Denham

With its own code of con­duct, Den­ham ensu­res that all sup­pli­ers, fac­to­ries and part­ners com­ply with pro­per working con­di­ti­ons and rights. This code of con­duct is based on the eight labour stan­dards from the Con­ven­ti­on of the Inter­na­tio­nal Labour Orga­ni­sa­ti­on and the UN Decla­ra­ti­on of Human Rights. It con­ta­ins agree­ments on, among other things, cor­rect working hours, safe­ty and the wel­fa­re of employees.

The fac­to­ries loca­ted in the Euro­pean Uni­on (EU) are sub­ject to Euro­pean labour legis­la­ti­on, which ensu­res ethi­cal working con­di­ti­ons. Den­ham’s sup­pli­ers and fac­to­ries loca­ted out­side of Euro­pe are usual­ly cer­ti­fied by various bodies that regu­la­te working con­di­ti­ons. For exam­p­le, by BSCI, SA8000, Sedex and also the GOTS cer­ti­fi­ca­te has cri­te­ria con­cer­ning working conditions.

In the sum­mer coll­ec­tion of 2020, almost 20% of the den­im coll­ec­tion con­sists of GOTS orga­nic (Glo­bal Orga­nic Tex­ti­le Stan­dard) cer­ti­fied cot­ton, as well as OCS orga­nic (Orga­nic Con­tent Stan­dard) cer­ti­fied cot­ton and BCI cot­ton (Bet­ter Cot­ton Initia­ti­ve). Would you like to know more about the dif­fe­rent cer­ti­fi­ca­tes for cot­ton and what they ent­ail? Then click here. Den­ham aims to use cer­ti­fied cot­ton (orga­nic and/​or recy­cled) in 50% of their enti­re coll­ec­tion by 2025.

In addi­ti­on, the brand also uses Ten­cel (from wood pulp from sus­tainable forestry), orga­nic linen and recy­cled hemp in its clot­hing. The bio-stretch den­im is a stretch fabric that does not con­tain (micro) pla­s­tics. All labels in the clot­hing are made from recy­cled poly­es­ter and the com­pa­ny also wants to use recy­cled elas­t­a­ne in its clothing.

Becau­se the dye­ing and finis­hing of jeans is a very pol­lu­ting pro­cess, most den­im mills Den­ham works with are GOTS or Oeko-Tex 100 cer­ti­fied, which means that the tex­ti­les are tes­ted for the pre­sence of harmful che­mi­cals. Some of the mills also use inno­va­ti­ve tech­ni­ques that requi­re less water, ener­gy and/​or chemicals.

In 2019, Den­ham laun­ched the ​‘bring back your jeans’ recy­cling pro­ject to recy­cle post-con­su­mer was­te into new tex­ti­les. They do this in part­ner­ship with Can­dia­ni. The recy­cled tex­ti­les are used for new jeans, which con­sist of 21% recy­cled cotton.

Ano­ther pro­ject from 2017 focu­sed on cir­cu­la­ri­ty is ​‘Re-cut’. Re-cut is a parka desi­gned and made enti­re­ly from old mili­ta­ry parachutes.

Unfort­u­na­te­ly, seve­ral Den­ham garm­ents are made from blends of cot­ton and elas­t­a­ne, for exam­p­le. This makes the gar­ment more dif­fi­cult to recy­cle. The garm­ents that are made of 100% (orga­nic) cot­ton are easier to recy­cle, espe­ci­al­ly shirts and other dresses.

A lar­ge part of the coll­ec­tion is pro­du­ced within Euro­pe, for exam­p­le in Por­tu­gal or Roma­nia, but the­re are also fac­to­ries in Chi­na, Tur­key and India, so the length of the chain depends on the gar­ment. For exam­p­le, on the web­site you can spe­ci­fi­cal­ly choo­se garm­ents made in Ita­ly or Japan.

Den­ham has included ani­mal wel­fa­re in its own code of con­duct to ensu­re that no ani­mals have to suf­fer unneces­s­a­ri­ly for its pro­ducts. Fur­ther­mo­re, the brand is fur-free, and no mohair or ango­ra is used. All down or fea­thers used are cer­ti­fied accor­ding to the Respon­si­ble Down Stan­dard (RDS). When wool is used in the clot­hing, it is always a resi­du­al pro­duct from live­stock far­ming, so no ani­mals are kil­led for the wool. By 2025, Den­ham wants all wool used in its clot­hing to com­ply with the Respon­si­ble Wool Stan­dard.

Den­ham does not fol­low the rhythm of the tra­di­tio­nal fashion sea­sons but makes a distinc­tion bet­ween sum­mer and win­ter coll­ec­tions. The­re are also col­la­bo­ra­ti­ons with artists or illus­tra­tors, with whom one coll­ec­tion is released each time.

Den­ham focu­ses on qua­li­ty pro­ducts with a long life span. They also pro­vi­de a hand­wa­sh ser­vice and a free repair work­shop. They also pro­vi­de tips on how to use the jeans in order to gua­ran­tee their lon­ge­vi­ty. In addi­ti­on, they advi­se con­su­mers to buy ​‘vir­gin’ jeans. This means that the jeans have not been pre-washed or trea­ted to achie­ve a worn look. For vir­gin jeans, fewer che­mi­cals and water are used, and the jeans will also last longer.

Den­ham is a trans­pa­rent com­pa­ny. All fac­to­ries, sup­pli­ers and part­ners are men­tio­ned on the web­site, with a short expl­ana­ti­on of the iden­ti­ty and func­tio­ning of the com­pa­ny in question.