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-syn­the­tics 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 effect on the environment. 

Ges­tuz some­times uses Eco­ve­ro vis­cose, which is cer­ti­fied by the EU eco­la­bel, and has much lower impact on the envi­ron­ment. 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 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.