Mila & Jules

Materials: is bamboo durable?

Bam­boo is quickly prai­sed as a dura­ble fibre but at COSH! we are cri­ti­cal. Des­pi­te the fact that bam­boo grows very quickly and is quickly pro­fi­ta­ble, the usual pro­ces­sing often requi­res a lot of che­mi­cals and lar­ge amounts of water. Pro­duc­tion usually takes pla­ce in Chi­na and the envi­ron­men­tal impact can often be disputed. 

Howe­ver, we tra­ced the Mila & Jules manu­fac­tu­re­r’s pro­duc­tion chain and tho­roughly resear­ched the sup­pliers invol­ved in pro­ces­sing bam­boo from wood to tex­ti­les. And it has to be said, they are a fore­run­ner in sus­tai­na­ble bam­boo pro­duc­tion.

All was­te water from the bam­boo is recy­cled during the pro­duc­tion of Mila & Jules’ clothing. Spin­ning and further pro­ces­sing in Por­tu­gal is ​‘dry’ which means that no water is used during pro­ces­sing, a plus for the environment.

In addi­tion, all clothing is pro­ces­sed and colou­red accor­ding to the Euro­pean REACH stan­dards. REACH is a label for the regis­tra­tion, eva­lua­tion and autho­ri­sa­tion of che­mi­cal subs­tan­ces pro­du­ced in or impor­ted into the Euro­pean Union.

Circular Economy

To extend the life of the clothing, elas­ta­ne is added to the Mila & Jules jum­pers. This increa­ses the wea­ring com­fort and the clothes keep their sha­pe bet­ter. The maxi­mum per­cen­ta­ge of elas­ta­ne is 5% so that the fabric can still be recy­cled after use.

Short Supply Chain

The manu­fac­tu­rer of Mila & Jules coope­ra­tes with Green­way, a divi­sion of DHL. They gua­ran­tee as few trans­ports as pos­si­ble in order to deli­ver the orders as effi­ciently and envi­ron­men­tally friendly as possible.

Working conditions

The bam­boo comes from Chi­na, from areas under Ger­man super­vi­sion and FSC cer­ti­fied. This means that the wood comes from sus­tai­na­ble log­ging and that good wor­king con­di­tions are stri­ved for. After Chi­na, the bam­boo fibres end up in Por­tu­gal for pro­ces­sing. Spin­ning, wea­ving and colou­ring all take pla­ce within a radius of 80 km. In Por­tu­gal, the stit­chers from the small-sca­le family busi­ness also recei­ve bonu­ses on top of their wages (which are abo­ve the mini­mum wage).