Organic Cotton:
Colour permitting, most styles in our debut Spring/ Summer collection are made with 95% organic cotton with just a smidgen of cashmere (5%).
Did you know that organic cotton produces 98% less water pollution, 94% fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and removes 450 kg more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per hectare compared to regular cotton? Don't worry, nor did we until we started using it for our S21 collection.
So what exactly is organic cotton and how is it different from conventional cotton?
Firstly, organic cotton is produced using organic agricultural standards, meaning that it is good for soils, ecosystems and people by using natural processes rather than artificial ones.
Secondly, organic cotton farming doesn't use toxic chemicals or GMOs (genetically modified organisms).
Thirdly, it uses 88% less water and 62% less energy compared to conventional cotton which uses over 15% of the world's insecticides and 7% of its pesticides.
Growing organic cotton also keeps farmers and their families safe as they are not exposed to toxic chemicals in the field, or through their food and water supply.
Also, did you know that it takes 2,700 litres of water to make a conventional cotton t-shirt? That's because regular cotton uses water intensive irrigation. And to make matters worse, it is often grown in water scare areas.
In the rapidly warming world that we live in, two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages in as little as five years, meaning that growing conventional cotton will no longer be feasible.
Organic cotton by comparison is 80% rain fed, thereby reducing pressure on local water sources. Plus, as it doesn't use any chemicals, it leaves the water supply cleaner and safer.
Another wonderful benefit about organic cotton is that it is grown from organic cotton seeds. And, cotton seed oil is used in a whole string of products ranging from cookies, to chips to vegetable oil to livestock feed. So while cotton fibre is not something we digest as such, its by-product makes its way into our diets.
Five years ago, 26 million metric tonnes of cotton was produced globally, mostly for the fashion industry with organic cotton making up less than 1% of this.
Today, choosing organic over conventional cotton you have the power to influence brands, manufacturers and even farmers to make the planet a better place. After all, when you buy organic cotton, you are investing in water conservation, cleaner air, better soil and farmer livelihoods.
In instances where organic cotton was not available for our S21 collection, we used BCI Cotton which comes from the Better Cotton Initiative: the largest cotton sustainability programme in the world.
BCI strives to make cotton better for both for the people who produce it, and the environment that it grows in. Currently, it accounts for 22% of cotton production worldwide.
At Mika & Milo, we believe in treading carefully on this beautiful planet that provides us home. After all, there is no Planet B. And, as we all still need to wear clothes, we believe in using natural and sustainable materials which are both ethically and environmentally produced.
We also believe in making pieces which will last so that they can be passed down from sibling to sibling, and then of course, generation to generation. After all, what could possibly be nicer than for your kids to pass down their good quality hand-me-downs to their own Little Ones.
#Made to Last: Please Hand Me Down.
