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Northern Lights - organic cotton and bamboo fabric
The bamboo yarns used in this fabric are manufactured in Belgium by one of Europe’s largest organic cotton suppliers. The production of the yarns causes a small amount of air pollution because of chemical reactions, and a small percentage of this is released into the air. Their water treatment is thorough, and yields pristine water.
The velvet is woven by a mill in Great Britain which has been producing fine velvets for over 100 years. Although the production of velvet is complex – consisting of two warp yarns and a fill yarn – this mill agreed to experiment with bamboo and organic cotton yarns, and after a few tries were able to produce this fine velvet. They were also enthusiastic participants in greening the steps they could: for example, they switched the sizer they used to potato starch and they improved their wastewater treatment.
The fabric is softened and dyed at an Italian dye house, which is one of relatively few houses in the world that is qualified to produce a dyed or finished fabric which can be a certified “organic textile.” Being an “organic textile," means not just that a fabric uses organic fibers in the yarn, but that every step of the production process has been certified eco-friendly.
O Ecotextiles invested more than two years of research in their dyes in order to achieve color consistency, colorfastness and complete absence of toxicity. The dyes meet EU and Global Organic Textile Standards to be free of AZO colorants (a cancer causing toxin that is used in many dyes), heavy metals and aromatic amines and the dyestuffs are completely biodegradable (except for some of the blues which can contain copper).
The fabrics are softened with a combination of beeswax, aloe vera and vitamin E.
