good first step for you directly) but it doesn’t assess toxins, waste or environmental impacts prior to this nor does it intend to show that the process is in anyway organic.
The Organic Improvement Crop Association (OICA) is another certification sometimes be seen on rayon, Tencel or lyocell fabrics. This means that the crop was grown sustainably. It doesn’t cover any other parts of processing. Lyocell, Tencel or traditional viscose or rayon products use processes which certifying organic bodies don’t certify due to the chemical processes as well as often the accompanying dyes, finishing agents or anti-pilling treatments used.
EU REACH compliant is another one to look out for, which means that it has at least complied with the often stricter chemical requirements of the EU and you may well find less toxic dyes or finishes have been used, however, many of these are still being phased out over a period of time.
There are a myriad of health benefits for you and your family in choosing GOTS certified organic cotton. But just as importantly - for the farmers and makers as well as animals and ecosystems and even our own food chains.
Our skin is our biggest organ and we are breathing in chemicals throughout the night. We spend up to a third of our days in bed, so our bed sheets are something we are in contact with a lot!
Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith, a senior adviser to the Australian National Toxics Network comments on this:
“the most dangerous way for a toxin to enter the body is not through the digestive system, but through the skin[2]”.
Unfortunately, as reported by the WHO, a range of chemicals used in conventional textile products have been linked to endocrine disruption (adversely effecting development, reproduction, increasing cancer risk or harming the immune and nervous system[3]) or are known carcinogens. In particular so often these chemicals are designed so that they don’t wash out so they persist in our beds and homes.
These chemicals can impact not just wildlife and the environment but have been linked to everything from learning disabilities, to infertility, obesity and to breast cancer too.
Exposure for the end user can occur through breathing in particles or through the skin and this exposure is particularly critical during early periods of life, in utero or for kids and newborns.
For workers who deal with textiles and farm raw materials, in concentrated form or through the environment, these chemicals can even lead to severe skin or respiratory issues, terminal illnesses and developmental issues in newborns and children who are simply exposed to through rivers, food chain or even in utero or through breastmilk[4].
It is something we aren’t often aware of because we aren’t given the inputs on an ingredients list. Thankfully, it is easy to avoid by choosing products that are certified as organic.
The health benefits include:
“Products that are made in China for the Australian market could not even be sent back to China, as many of them would not meet the Chinese product safety standards but are acceptable here.”
We can easily avoid harmful chemicals including AZO dyes (known carcinogens, and are banned in the EU, but not Australia), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that we breathe in (harmful based on reproductive toxicity) or even phthalates (various phthalates have been classified as harmful to development or reproduction) through certified organic fabrics.
You might see nanoparticles used in flame retardants, anti-odor treatments, waterproofing, to boost bacterial resistance, to bind things like silver to fabrics or to bind charcoal to lyocell fabrics. The concern is that they can impact us by being breathed in or in coming in contact with our skin and pass into the bloodstream. The precise interactions and impacts aren’t known – and would vary depending on the actual particles – but they are banned from use by GOTS and their use in some cosmetics has been investigated with groups such as the Australian Cancer Council calling for better labeling on some products so that consumers are aware of when they are being used[8].
Our end, where we are in direct contact with fabrics, is just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the big issues go right back to the farm. Pollution, toxic waste and contamination have had devastating impacts on farmers, communities, factory workers but also get back to us through our food chains, water supplies and oceans.
Nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) are often used in textiles and have been banned in the EU due to its persistence in waterways after washing and impacts on reproduction of fish. A leading Australian specialist in the area of toxins, Tabitha McIntosh, writes on the widespread impact and persistence of pesticides globally in fish and food chains, many years after they were initially released and stretching around the world.
It can get into other food chains too, for example via cotton seeds. These are a byproduct of cotton and are often used as a feedstock for cattle. Conventional cotton farming uses up to 20% of the world’s pesticides, which means these harmful substances are directly entering our food chains as well.
By using 100% natural fibres like cotton, you are even stopping plastic or polyester fibres getting into waterways and food chains. This is becoming an increasing area of interest much like microbeads in cosmetics.
