April 05, 2018

Our Fabric, Our Brand, Our ECO Footprint.

As a company we are committed to ensuring we operate in an environmentally responsible way, . We are far from perfect, but WE REALLY CARE! We believe that every small bit helps and we are actively taking steps to increase sustainability and reduce our footprint both behind the scenes in sourcing and manufacturing, as well as what our customers take home.

Our aim is to source beautiful, sustainable fabrics that are the premium quality our customers expect.

Every decision we make we consider the impact on the environment. Some of our initiatives include reducing our plastic consumption by up to 70% by not individually bagging our garments coming from our factory. We are working on a biodegradable plastic for the bags we do use.

We are proud to say more than 80% of our collection is made from natural fibres. Below is some insight into the fabrics we use to make your beautiful sleepwear. 

Modal

Modal is a soft man-made fibre made from natural materials and is considered to be biodegradable. The manufacturing process is closed loop, which means that the chemicals used in processing are captured and reused. The small amount discharged is considered non-hazardous.

The finished fabric is amazingly soft, durable and washes really well. It is fast becoming one of our most popular sleepwear fabrics.

Washable Silk

Silk is a highly renewable resource with less impact on the environment than many other fabrics. The silk worms feed on mulberry leaves, which don’t require the use of pesticides or fertilisers to grow.

However, to clean silk, harsh and intensive treatments and chemicals are often used, which can pollute the ground water. Producing silk uses a large amount of resources to produce a small amount of silk.

At Papinelle, silk is one of our favourite fabric and we will endeavour to bring our customers beautiful silk that has minimal impact on the environment. 

We recently made the move to washable silk on some of our garments so now you can enjoy the luxury feeling of silk with easier care properties.

Cotton

Cotton is a natural fibre and we love making our sleepwear in cotton or cotton blends. However, cotton is responsible for 25% of the world’s pesticide use and is a water hungry crop. We are committed to moving some of our cottons over to Organic cotton and finding the origin of our conventional cottons so we can ensure they cooperate with BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) which aims to reduce pollution by producing clean cotton.

Organic Cotton

Organic cotton ensures that no pesticides or chemical fertilisers are used, minimising the impact on the environment. Papinelle will be moving some of our classic collections from conventional cotton to organic cotton and further increasing our organic cotton offering throughout 2020.

Cotton Modal Knits       

Papinelle Cotton Modal Knits are sourced from an eco-friendly supplier called BROS who have invested enormously in infrastructure to ensure their manufacturing processes adhere to the strict Environmental Management System certifications (ISO14001:2004). All cotton components also adhere with the BCI (Better Cotton Initiative).

Recycled Polyester

Conventional Polyester is a non-sustainable synthetic fibre that by all accounts is considered not environmentally friendly. We will always try to use alternatives to Polyester however around 3-5% of our collection contains Polyester. From early 2020 onwards we are replacing some of our conventional Polyester with Recycled Polyester!

Update 10.9.19 - Over the past year at Papinelle, we have been continuing on our journey towards operating in a more environmentally responsible way. We are still not perfect but we do really care so here is an update on a few of our recent initiatives:

- Papinelle are using recycled PET in our 2020 Winter robes. Papinelle's plush robes are always a hit in Winter however they are made from Polyester which is not considered eco-friendly. We have been looking into fabrics that have the same soft plush effect that are either natural or recycled. We are excited to have sourced a fabric that is virtually identical in texture and warmth but has as much as 25% of the yarn made from recycled PET bottles. These will form part of our Winter 2020 collection.
- Recycled Satchels for online orders - Papinelle have been looking into either compostable or recycled materials for the outer satchel sent to our online customers to replace the standard plastic ones. We have recently placed our first order for satchels that use 100% recycled materials to replace plastic satchels in the coming months.
- Christmas Tote Bags - For Christmas 2019 Papinelle will be using canvas totes to replace some shopping bags both online and in store. Our new totes are made from 100% Recycled Fabrics making them beautiful, practical, re-useable and eco-friendly!
- Organic Cotton Basics - Papinelle's journey to move our basic year-round lines to Organic Cotton continues. We now use Organic cotton in our Basic Cotton Stripe collection, Soft Organic Lounge collection and Organic Cotton t-shirt nighties. Papinelle have absorbed the extra cost so our customers will still pay the same price as conventional cotton.

 

  1. http://www.tortoiseandladygrey.com/2017/01/30/modal-sustainable-textile-another-case-greenwashing/
  2. Cotton image source http://www.the-dailys.com/