Ensures fair living wage for producers
Discloses the community being impacted
Reduces the environmental impact
Focusses on women producers
Created using handcrafted methods
Reduces/Reuses/
Recycles resources
Recycles resources
Made out of responsible materials
Avoids use of chemicals or toxic materials
Biodegradable or environment friendly
Earthwhile makes comfortable clothing with consciously sourced plant fibers that are woven on handlooms in India. The first collection is made with indigenous cotton varieties from Kutch and Maharashtra. These cotton varieties are grown using organic methods and are water efficient. They have also blended these with natural fibers like linen and hand-spun regular cotton khadi yarn. The fabrics are woven by hand on pit looms or frame looms by families who weave in their homes. The garments are stitched in small batches in a women-led workshop under expert supervision with utmost care and minimal use of plastic to pack and store.
Purpose
Earthwhile was born out of a quest to understand what it means to eat, wear and live a more conscious life. They hope to nurture a community of mindful makers, sellers, and consumers. Their small batch production comes from the belief in making clothes that are for everyone and can become old friends of the wearers. They work closely with weavers to make these fabrics from scratch. The fabrics carry the spirit of the weavers, their personalities, and their stories.
People
They work with NGOs/ Weaver families in 3 states in India. In Kutch, Gujarat they work with a family of 5 weavers including men and women. These are essentially Kala cotton weavers and have the expertise required to weave short-staple cotton. They source from Magan Khadi and Gram Seva Mandal of Wardha, two Khadi organizations that work at a grass root level with farmers to grow organic cotton, hand spinners, handloom weavers, and natural dyers. They also work with a group of skilled weavers in Nalanda Bihar who they source and send yarn to. This group of weavers is especially in need of work and extremely cut off from markets and in constant need of work.
Planet
They use organically grown cotton as much as possible- Mainly Kala cotton that is indigenous to Kutch Guj, is rainfed, and does not need chemical pesticides to grow. It is grown by small-scale farmers who can’t afford certification but are supported by NGO’s like Khamir who sell and market Kala cotton. Several of the garments are made with natural-dyed yarns. They use only handwoven fabrics that are made on handlooms that do not use any electricity and have a much smaller carbon footprint than mill-made fabrics because they don’t go through the immense processing that power loom fabrics undergo. They also use tagua-nut buttons that are completely biodegradable. Their packaging is also made out of waste fabric to avoid use of plastic.