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 has published an Animal Welfare Policy, where they have stated their ethical use of certain animal related products. They have banned the use of real fur and angora wool, and prohibit live-plucking of birds. They only accept animal products from animals bred for the food industry, while also ensuring suppliers don’t use cruel processes such as live skinning or boiling, or mulesing. Gestuz also does not use materials sourced from endangered animals, as stated on the lists of CITES (The convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora) and IUCN (International union for conservation of nature).

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.