Edwin

Unfort­u­na­te­ly, Edwin does not dis­c­lo­se much infor­ma­ti­on about most of the pro­duc­tion loca­ti­ons. Their den­im is pro­du­ced in Japan. The fabrics for shirts, shirts and swea­ters are made in Por­tu­gal, France and Tur­key. The clot­hing its­elf is pro­du­ced in Japan and Tuni­sia. Becau­se Edwin does not give much infor­ma­ti­on, it is very dif­fi­cult to esti­ma­te the con­di­ti­ons under which pro­duc­tion takes place. Manu­fac­tu­r­ers loca­ted in Euro­pe must com­ply with the strict labor laws and regu­la­ti­ons of the Euro­pean Uni­on. So with the­se manu­fac­tu­r­ers, we can assu­me that pro­duc­tion takes place in ethi­cal con­di­ti­ons.

The Nico­la Blue Den­im is made by Orta Ana­do­lu in Tur­key. This manu­fac­tu­rer is cer­ti­fied by seve­ral orga­niza­ti­ons for com­pli­ance with social and envi­ron­men­tal con­di­ti­ons. For exam­p­le, this fabric has the GOTS label (Glo­bal Orga­nic Tex­ti­le Label), fair trade cer­ti­fi­ca­te and BCI (Bet­ter Cot­ton Initia­ti­ve). Nico­la Blue Den­im also has an OEKO-Tex cer­ti­fi­ca­te, which gua­ran­tees that no harmful che­mi­cals were used in the pro­duc­tion process.

Edwin uses cot­ton in almost the enti­re coll­ec­tion. Con­ven­tio­nal (non-orga­nic) cot­ton is not a sus­tainable mate­ri­al becau­se huge amounts of water are requi­red to grow the crops. This also requi­res che­mi­cals such as insec­ti­ci­des, pesti­ci­des and fer­ti­li­zers all the time. Here you can read more about the impact cot­ton has on the environment.

Edwin does take steps to impro­ve this. For exam­p­le, the spring/​summer 2022 coll­ec­tion was dyed with natu­ral dyes ins­tead of syn­the­tic pig­ments. Also, the Nico­la Blue Den­im coll­ec­tion is made from cer­ti­fied orga­nic cot­ton. Small amounts of recy­cled cot­ton are alre­a­dy used in some fabrics. Edwin also uses other recy­cled mate­ri­als, one fabric even con­sists of 40% recy­cled PET bot­t­les.

At COSH! we cer­tain­ly encou­ra­ge the­se impro­ve­ments. After all, orga­nic or recy­cled cot­ton requi­res much less water. Che­mi­cals are also avo­ided so the soil is less affected. 

Becau­se Edwin uses most­ly mono-mate­ri­als, the garm­ents are easy to recy­cle after use. Garm­ents made enti­re­ly from a natu­ral mate­ri­al such as cot­ton are even biode­gra­da­ble!

In the Kur­abo Sel­va­ge Den­im, 40% recy­cled poly­es­ter is used. In this fabric, old PET bot­t­les are given a new life. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, becau­se the­se mate­ri­als are syn­the­tic, the clot­hing is not biode­gra­da­ble after use.

Howe­ver, blends are used in a small part of the coll­ec­tion. This is main­ly to obtain spe­ci­fic pro­per­ties, such as water­pro­ofing or stretchab­ili­ty. In the­se cases, it is often neces­sa­ry to com­bi­ne cot­ton with poly­es­ter or elas­t­a­ne. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, the­se blen­ded mate­ri­als are more dif­fi­cult to recy­cle after use.

Not all of Edwin’s garm­ents have a short sup­p­ly chain. This depends on the pro­duct its­elf. For exam­p­le, most of the garm­ents in the Sel­va­ge coll­ec­tion are made in Japan, with the den­im fabric also made in Japan.

Other garm­ents are made in Tuni­sia with mate­ri­als coming from Por­tu­gal, France or Tur­key. In this way, the distances a gar­ment tra­vels are still quite limited.

Edwin’s jeans are vegan. The patches are made from recy­cled paper ins­tead of lea­ther, the fabric is cot­ton and the but­tons are metal.

Still, not all of Edwin’s coll­ec­tion is vegan. In par­ti­cu­lar, the knit­wear incor­po­ra­tes shee­p’s wool and alpa­ca. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, the­re is no infor­ma­ti­on about the ori­gin of the­se mate­ri­als, so we can­not esti­ma­te the ani­mal welfare.

Edwin puts qua­li­ty first. All mate­ri­als are made with the best inno­va­ti­ve tech­ni­ques. Japa­ne­se craft­sman­ship is imme­dia­te­ly evi­dent in the­se tim­e­l­ess designs. Thus, Edwin always aims to gua­ran­tee the lon­ge­vi­ty of their products.

Edwin does release infor­ma­ti­on about their pro­duc­tion, but unfort­u­na­te­ly it is very limi­t­ed. For exam­p­le, they dis­c­lo­se all the count­ries whe­re the coll­ec­tions are pro­du­ced, but we are not given exact infor­ma­ti­on about the manu­fac­tu­r­ers and the con­di­ti­ons of production.