We're far from perfect, but we're steady and intentional and believe everything new we put into the world should have purpose. As consumers, the most ethical approach to fashion that we can take is always reusing and recycling what's already made. But, if you find yourself in search of trend-less basics that will last a lifetime, you've come to the right place. Our approach is to imperfectly Make a Difference in every area of our model.
We care about creating garments for you that LAST, and we care about the local hands that make them. We're dedicated to providing fair wages, safe work environments and producing quality luxurious eco-friendly pieces that'll stay in your closets and homes forever. We care about the local economy, and that's why our partnered micro factories are headquartered where we are. We invest in the local Kansas City economy through a Made in USA mindset. We also raise funds through our 501c3 MADI Donations to help cover seamstress training wages for continuing education and growing the local sewing industry. Products we sell and underwear that we donate through our buy one give one model are all made by our local sew teams in Kansas City, MO.
This element of our business structure was a non-negotiable since day one. Since we launched sales and production in 2014, we've manufactured every one of our garments in the United States with the goals of sustaining and creating new US manufacturing jobs, ensuring fair wages and fair labor.
Because of our commitment to have our products made in Kansas City, this eliminates freight shipping and therefore lowers our carbon footprint. Our founder/designer, patternmaker, sew teams and natural dye artist are all located within a few miles of our headquarters, keeping dollars in Kansas City's urban core community.
Your support of our products means support for artisans in our city who've spent careers developing their crafts. These skills have often been neglected in our industry and reflected as "not good enough for minimum wage". Our goal is to show mad respect through living wages and support of small manufacturing operations.We pay our sewing contractors and payroll sewing employees not just a fair wage, but a living wage based on a fluctuating rate determined by our city every year.
All members of our production team are local to Kansas CIty where we're headquartered. We know each of them well - like on a pet and spouse name basis :). Most of these makers have been on our production team for five to ten years, and these long lasting relationships add to the pride and quality in our products. We take pride in making them, and we hope you're proud to wear them!
Founder Hayley has designed every ethically made product in our collection since our founding date in 2013. She dreams up staple basics that you - our customers - can wear forever. Forget about trends that come and go and end up in the landfill. Hayley creates trendless forever pieces that you look for in your closer or drawer every day. Hayley also researches and sources all of our sustainable fabrics, reclaims lace waste from larger brands, and more.
Maria has been making our patterns since 2016 when founder Hayley moved all production from Florida and the Carolinas to Kansas City. Maria's 30 year experience as a pattern maker in the industry is unmatched, and we've been lucky enough to work with her on over 20 of our menswear, womenswear, unisex and bag product styles.
Laura has been cutting and sewing our products and even contributing to design elements in our pieces since 2016. With a career in cut and sew production, her knowledge and experience in the manufacturing industry is unmatched, and we're grateful to have her on our team. Laura leads most of our apparel production and oversees other sewers to help sew our products. She - and all of our sewers - are paid a fair wage to make our products.
John and his team at Madison Stitch co-designed our collection of plant leather bags and a few other products like our menswear bamboo boxer briefs.
Since we first started working together around 2017, Alyx has used natural dyes like avocado pits and skins, ancient indigo with shibori prints, and even real marigold products to naturally dye our regular ongoing pre-order dye collections in the most striking colors. We're one of very few USA clothing manufacturers to implement natural dyes into our collections.
Bleach-free, chemical-free, 100% organic, natural and made by small family farms in rural India. Rare cruelty-free peace silk - also known as Ahimsa silk - is a process that allows the silkworm to emerge from their cocoon free and happy and complete their natural life cycle. The empty cocoons are then used to produce silk. Cruelty-free silk is not a vegan fabric since animals are used to make it, however, it's animal-friendly. Unlike traditional silk, silkworms are not killed in the process to make it.
Made from eucalyptus wood that's harvested from natural forests and sustainably managed tree farms, these trees are fast growing and require no toxic pesticides and very little water to thrive. It is made in an environmentally responsible closed loop production process, which transforms wood pulp into cellulosic fibers with high resource efficiency and low environmental impact. This solvent-spinning process recycles process water and reuses the solvent at a recovery rate of more than 99%.
We source ethically-made bamboo fabric because it feels like clouds, it has a wash-and-wear lifespan that lasts for years longer than most other natural fabrics like cotton, and it breaks down into the soil at the end of its life unlike polyester and nylon as examples. The fibers used to make our fabric have channels that will absorb moisture and wick it away from the skin, keeping you cool and dry.
Turning any plant into a fiber (cotton, bamboo, hemp, etc) requires energy and waste usage. However, positive qualities include bamboo being the fastest growing plant in the world and helps sustain Earth's resources. It takes in five times the volume of greenhouse gasses when compared to timber trees and releases 35% more oxygen. Pesticides and fertilizers aren't needed, and its roots retain water, sustaining riverbanks and reducing water pollution.
We source our laces from the virgin textile waste of larger brands. Large fast fashion brands produce custom lace webs in bulk, and thousands of pounds are wasted every day all over the world. This virgin textile waste ends up in warehouses all over the world - unused overproduced fabric is stacked floor to ceiling and often heads to landfills if it's not interrupted and reused by smaller brands like us! Most of our lace comes to us in the natural form - undyed. We usually work with a local dye-artist to dye using organic materials like indigo, avocados and flowers.
We have a high standard when testing our laces for quality and comfort before launching them into our line of impactful intimates. We want to ensure that you may wash and dry our products hundreds of times and hardly notice any wear and tear. Longer wear means less end waste on the environment.