Organic farming supports many other things too – like crop rotation to improve food and water security, stops pollution and waste being released and requires minimization of energy, water and waste throughout the textile process. Overall this can have a huge impact on our environmental pollution, biodiversity, ecosystems which all in turn impact our health.
Finally, certified GOTS organic and Fairtrade cotton looks into the treatment and working conditions of workers throughout the supply chain too. This isn’t usually think of when we buy something like bed sheets. But health and safety is a massive issue.
The 2013 Rana collapse in Bangladesh was one of the biggest of these, killing over 1,000 factory workers, but the safety issues go on everyday. From employment of children in farms and factories to stress and physical danger through lack of safety or long work hours.
Even little things like paying worker health insurance for families, ensuring safe transport home for workers or healthy food. These are the kind of additional health benefits that our products by being GOTS certified and Fairtrade achieve. They aren’t ones you would normally think of!
There are a huge number of environmental benefits of GOTS certified and Fairtrade organic cotton that we often don’t see.
It is easy to see how connected we are to the environment, waterways and land around the world where our products are made.
The concept of organic and ‘farm to table’ is something we increasingly look for in our food. We are more aware of the inputs and ethics behind our cosmetics, bodycare, plastic or cleaning products and seek more sustainable options (like sustainable palm oil or seeking none at all) or avoid toxic or harmful ingredients like phthalates. People look for cruelty free products, and want to look beyond the direct impact and asses the indirect ways in which we are impacting animals, ecosystems and people too.
The textiles industry combined with its agricultural impact is the second most polluting and one of the most exploitive in the world. It is hard to understand in full because of such lacking transparency, but this is even more reason why we need to really question what is going on and what impact we can have. This doesn’t stop at bed linen – it includes furniture or even paints and other textiles too. It isn’t just about being toxic, but about sustainability, waste energy, water, animal and human impacts too. They are all intrinsically connected.
We are connected on a human level – no one wants the things we buy to harm another human. We know it we shouldn’t have one set of rules for workers in our own country and yet allow another set of rules for the people overseas who make or farm our goods.
We are also connected on a physical level – these pollutants and toxins eventually find their way to our own homes and potentially bodies. We might not be directly connected but our water and food connects across oceans too.
All in all, from an ethical, sustainability, waste and toxicity perspective we all need to have much better access to understanding the journey of our goods right from the farm. Without the greenwashing and fairwashing and to see the full picture. Sometimes as a business this doesn’t match the marketing story we want to give – but we still need to tell people what really goes on.
Homewares products go through the hands of hundreds of people and impact thousands of lives along the way. Yet we don’t get a list of ingredients or even where our products come from or where they have been beyond the very final stage where they are ‘made’.
Instead, we rely on what little information we do get told. This is made harder when words like ‘eco’, ‘organic’, ‘natural’ or ‘chemical free’ don’t have much basis and can be used quite freely and regulations only require us to tell people where a product was ‘made’. Which misses out on so many people and lives that work on a product before this final stage.
This is really why I started Elkie & Ark in the first place. I saw too little transparency, too many toxins and harm and not enough emphasis on creating more natural, sustainable, luxury high quality goods to last that are made ethically too. We can do so much better and the customer doesn’t even need to know because the end product and quality are just the same. Or – that much better!
Why isn’t sustainability, transparency and ethics more commonplace?
The simple answer is because it is hard. The second reason is that it is uncomfortable. Asking people if they use child labour, how they treat their waste, what wages do they pay every worker, if you can visit their farms and factories, speak one-on-one with workers in private, delve and find out what ‘organic really means’ takes a huge amount of research and time and questioning and finding partners who you feel really reflect your ethos and ideas. These are questions not many people ask and the details behind it are often closely guarded. You have to understand the real processes behind the headlines. What does mulesing for sheep really mean? What are the alternatives? What is ‘low impact’? And you need to have someone from your team that you trust see it all with their eyes too.
Today, most people when dealing with factories just ask two questions “What is the quality like? How much will it cost?” Sometimes they ask if the business follows basic child labour and human rights policies, but this is too often just tick-a-box. The rest is regarded as someone else’s issue, in particular when it comes to waste.
This then becomes a game of pushing that price down with scale, knowing that producers are often not in a position to say no. As this occurs, of course the cheapest dyes or waste, employment and management methods regardless of their environmental impact will be used.
