Filippa K

To ensure the ethical aspect, Filippa K proposes a Code of Conduct to all suppliers. If a partner violates any of the rules, drastic measures will be taken immediately. The Code of Conduct is divided into two levels.

–> The first level contains rules, such as no child labor, no forced labor, no dangerous working conditions, no environmental pollution, no corruption, transparency about working hours and wages and compliance with the banned chemicals list.

–> The second level includes the following rules: no discrimination, trade union freedom, living wages are paid, no extreme working hours, employment contracts, good working conditions, employee training, environmental measures. If a level two rule is violated, Filippa K will give the company the opportunity to recover.

Filippa K has been a member of the Fair Wear Foundations since 2008 and has been awarded the status of Good. This means that the brand is already making great efforts to improve working conditions, but there is still room for improvement. To improve this, the brand has been working with QuizRR since then. This is a tool that explains labour rights by means of short films. Afterwards, employees can be questioned about their newly acquired knowledge and how things are going in their factory. In this way, you teach the employees their rights and the brand gains insight into the working conditions in that particular factory. It gives the brand the opportunity to increase knowledge among employees and thus improve their working conditions.

Surveys also allow the brand to assess the real status of the working conditions and thus take targeted actions to improve the conditions. Involving everyone in the supply chain and sharing the value system is important for Filippa K, and is an important factor in building successful long-term partnerships.
To achieve this, the brand requires the cooperation of all partners.

The main focus at Filippa K is less on the use of the new eco materials, but rather on the highest quality and 100% natural materials. Most basics are therefore 100% mulesing-free merino wool or 100% silk, which makes them easily recyclable.

The safety of the customer and the employees is of enormous importance to the brand. That is why Filippa K strives to increase the use of sustainable materials and systematically eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals during production. For example, jeans are not sandblasted because of the health risks associated with them. Filippa K has also identified all possible problems in the field of leather and animal rights. The brand only works with leather from the slaughter industry.

For each product line, the clothing brand has established clear rules to which its own sourcing team and suppliers must adhere. In addition, during the design process, the brand already considers the repair and/​or resale as second-hand, as well as the recoverability of the fibres at the end of a garment’s life.

At the moment, spring 2020, we do not yet assign the brand the icon of microplastics, because there is still some polyester in the collection. Nevertheless, Filippa K is very actively investigating how they can replace polyesters in blends with, for example, tencel of biodegradable Eucalyptus. But mainly how they can work with mono materials.

For some garments, the brand starts from the cradle-to-cradle principle. These pieces are fully biodegradable, such as The Throw Away Dress. Other garments, such as The Eternal Trench Coat, are made from 100% recycled materials and are again 100% recyclable.

Do you have some Filippa K garments that you no longer wear? No problem because Filippa K has its own second-hand shop where it sells worn clothes of the brand. And what about the overstock of the new collections? It goes to the three outlets in Norway and Sweden. What isn’t sold there goes to charities like Stockholms Stadsmission and Red Cross.

Filippa K wanted to achieve the following targets by 2020: a design for circularity; increase the number of used clothes brought in; increase the number of second hands Filippa K clothes sold; increase the use of recycled materials.

For the first action point, the brand wants to train all designers within Filippa K on circular design, so that they can apply this in subsequent collections. 25% of the collection must be made of mono-material, 60% of the collection is made with reparability in mind. The Filippa K Care Concept is shared with all customers. The aim is to ensure that customers treat their garments with the best care.

Action point two means that the brand wants to increase the number of Filippa K garments brought in by 10%. In this way, it wants to prevent people from throwing it in the garbage and give the garments a second life in the Filippa K second-hand stores.

The third action point wants to increase the number of second-hand clothes sold by Filippa K. The brand wants to do this by having their own customers return items after use and sell these second-hand clothes in their own second-hand stores and in the future to online consumers.

The last action point wants 5% of the collection to be made out of recycled post-consumer materials. COSH! can based on what we have seen on the labels in the clothes and on the website, say that the brand adheres to all the above goals.

Filippa K has also set some goals it wants to achieve by 2030:

First of all, it wants to use only sustainable and recyclable materials by then. Secondly, there should be full traceability and transparency throughout the supply chain. Thirdly, it will only produce what is required so that overstock no longer exists. Fourth, everyone who comes into contact with Filippa K products should work in good working conditions. Finally, the brand wants to build relationships and make enough profit to invest in a more environmentally friendly Filippa K.

No empty promises at Filippa K. A 110 page CSR report supports their statements and progress in detail. No greenwashing by making test projects look bigger than they really are, but exact clarification of how they roll out sustainability pilot projects year after year.

The brand communicates both the main supplier and the sub-contracts at product level, which is why we grant this brand 100% transparency.

The brand performs tests with Blockchain. This technology provides full product traceability.
Filippa K has already done this for two basic garments. We only welcome the fact that Filippa K is taking more and more steps towards transparency, because even though we already know the end supplier at the product level, a little more transparency on the materials and their origin is still needed. There is also little information about the different certificates that some materials would have. COSH! has contacted the CSR manager for this. We are curious about the answer.