Bask in the Sun

All clot­hing is desig­ned in Guét­hary in the Basque Coun­try and stit­c­hed 800 kilo­me­tres away in nor­t­hern Por­tu­gal. All clot­hing pro­duc­ti­on takes pla­ce in Por­tu­gu­ese family far­ms. Sin­ce Wes­tern Euro­pe pro­vi­des mini­mum wages and labo­ur regu­la­ti­ons, you can assu­me that all clot­hing is pro­du­ced under good wor­king con­di­ti­ons.

Also, they are convin­ced that work is of bet­ter quality when it is done in good con­di­ti­ons. That’s why the­ir main gar­ment fac­tory is GOTS® cer­ti­fi­ed, a label that requ­ires impec­ca­ble wor­king con­di­ti­ons and wages that meet legal standards.

The Fren­ch clot­hing brand deve­lops its own exclu­si­ve fabrics, aiming for as much orga­nic cot­ton as possi­ble for its hats, t‑shirts, swe­aters, fle­eces and jer­seys for men.

All T‑shirts are made up of 100% orga­nic cot­ton. Some other gar­ments, such as swe­aters or jac­kets may have, in addi­ti­on, some wool, polya­mi­de or polyes­ter incorporated. 

Polya­mi­de and elas­ta­ne are arti­fi­ci­al sub­s­tan­ces that con­ta­in micro­plas­tics, which are less sus­ta­ina­ble but can impro­ve com­fort and thus extend the life of the gar­ment. Bask in the Sun uses them in the smal­lest possi­ble quan­ti­ti­es, which is a tes­ta­ment to its sus­ta­ina­ble vision. 

Bask in the Sun also has a per­cen­ta­ge of the col­lec­ti­on made up of less sus­ta­ina­ble mate­ri­als. For exam­ple, the Keiko vest con­ta­ins 58% polyes­ter and 42% regu­lar cotton. 

All fabrics are cer­ti­fi­ed with the Oeko-Tex® Stan­dard 100 label, which pro­hi­bits the use of har­m­ful che­mi­cals. So, the­re are no toxic dyes in the Bask in the Sun clothing.

Due to the mix of arti­fi­ci­al and natu­ral mate­ri­als in the gar­ments, recy­cling will be more dif­fi­cult than if the clot­hes were made of one mate­ri­al.

But Bask in the Sun takes steps to redu­ce its was­te as much as possi­ble. For exam­ple, the pac­ka­ging of the clot­hing is reusa­ble and biode­gra­da­ble. In addi­ti­on, unsold gar­ments at Bask in the Sun do not end up in the inci­ne­ra­tor. The brand dona­tes the clot­hing to cha­ri­ti­es.

In addi­ti­on, for more than 10 years, Bask in the Sun employe­es have also been volun­te­ering for asso­ci­ati­ons that work aro­und oce­an pro­tec­ti­on and cli­ma­te change.

Bask in The Sun is com­mit­ted to short sup­ply cha­ins and quality. The spin­ning mill, the dye house, the scre­en prin­ting shop, and the sewing wor­k­shop are only a few kilo­me­ters apart, in small coas­tal wor­k­shops with recog­ni­sed exper­ti­se in nor­t­hern Por­tu­gal. They visit the­se wor­k­shops seve­ral times a year to select the finest mate­ri­als and check the enti­re pro­duc­ti­on chain. 

This short cha­in, also ensu­res that tran­s­port betwe­en each pro­duc­ti­on step is limi­ted, allowing the brand to gre­atly redu­ce its car­bon foot­print and CO2 emissions.

Bask in The Sun is not a vegan brand. Whi­le most of its gar­ments are made from orga­nic cot­ton, it does use meri­no wool or recy­cled wool in some of its clot­hing items.

They cho­ose quality mate­ri­als and work with gar­ment makers who care abo­ut a job well done. Only 0.001% of the­ir gar­ments were found to be faul­ty. Per­fec­ti­on may be impo­ssi­ble, but they are more than sati­sfi­ed with this result.

As they have very few defec­ti­ve gar­ments, they are not plan­ning to open the­ir own repa­ir ser­vi­ce. They the­re­fo­re advi­se cus­to­mers to give the­se gar­ments a second life by entrus­ting them to a near­by workshop.

Bask in The Sun has a dedi­ca­ted sec­ti­on whe­re they outli­ne the­ir sus­ta­ina­bi­lity efforts, and on each brand page, they dis­play the mate­ri­als and cha­rac­te­ris­tics used in the­ir clot­hing. Howe­ver, we beli­eve that the infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut the­ir gar­ment pro­duc­ti­on pro­ce­sses can be enhan­ced to pro­vi­de bet­ter tra­ce­abi­lity and tran­s­pa­ren­cy to consumers.