Our supply chains are so complicated that it is often hard to find out. Sustainability sourcing managers for major Australian retailers and even management consultants hired to look into supply chains have commented that many businesses simply can’t trace their products back any further then the final factories.
In the words of the Australian Fashion Report 2016, by Baptist World Aid, while retailers are becoming more aware of the final stages of production and increasing wages at this point, “Next to nothing is being done further down the supply chain.” And less than 5% of businesses know where their raw materials come from.[10]
Conventional cotton is such a massive industry and often so convoluted it can be impossible to trace products back to the source. And sometimes processes for modern fabrics like polyesters, viscose or lyocells production are heavily patented, and controlled by one company (as is the case for viscose or lyocell from bamboo) so we rely on these factories for all the information we receive.
Without knowing where our raw materials, yarns or fabrics are from there is no way businesses can know what has happened to them along the way or what pollutants or toxins they have created. So businesses resort to policies, which don’t solve the real problems going on.
So what about Australian made? Isn’t that easier to trace?
Yes, at the final stages where it is ‘made’ (so generally cut and sewn). A few amazing companies still print or weave goods in Australia and we have a handful of wool spinning mills. We have more furniture businesses due to our supplies of wood who might still craft some parts of their processes here. But in general, beyond this or even just one step back from where it is cut and sewn – generally it is just as opaque as it has similiarly come from offshore.
Did you know that 99% of Australian cotton is shipped offshore for spinning? Based on information from ethical clothing bodies in australia, we don’t have the spinning technology onshore to create scaled fine-woven goods. So even when products are locally ‘made’ or perhaps grown there is a long journey before or after this that almost always happens overseas. Like labeling of food, we need to have access to transparency on what really goes on.
Similarly, 95% of Australian wool is shipped overseas for scouring (an intense chemical process) and may stop at many different countries before the final product is completed. This theme occurs for leather, bamboo, flax and so many other fabrics that we use. Of course the idea of sustainability and low-tox isn’t just about fabrics – it is important when we think of our furniture or mattresses or even paints!
How consumers make this the future of fashion and textiles?
The first step is to understand the steps involved and to really ask people. Ask businesses to find out. Demand that they show more information. To look behind where a fabric is just made and go right back to the farm, the mills. We can
Ask brands to start laying out on their website every step of their production. Asking not just where something is made and what conditions they are made in, but also where they are designed, dyed, spun, knitted, woven, chemically produced, tanned and of course farmed or grown too.
It also asks consumers to become more savvy and not get caught up in greenwashing. Which can be really hard!! Certifications like GOTS, Australian Certified Organic and Fairtrade are one great way we can have more clarity, but there are sustainable, ethical, low tox producers who may not have these certifications too and the work they do is incredibly important. In particular when they craft their goods with small-scale, marginalized or at risk local or international groups.
So really, we need brands to start telling the full story. And overtime as consumers we will get to understand the processes going on.
Most of all, by connecting more with how things are made, we get to know the people, the skills and traditions behind our fabrics or furniture. We get to hear the stories and by supporting businesses who are taking the time to find out and step away from fast production. It is a wonderful thing to be brought back closer to the things we indulge in and use every day. Which I believe, makes them all that much more wonderful and beautiful to use.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2014/may/05/india-cotton-suicides-farmer-deaths-gm-seeds
[2] https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/everyday-shopping/clothing/articles/chemicals-in-clothing
[3] https://www.epa.gov/endocrine-disruption/what-endocrine-disruption
[4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-dietz/organic-cotton-sustainable-fashion_b_3562788.html
[5] Included like Cotton On, Myer, Pillow Talk and Target. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-28/govt-considers-banning-carcinogenic-dyes-more-found-in-clothing/5482040
[6] https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/formaldehyde/formaldehyde-fact-sheet
[7] http://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/opinions_layman/en/nanotechnologies/l-2/6-health-effects-nanoparticles.htm
[8] http://www.cancer.org.au/news/blog/risks/how-worried-should-we-be-about-nanoparticles-in-sunscreen.html
[9] http://www.pan-uk.org/attachments/125_the_deadly_chemicals_in_cotton_part1.pdf
[10] https://baptistworldaid.org.au/resources/2016-ethical-fashion-guide/
"I LOVE the look and the feel of my organic linen quilt cover and my organic cotton sheets. They were my fourth Elkie and Ark purchase and they won't be the last. All their products are so beautiful and such high quality."
