GIA

GIA makes some of its gar­ments in its own wor­k­shop, but also wor­ks with small family wor­k­shops of arti­sans in Mon­te­vi­deo (Uru­gu­ay), who have a long tra­di­ti­on in the cre­ati­on of leat­her acce­sso­ri­es and footwear. 

GIA’s cre­ators know and regu­lar­ly visit the­se family wor­k­shops and main­ta­in a clo­se rela­ti­on­ship with them. So you can be sure that GIA’s gar­ments, acce­sso­ri­es and sho­es are made under ethi­cal con­di­ti­ons. A lot of work goes into the­ir cre­ati­ons, slowly made by real craftsmen. 

GIA’s pieces are mainly made of cowhi­de and meri­no wool.

All the leat­her comes from a tan­nery in Argen­ti­na. A family busi­ness that sin­ce its begin­nin­gs has always pri­ori­ti­sed the quality of the pro­duct and the craf­t­sman­ship nece­ssary to achi­eve excel­len­ce in the final product.

In addi­ti­on, one of the objec­ti­ves of this family busi­ness is to care for and be effi­ci­ent in the use of natu­ral reso­ur­ces, and that is why it has one of the most modern and tec­h­no­lo­gi­cal efflu­ent tre­at­ment plants, mana­ged by a team of tec­h­ni­ci­ans spe­ci­ali­sed in envi­ron­men­tal care, who work con­ti­nu­ous­ly to redu­ce the use of natu­ral reso­ur­ces and impro­ve the quality of the water used. They have the LWG (Leat­her Wor­king Gro­up) cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on, which reflec­ts the com­pany’s com­mit­ment to the cus­to­mer and the environment. 

On the other hand, the wool comes from one of the main wool pro­du­cing and expor­ting com­pa­ni­es in Uru­gu­ay. 100% of its wool is free of mule­sing, and it has seve­ral cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons such as the GOTS orga­nic cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on by Eco­cert, the RWS (Res­pon­si­ble Wool Stan­dard) cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on by Texti­le Exc­han­ge and the NATI­VA cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on by Char­ge­urs, which accre­dits that it is an envi­ron­men­tal­ly res­pon­si­ble company.

At COSH we are big fans of sin­gle-mate­ri­al gar­ments beca­use they make it easi­er to recy­cle them. In the case of GIA, many of its gar­ments are made from a sin­gle mate­ri­al, such as knitwe­ar made from 100% meri­no wool or boots made from 100% leather. 

At GIA they try to have a short pro­duc­ti­on cha­in, so they work with wor­k­shops clo­se to the­ir Mon­te­vi­deo wor­k­shop, and sup­pli­ers from Uru­gu­ay. Howe­ver, the­ir leat­her sup­pli­er is from Argentina. 

GIA cho­oses wool pro­du­cers who tre­at the­ir she­ep bet­ter than nor­mal far­mers. The­ir meri­no wool, sour­ced from Uru­gu­ay, is free of mule­sing. Uru­gu­ay has ani­mal wel­fa­re stan­dar­ds, open gra­zing, modern mana­ge­ment tec­h­no­lo­gi­es and excel­lent genetics.

On the other hand, they use cowhi­de for the cre­ati­on of the­ir acce­sso­ri­es and shoes.

They manu­fac­tu­re very few units of each model beca­use they beli­eve in slow fashi­on. A slow and sus­ta­ina­ble manu­fac­tu­ring process.

They manu­fac­tu­re very con­s­ci­ous­ly, taking care of every deta­il, as this is the essen­ce of the­ir brand: exclu­si­vity, design and quality

GIA is a tran­s­pa­rent brand!

COSH! was able to talk to the foun­ders of the brand and we can assu­re you that GIA is a very tran­s­pa­rent brand. They have pro­vi­ded us with infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut whe­re they make the­ir pro­duc­ts and the names of the­ir sup­pli­ers.