Piccalilly heading for eco excellence

 

by Deborah Miarkowska

In perfect time for the Magic of Christmas, the EcoChic team are delighted to be working with Piccalilly to supply all those would be Christmas Fairies. From Rasta Fairy to Romantic Ballerina we have the perfect dressing up costume for your little one. As with all our products the ultimate magic is in their story. Stories that change lives….

 

Piccalilly is a Yorkshire Dales run clothing brand, run by people who love the environment they live in and who want to source in a socially responsible way. As an ethically conscious brand Piccallily have been leading the way producing stylish ethical baby clothes and ethical children’s clothes that are colourful and modern in design. As a forward thinking business they are committed to trading fairly with suppliers throughout the supply chain whilst also working towards environmental best practice. Making the right choices isn’t always easy and Piccallily don’t claim to do things perfectly. But on a day to day basis they try to make progress to find better solutions to what they do.

Dedicated to sourcing products on a fair trade basis  and supplying a beautiful range of organic baby clothes, organic children’s clothes and organic bathrobes all made from Organic FAIRTRADE Cotton - a guarantee that producers in developing countries are getting a better deal. Indeed Piccalilly’s organic baby clothes were recently included in a report by ETHICAL CONSUMER Magazine who gave them the second highest ethicscore and voted their baby range BEST BUY! So don’t just take our word for it!

Traceability of supply chains

 

 Piccalilly are also absolute believers in knowing their supply chains - and you can trust that all our organic FAIRTRADE cotton comes from a traceable and credible source. Their organic cotton comes from the CHETNA project and is used to make our organic baby clothes, organic children’s clothes and organic bathrobes. The supply chain has been audited by FLO, (The Fairtrade Labour Organisation) meeting social compliance indicators at everystage of the process. We pay a guaranteed price for our cotton and an additional social premium which is invested by the cotton producers in community development projects such as clean water, schools, roads and medical centre’s. We are also licensee’s of the Fairtrade Foundation (the UK office of FLO) - the only guarantee that the cotton we say is Fairtrade IS actually Fairtrade certified. All UK brands using FLO certified cotton in the UK can be found by visiting www.fairtrade.org.uk.

The CHETNA project is currently run in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, in which over 1,500 farming families are now involved. This project is now expanding into Tamil Nadu and Orissa and is expected to to grow to include 17,000 farmers by 2010, producing 20% of the organic cotton grown in India.

Manufacturing & SA8000

  

 

Piccalilly’s manufacturing partner has been supporting the CHETNA project since 2004 and in 2007 they gave 10% of their shares to the CHETNA farmers, so the farmers will receive a share of the manufacturing profit. Also accredited as  SA 8000 certified, ensuring best workplace practice and aherance to international principles of human rights. All workers are salaried and employed and paid not just a minimum wage, but above the minimum wage. The workers work in a purpose built modern eco friendly factory, given free health and medical cover for themselves and their family and given free freshly cooked meals on site every working day.

Organic Certification & Low Impact Dyes

 

 

  
Picalilly’s  organic cotton is certified organic through Ecocert Controle and GM free. All Piccalilly’s organic clothes are coloured and printed using low impact environmentally responsible dyes and at no stages of processing have formaldehyde, solvents, silicone based softeners, toxic chemicals or azo-dyes been used. Piccalilly’s organic baby clothes range includes babygrows, nightgowns, trousers, dresses, and hooded tops. We have also been growing our ranges to include organic children’s clothes including trousers and tops. We are now extending the organic clothes range to include items for adults too, including a fabulously stylish organic cotton bathrobe and luxuriously thick organic cotton bath towels.

Piccalilly’s Aims.

  

Piccalilly’s aim is to produce sustainable and eco clothing - not fast seasonal fashion. They feel as a responsible ethical business that changing our ranges every season isn’t the best way to be sustainable and environmentally friendly. Piccalilly  aim’s  to take things a little slower and produce eco-fabulous, stylish and modern clothes that stand the test of time, whilst breaking free from the stereotypes of ethical clothing.Whilst Piccalilly are committed to creating organic clothes and accessories the availability of organic cotton to very small garment factories is still difficult. So they continue to produce a small range of fairly traded clothes and accessories that are currently made from conventional cotton and produced in Jaipur, India and a fabulous and funky range of fairly traded fairy dresses  from Indonesia!

Piccalilly are now working hard to open up the supply of organic cotton to our small garment producers in India - they aim to work with them towards choosing more responsible supply chains of organic cotton and other eco textiles, which benefits both the environment and also the primary producer. As with all our suppliers fair trade is at the forefront of our day to day working practices. They always trade constructively and fairly with their manufacturing partners by paying advances - typically of 50%, placing regular and repeat orders throughout the year and where possible contributing towards local causes. In Bali Piccalilly have been supporting the YKIP Kembali Fund for many years now and have committed to sponsoring the education of a young girl through this charity.

Life since the Bali bombings

 

 

 
In 2002 the first Bali bomb brought devastation to the small Indonesian island and YKIP was founded as a memorial to the many Balinese who lost their lives, were injured or lost their livelihood. The island has suffered significant economic hardship since the recent bombings. Many people in Bali who worked in the tourism, handicraft and garment industry lost their livelihood and this is why we felt supporting our family run business in Bali, which employs local and skilled garment makers, is so important. Another result of the economic hardship has been that families have struggled to pay school fees and the drop out rate from school since the bombings has been significant. To find out more about the fund and sponsoring a childs education visit www.ykip.org

View our gorgeous Piccalilly range here.

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