LaSalle

As men­ti­oned abo­ve, the pro­duc­ti­on of LaSal­le is almost exclu­si­vely based in Euro­pe, in Italy, Poland and Por­tu­gal to be spe­ci­fic. This isn’t only bene­fi­ci­al beca­use of the wor­king con­di­ti­ons regu­la­ted by EU-laws, but also for cre­ating a short sup­ply cha­in and for redu­cing the­ir car­bon foot­print. LaSal­le sta­tes most of the­ir items only pass thro­ugh two dif­fe­rent coun­tri­es. Only the­ir leat­her jac­kets are made (chro­me-free) in India.

Many of the­ir fabric sup­pli­ers also com­ply with the vari­ous eco-cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on guide­li­nes, some of which inclu­de PEF (Pro­duct Envi­ron­men­tal Foot­print), ISO 14001 (for an envi­ron­men­tal mana­ge­ment sys­tem), FSC (Forest Stewar­d­ship Coun­cil), and the EU Eco­la­bel (label of envi­ron­men­tal excellence).

Besi­des, most of the sup­pli­ers are small, family owned busi­ne­sses. LaSal­le has long-term rela­ti­on­ships with them and visits them regu­lar­ly. They’re seen as an essen­ti­al part of the LaSal­le team. The­re­fo­re they rece­ive fair wages, good wor­king con­di­ti­ons and are tre­ated with respect.

LaSal­le con­tri­bu­tes to a good cause by dona­ting excess stock to Dress for Suc­cess. This is a not-for-pro­fit orga­ni­za­ti­on that empowers women to achi­eve eco­no­mic inde­pen­den­ce by pro­vi­ding a network of sup­port, pro­fe­ssi­onal atti­re and the deve­lop­ment tools to help women thri­ve in work and in life.

LaSal­le selec­ts its natu­ral fabrics care­ful­ly. They always cho­ose biode­gra­da­ble mate­ri­als over syn­t­he­tic ones, as they ack­nowled­ge the fashi­on indus­try is res­pon­si­ble for micro­plas­tic pol­lu­ti­on. To illus­tra­te this, 95% of the col­lec­ti­on is based on natu­ral mate­ri­als like cot­ton, wool and vis­co­se. They only use syn­t­he­tics such as polyes­ter and polya­mi­de when nece­ssary e.g. for ple­ating or com­fort. The polya­mi­de that is used is made in cer­ti­fi­ed and soci­al­ly res­pon­si­ble pro­ce­sses in China.

The mate­ri­als you do find a lot in LaSalle’s col­lec­ti­ons are cot­ton, linen, vis­co­se, Ten­cel, silk and dif­fe­rent types of wool. They’re tran­si­ti­oning towar­ds using more cer­ti­fi­ed mate­ri­als such as Oeko-Tex cer­ti­fi­ed fabrics, GOTS cer­ti­fi­ed orga­nic cot­ton, and Ten­cel which are pro­du­ced in an eco-fri­end­ly way. The­ir missi­on is to have 70% of the­ir clot­hing made from fabrics and yar­ns that are fri­end­ly to the envi­ron­ment by 2025. So they’re not at this sta­ge yet.

In clot­hing items like pants and fit­ted shirts, there’s often a per­cen­ta­ge of elas­ta­ne added to incre­ase move­abi­lity. Beca­use of this, recy­cling beco­mes more dif­fi­cult and the­se pieces aren’t biode­gra­da­ble, but it can incre­ase lon­ge­vity as com­fort and quality are always on top of LaSalle’s priorities.

LaSal­le is also very min­d­ful in ter­ms of mini­mi­zing was­te thro­ug­ho­ut the design and pro­duc­ti­on process.

All clot­hes desig­ned by LaSal­le are made to last so you can keep them in your clo­set for a long time. After get­ting the most wear out of them, the clot­hing made of 100% natu­ral mate­ri­als can biode­gra­de in natu­re so they won’t con­tri­bu­te to (plas­tic) pol­lu­ti­on in lan­d­fil­ls. Besi­des, most vis­co­se and cot­ton gar­ments are recy­cla­ble too. In knitwe­ar it’s bene­fi­ci­al to blend fibers from the same fiber base so they’re recy­cla­ble too. Only the gar­ments made from natu­ral fibers mixed with a hig­her per­cen­ta­ge of syn­t­he­tic fibers can be pro­ble­ma­tic for the end of life stage.

LaSal­le con­duc­ts its pro­duc­ti­on exclu­si­vely in Euro­pe, keeping the cha­in short and car­bon foot­print from the tran­s­por­ta­ti­on low. 

LaSal­le does use dif­fe­rent types of ani­mal-deri­ved mate­ri­als. The silk is spun from sil­kworm coco­ons, the cash­me­re and moha­ir from goats wool, the recy­cled and pure vir­gin wool from sheep’s wool and the alpa­ca wool from alpa­cas. The woolen items are all Ita­li­an blen­ds and no ani­mals are being kil­led for the pro­duc­ti­on. Howe­ver the living con­di­ti­ons of the ani­mals rema­in unknown. 

The brand also sel­ls leat­her jac­kets made out of lamb’s leat­her, the­se are made in India. The con­di­ti­on of the sour­cing of this pro­duct is unknown.

LaSal­le also focu­ses on dura­ble design that goes beyond tren­ds and gives you a time­less and sop­his­ti­ca­ted look. Con­tem­po­rary and cla­ssic, for every woman. This way you can wear your high quality essen­ti­als for years whi­le still looking gre­at here and now!

In ter­ms of tran­s­pa­ren­cy LaSal­le can still grow. Howe­ver they hig­hlig­ht the good rela­ti­on­ships with the­ir fac­to­ri­es and sup­pli­ers. Des­pi­te this and the fact that they some dis­clo­se infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut the­ir fabrics, more deta­iled infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut the dif­fe­rent fac­to­ri­es and sour­ces of the fabrics isn’t ava­ila­ble. Impro­ving tran­s­pa­ren­cy not only would incre­ase the­ir cre­di­bi­lity, but this would also help COSH! reflect the­ir sus­ta­ina­bi­lity efforts in the abo­ve sec­ti­ons better.