Gestuz

While the brand does not men­ti­on the loca­ti­on or names of the sup­pli­ers or pro­duc­tion, they men­ti­on that their top 100 sup­pli­ers make up 80% of ever­y­thing they buy accor­ding to tur­no­ver. Their web­site sta­tes that they are part of Amfo­ri BSCI (alt­hough they are hard to find on the Amfo­ri BSCI mem­bers’ list), Busi­ness Social Com­pli­ance Initia­ti­ve, with which they focus on the­se top 100 sup­pli­ers, out of which their top 25 are requi­red to have BSCI audits con­duc­ted.

The rest of the sup­pli­ers are audi­ted based on a set of steps, bet­ween each of which they con­duct trai­ning to enable pro­gress towards the next one. As of 2020, Gestuz had set tar­gets for health and safe­ty pro­gram­mes and incre­asing CSR know-how at all levels, howe­ver whe­ther the­se were achie­ved is not sta­ted on the website.

They have also signed a Modern Slavey State­ment to ensu­re no modern slavery, child labour, or human traf­fi­cking takes place within their sup­p­ly chain. They have intern­al­ly crea­ted a set of rest­ric­tions on che­mi­cals that ensu­res redu­ced harm on the workers, as well as the wea­rers of the garments.

Gestuz uses syn­the­tic mate­ri­als such as poly­es­ter, nylon, poly­ami­de, semi-syn­the­tic vis­co­se, and ace­tate, and natu­ral pro­ducts such as cot­ton, wool, lea­ther, down, etc. They make an effort to use the best qua­li­ty mate­ri­als to ensu­re a redu­ced impact on the earth. They also have a set of che­mi­cal rest­ric­tions based on which they test their garm­ents befo­re they go into the shop to avo­id harmful effects on the environment. 

Gestuz some­ti­mes uses Eco­vero vis­co­se, which is cer­ti­fied by the EU eco­la­bel, and has much lower impact on the envi­ron­ment, as it is pro­du­ced in a clo­sed loop pro­cess using 50% less water and ener­gy than con­ven­tio­nal vis­co­se. They also sta­te on the web­site the use of orga­nic cot­ton, and recy­cled poly­es­ter, howe­ver, cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons for the­se are not sta­ted. They use lea­ther hol­ding a bron­ze stan­dard by the Lea­ther Working Group, limi­ting the use of harmful che­mi­cals in the tan­ning pro­cess, and they don’t accept lea­ther from are­as whe­re a rain­fo­rest is cut down to make room for farms. 

That being said, the per­cen­ta­ges of the sus­tainable alter­na­ti­ves used as com­pared to con­ven­tio­nal are not sta­ted, and a majo­ri­ty of their pro­ducts con­tain the use of syn­the­tic blends, with an amount that makes recy­cling har­der at the end of use. They also have mono-mate­ri­al pro­ducts, which makes recy­cling easier, howe­ver many of the­se pro­ducts are 100% poly­es­ter, which makes recy­cla­bi­li­ty bet­ter, but the­re are no care ins­truc­tions sta­ted regar­ding the reduc­tion of microplastics.

Gestuz uses high qua­li­ty mate­ri­als to ensu­re lon­ge­vi­ty and repai­ra­bi­li­ty of pro­ducts, they also have many mono-mate­ri­al pro­ducts to aid recy­cla­bi­li­ty at the end of use. The brand also makes use of recy­cled syn­the­tic mate­ri­als. Howe­ver many pro­ducts con­tain syn­the­tic fib­re blends with high per­cen­ta­ge of syn­the­tic mate­ri­als, which makes them har­der to recy­cle and not biodegradable. 

The brand has recent­ly laun­ched a resa­le plat­form to encou­ra­ge put­ting pro­ducts back into the usa­ge loop, for a few more lives.

The brand is loca­ted in Den­mark, but they have over a 100 sup­pli­ers, the loca­ti­ons of which are not sta­ted. Gestuz has taken the first steps in tra­cing maps of their pro­ducts, from fib­re to shop, curr­ent­ly tra­cing back until fac­to­ry level. They aim to get a more trans­pa­rent sup­p­ly chain over time, after which details on the chain can be known. Not­hing is sta­ted regar­ding the trans­por­ta­ti­on of the garments.

Gestuz’s designs are inspi­red from many pre­vious deca­des, so the designs tend to be tim­e­l­ess, and they make an effort to use high-qua­li­ty mate­ri­als to ensu­re lon­ge­vi­ty. They are desi­gned so that each per­son can style the gar­ment to their liking. They also pro­vi­de care ins­truc­tions for each material/​product to keep the garm­ents in use for longer.

This brand belie­ves in the importance of trans­pa­ren­cy, and gives some infor­ma­ti­on through sto­rytel­ling regar­ding the mate­ri­als and ethics. They sta­te the audi­ting method used for ethi­cal sup­p­ly chain manage­ment, and their efforts to use sus­tain­ab­ly sources mate­ri­als and tracea­bi­li­ty of their garm­ents, howe­ver they have not quite achie­ved a good level of trans­pa­ren­cy yet. 

They are still working on tra­cing maps for each of their mate­ri­als and garm­ents, howe­ver their results so far have not been sta­ted, neither have they sta­ted the names of their sup­pli­ers or the cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons of their mate­ri­als, except for a few such as Eco­vero Vis­co­se and LWG Bron­ze cer­ti­fied leather.