Being sustainable is very important to us. We want to give back to the earth and to people. By using sustainable fabrics such as Tencel ™ Lyocell, linen and Lenzing™ Ecovero™ and keeping production close to home, we try to keep our footprint as small as possible. We will also continue to research and develop sustainable products to take the best care of planet earth.
By using organic cotton on a average sized t-shirt compared to the results of chemically grown cotton.
Tencel™ Lyocell is a luxurious fabric with a slight glow to it. Tencel™ is the manufacturer that developed Lyocell. It is a sustainable and also 100% natural product made from wood cellulose or wood pulp. Lyocell was developed in the United States under the name Tencel. Later, this was bought by an Austrian company, Lenzing AG.
Lyocell is a bit in between natural and artificial fabrics. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very natural product (and contains no plastics!) Lyocell is made from cellulose obtained from trees such as eucalyptus, oak and birch. However, the process of breaking it down and turning it into yarn is a chemical one. Water and chemicals are reused in the production process through the use of a closed-loop system. This saves a lot of energy and there is no water or environmental pollution.
Curpo is a fabric made from leftover lint from cotton fibers. These cotton fibres are too small for a cotton fabric to be spun and are therefore often disposed.
Cupro is made from these leftover fibres. The fibres are dipped into a solution of copper oxide cuprammonium. This mixture is then put into hot moving water, which splits the cellulose into threads. These threads can eventually be made into yarn.
It is therefore made from natural materials, but the production is chemical. This fabric is also produced in a closed-loop system (just like Tencel), so the chemicals are not released into nature. The fabric is fully biodegradable and 100% recyclable.
Cupro is also called vegan silk. It is extremely soft and has a beautiful shine (like silk), but does not contain any animal products. It also absorbs moisture quickly, is breathable and hypo-allergenic.
Lenzing™ Ecovero™ is the environmentally friendly version of viscose. As you can already see from the name, this is just like Tencel™ Lyocell also from the same Austrian company.
Viscose is also made of cellulose, but in this process no consideration is given to nature, so all chemicals end up in the environment and a lot of CO2 is emitted. In contrast, EcoVero™ is produced in the most environmentally friendly way possible.
EcoVero™ is made of wood pulp from trees from FSC or PEFC certified forests. The trees grow in Europe (60% in Austria) and the production is done in Austria. EcoVero™ fits in the group with Tencel and Cupro, as this fabric is also made from cellulose and the closed-loop system is used in the production process.
Linen has always been a sustainable material. It is made from the flax plant, which grows best in humid maritime climates (so also in the Netherlands). Linen is no longer as popular as it used to be. The Netherlands used to have about 30,000 hectares of land sown with flax, nowadays this is about 2000 hectares. This is partly due to the rise of cheap cotton and synthetic fabrics.
In order to make linen the flax plants are dried, retted and turned. Retting is exposing the product to water which releases fibres. The fibres from flax are very long, making it possible to spin beautiful and strong yarn.
Linen has a very short growth cycle. Flax is sown in March and harvested in July. Few to none pesticides are needed to grow the plant and it uses relatively little water. All parts of the flax plant are usable.
Linen absorbs moisture well, making it feel cool in summer.
The clothing of Roses & Lilies is produced in a responsible way in the Netherlands, Groningen. The clothing is made in cooperation with the atelier (Kleerlijk).
By producing in the Netherlands and working with people with a refugee background, Kleerlijk wants to have a positive effect on the climate, people and the economy. The employees had successful jobs in the clothing industry in their countries of origin, which means that everyone has their own talents and speciality.
We also want to make our packaging as sustainable as possible. That is why we use sustainable and recycled FCS certified cardboard for our shipping boxes. This material is also used for our hangtags, tissue paper and tape. After the paper and cardboard reaches the paper waste, it will be recycled again.
Our stickers are made from sustainable and vegan materials.
