People & Planet - then Profits

 

OUR MISSION

If fashion continues along the current path, the industry will be responsible for a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions by 2050. Try to wrap your head around that disturbing fact. We are going to break the vicious cycle of fast fashion.

While we applaud the fact that carbon-neutrality has, at long last, become the gold standard of sustainability in the fashion industry, neutrality simply isn't going to cut it anymore. Our ambitions for Diamond Day are much higher - our goal is to be carbon-negative. We will never subscribe to the regular cyclical seasonal collections of 'fast fashion' - on the contrary, we strive to make garments that can serve more than one purpose and that are highly durable and long-lasting.

Doing right by Mother Nature and her inhabitants is at the very core of Diamond Day and this principle guides our every decision - strategically as well as design-wise. 

  

OUR METHODS

Our garments are made in the European Union, our target market, for the following two reasons mainly: Firstly, in the EU, people make fair wages, they have great working conditions and predictable long-term employment. And secondly, we source all fabrics and tailor all garments as locally as possible, drastically reducing the carbon footprint shipping wise. We could make substantially better margins by sourcing and manufacturing in Asia, but this would be at the expense of both the environment and the people working in factories that are not subject to the scrutiny our European working condition standards entail.

All our garments are made in an Estonian factory with whom we have established a trust-based symbiotic relationship. The factory is run by fierce and highly professional women and employs 40 happy and driven people. Partnering with a relatively small operation was a conscious decision and this strategy represents various advantages. We are a start-up and thus small, which would make us insignificant to a large factory. This is by no means the case with our chosen partner – we are neither side-lined nor ignored in favour of larger, more profitable ‘fish’. Another benefit is their ability to adapt very quickly and alter their pipeline in an agile way to cater to our needs in a timely way.

The purchasing power of Estonians has increased 400% over the last two decades and life expectancy has soared from 66 years in 1994, to 77 years as of 2016 according to the World Bank and Estonia is now considered a high-income country on par with the economies of western European countries (https://freetrade.world/2018/03/4533/). In addition, Estonia’s Democracy Index is 7.84 and they rank just two places below the United States, scoring 7.92 (https://www.eiu.com/n/). These facts serve as a guarantee for us as a socially responsible company, that there is no foul play in the production process and that we can fully trust that the people who make our garments are healthy, free from oppression and compensated fairly for their hard and impeccable work. As a customer, you can rest easy that neither Mother Nature nor her inhabitants suffer in the creation of Diamond Day apparel, and that the quality and design of the garments are nothing short of top tier. Needless to say, such peace of mind coupled with relentless quality standards carries a different price tag than conventional fast fashion wear-and-discard clothing. You get what you pay for.

All our non-cotton garments are made from fabrics woven with Econyl fibres. Econyl, as they put it, rescue waste that is otherwise polluting the Earth, and then they sort and clean this waste in order to recover as much nylon as possible. Through a radical regeneration and purification process, the nylon waste is recycled right back to its original properties. This regenerated nylon is then processed into textile yarn and sourced by sustainable fabric weavers. These fabrics are of supreme quality and clothing manufacturers can make high end garments (like ours) from them. In this way, we subtract from pollution and create recycled and recyclable garments that people can enjoy and rely on for years, not weeks. The most exciting fact is, that when you have worn out your Diamond Day garment (in several years), this garment can go right back into the regenerative loop and there will be no need to make new plastic from heavily polluting and non-renewable crude oil. Econyl’s regenerative processes have thus rendered the nylon infinitely renewable and the vicious cycle of fast fashion is broken.

Our cotton garments are all made from GOTS certified 100% organic cotton. The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) is the worldwide leading textile processing standard for organic fibres, including ecological and social criteria, backed up by independent third-party certification of the entire textile supply chain. Organic fibres are natural fibres grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, insecticides, or herbicides and GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) according to the principles of organic agriculture. Organic agriculture is a production process that sustains the health of ecosystems, soils and people. GOTS evaluates the processing and manufacturing of textiles on the basis of both, environmental and social criteria. This means assessing everything from the chemical inputs being used to the ethical treatment of workers. To become GOTS certified, it is mandatory to meet all of these criteria. On-site inspection and certification of processors, manufacturers and traders is performed by independent Third-Party GOTS accredited Certification Bodies and forms the basis of the GOTS monitoring system. It serves to provide a credible assurance for the integrity of GOTS certified textiles.