Monaluna

The GOTS cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for orga­nic cot­ton, sets requi­re­ments for wor­king con­di­tions and a fair wage in the pro­duc­tion pha­se. Sin­ce Mona­lu­na works with this cer­ti­fi­ca­tion they will do fine on an ethi­cal level. The fabrics from newer collec­tions are woven and prin­ted in South Korea and the older ones in India, this is reflec­ted in the GOTS con­trol cer­ti­fi­ca­tes. Tho­se cer­ti­fi­ca­tes also list names of the last pro­du­cer of the pro­duct but it is unclear what this pro­du­cer was used for and how many more pro­du­cers the­re are. The ori­gin of the cot­ton is not always tra­cea­ble. Yet the list is exten­si­ve and tra­cea­ble almost by pro­duct. We think it’s great that they are so transparent.

The foun­der of the brand is very pas­sio­na­te about orga­nic cot­ton and used to find it hard to find when she was loo­king for it becau­se the­re were limi­ted options avai­la­ble accor­ding to her. She wan­ted to sup­port orga­nic cot­ton cul­ti­va­tion and so foun­ded her own fabric com­pany through which she now designs and com­mis­sions the pro­duc­tion of only GOTS-cer­ti­fied tex­ti­le collections.

In Mona­lu­na’s latest collec­tions, the fabrics are digi­tally prin­ted ins­tead of screen prin­ted to redu­ce water con­sum­ption and was­te. Swit­ching to this prin­ting method has little impact on the qua­lity of the fabric but is a lot more envi­ron­men­tally friendly.

The dyes used for prin­ting are not plant-based but the GOTS cer­ti­fi­ca­te also sets envi­ron­men­tal and safety requi­re­ments for the tex­ti­le dyes. For exam­ple, Mona­lu­na gua­ran­tees that no harm­ful che­mi­cals and heavy metals have been used in the dye.

Although almost all fabrics con­sist of 100% cot­ton, the­re are also some jer­sey knit fabrics that can be found with 6% elas­ta­ne. Becau­se elas­ta­ne is synthe­tic (read manu­fac­tu­red from petro­leum), it is less envi­ron­men­tally friendly and requi­res a lot of che­mi­cals to pro­du­ce the fabric. But the added elas­ta­ne makes the fabric sui­ta­ble for clothing whe­re a little stretch is nee­ded or fine such as in leg­gings or paja­mas. For chil­dre­n’s paja­mas, by the way, it is recom­men­ded for safety reasons to pro­vi­de them clo­sely fit­ted to the body, so a great choice.

Becau­se basi­cally all fabrics are made of 100% cot­ton (or a maxi­mum of 6% elas­ta­ne) and thus con­sist of one mate­rial, they are easy to recy­cle and can get a second life. The brand itself does not work with recy­cled fabrics.

All the fabrics are desig­ned in the Uni­ted Sta­tes and then they are made in South Korea or India. The cot­ton woven into the fabrics could also come from another loca­tion. In any case, the fabrics tra­vel a long way befo­re they reach the sto­res. We would like to see it more local.

Mona­lu­na works with collec­tions that have the same the­me and/​or cer­tain color palet­te. The­re are 4 to 6 collec­tions relea­sed per year and in gene­ral the­se collec­tions are prin­ted only once. Prints that are often reques­ted by cus­to­mers are some­ti­mes reprinted.

The design on the fabrics is qui­te time­less yet very vibrant! They are cheer­ful, full of color and with fun cha­rac­ters like ani­mals and flowers.

Mona­lu­na has the pro­ducts tes­ted and acqui­res the GOTS cer­ti­fi­ca­te from the Con­trol Union. The cer­ti­fi­ca­tes they get from them they put on their web­si­te per collec­tion. The­se docu­ments inclu­de fac­tory names of tho­se who per­for­med last pro­duc­tion step but no infor­ma­tion is given about the ear­lier pro­duc­tion steps. The brand is not open about the ori­gin of the cot­ton and how and whe­re exactly their pro­ducts are made.