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COLOUR SELECTION
BELGIAN ORGANIC LINEN
Alpine White: Pure, crisp white. The perfect centre of attention and accompaniment to any room. Whitened strictly using the same whitening required under certified GOTS organic, with without toxic bleach.
Beach: A stunning light almond or camel tone. Timeless and perfectly suited to earthy, wood-based room schemes. One of our perennial best sellers.
Blush pink: One of our most complimented colours! A stunning whisper light pink blush, with undertones or beige. Designed as a unisex and adult blush colour. Looks stunning against white or Beach colours. Please refer to our beautiful in room shots to see how the colours work together.
Cloud Grey: A pure, light grey, strong enough to make a statement and light enough to match many rooms. Goes beautifully with white, navy or blush.
Charcoal grey: A deep, beautiful charcoal. A beautiful contrast to a classic white scheme or moodier, rooms.
Mist Grey: A stunning light blue with hues of light grey. The favourite for summer and winter style. Perfect in beach side settings or elegant English style homes.
Midnight Navy: A deep navy that sings. This colour is stunning beyond description and the perfect finish to an elegant room.
We have colour samples for some of our colours so please just call or email and ask if you have any questions at all to help you get just the right colour for your room.
ORGANIC COTTON SELECTION
Cloud White: Pure, crisp white. The perfect centre of attention and accompaniment to any room. Whitened strictly under certified GOTS organic certification, with without toxins or bleach.
Natural: Our favourite colour. A light sand or very modern ivory. Perfect colour for people who love light colours, but don't suit pure white.
Dove grey: A light warm and truly elegant grey.
CLOTHING SIZES
Robes
Short | Fits size 6-10 women. Length approximately to knee or above with 3/4 sleeves |
Long |
Fits sizes 10-14 women. |
Shorts
Small | Fits approximately sizes 6-10 women |
Medium | Fits approximately sizes 10-12 women |
BEDDING SIZES
Elkie & Ark (Australia & |
U.K. |
Europe |
North America |
Single |
Single |
Single |
Twin 99 x 190 x 40cm |
King Single |
- |
- |
Twin XL |
Double |
Double |
Double |
Full 137 x 191 x 40cm |
Queen 152 x 203 x 40cm (linen sheets) 50cm (cotton sheets) |
King |
King |
Queen 152 x 203 x 40/50cm |
King 40 cm King 50 cm |
Super King
183 x 200 x 35cm |
- |
King 76" x 80" x 16/20" |
Super King 40cm
203 x 203 x 40cm 80" x 88" x 16" Super King 45cm (no seams) |
- |
Super King 200 x 200 x 35cm |
California King 183 x 213 x 40 cm |
Cot |
Cot |
Cot |
Cot 71 x 132 x 19cm 28" x 52" x 7.5" |
HOW TO MEASURE OUR FITTED SHEETS FOR KING & SUPER KING SETS
(1) Measure the height (or 'drop') of your mattress including any mattress toppers
(2) If it is less than 40cm, you need our lovely 40cm fitted sheets
(3) If it is higher than 40cm, you need our extra-generous 50cm fitted sheets, available in our essential white cotton range.
Elkie & Ark (Australia & |
U.K. |
Europe |
North America |
Double |
Double |
Double
200 x 200cm |
Full |
Queen (cotton) |
King |
Queen |
Queen |
King |
Super King |
King
200x180cm
|
|
Super King 240 x 270cm 94" x 83" |
King
270 x 233cm
106" x 92" |
Australia, New Zealand, UK, Europe and North America | |
Standard & Oxford Pillow Cases |
50 x 75 cm (Oxford with 5 cm trim) 21" x 31" |
King Pillow Cases (special order only. All sets come with Standard pillowcase as standard or Oxford for linen quilt covers. King sets do not come with a King pillowcase as standard.) | 55 x 90cm |
Mini Pillow Cases | 30 x 40 cm |
European Pillow Cases | 65 x 65 cm |