MATERIALS GUIDE

We recognise that the production of textiles always impacts the environment, but we wish to minimise that impact by choosing natural fibres of high quality. We aim to use materials that are produced ecologically and ethically but are at the same time durable and long-lasting. Using our material guide, you can learn more about our textiles, their fibres and their advantages and disadvantages. 

You can find more detailed information about the materials we use here:

Wool

Wool, a naturally breathable fibre from sheep, is an incredible renewable resource with plenty of benefits, from biodegradability to stain resistance. However, the impact on the planet and the animals is significant. There is controversy over the practice of mulesing the sheep (cutting away skin to reduce flystrike, usually done without anaesthetic). Until a humane mulesing process becomes common, we recommend against sheep from mulesed wool. Industrial-scale livestock grazing can also increase land clearing and degradation, though more holistic land management methods for grazing livestock animals are gaining popularity and support.

Our garments are made using organic Finn sheep wool, produced with our responsible partners. Similar in softness to Merino, the fibre's overlapping scales point inward, making the yarn exceptionally soft.

Our yarns are spun in Finland, in the few remaining spinning mills and hand-dyed with a local natural dyer. The delicate process preserves the wool's natural grease, lanolin, making our products naturally water and dirt-resistant.

Despite being a high-quality material, more than 60% of Finnish wool is burned as waste due to the low market value of untapped business opportunities. We aim to change this by using the wool and paying the sheep farms a fair price.

Hand-dyed shades

All of our yarns are hand-dyed at Aurinkohehä in Raasepori, Finland. It's slow and laborious, particularly with soft yarns and vibrant colours.

To guarantee the organic status of our products, traceability and transparency of our wool production are essential steps in the process. Our wool is purchased directly from EU Certified Organic farms monitored by Finnish officials, including our farm, Hinders Gård.

While small-scale production volumes do not currently meet the need for international certification, all processes used in our production chain fill GOTS certification requirements. No toxic processing inputs or other harmful chemicals are used to produce, store, or handle By Hinders yarns and products.

Organic cotton

Organic cotton is cultivated without synthetic agricultural chemicals such as fertilisers or pesticides. The production enhances biodiversity and biological cycles. The use of GMOs is prohibited.

The non-organic cotton industry uses vast amounts of chemicals in the cultivation process, with unpredictable and severe negative consequences. Organic cotton cultivation is better for farmers, the surrounding environment, wildlife, and inhabitants than conventional cotton as they are not exposed to toxic chemicals.

The use of organic cotton is also better for you and me, as the final garment does not contain allergenic, carcinogenic, or toxic chemical residues.

The organic cotton we use is cultivated in Turkey. It is certified by an external audit (GOTS, IMO).

We understand that organic cotton cultivation can be as water-intensive as conventional cotton. This is why it's not an answer to only use organic cotton but to find even more ecological fibre alternatives.

Organic linen

Conventional linen is heralded by many as a natural fabric with low impact and no additional irrigation needed to grow. Despite this, we choose organically grown flax to ensure no harmful chemicals or pesticides are used.

A unique feature of the soil in the Normandy region of France, where our supplier grows its organic flax, is that it stores water in the clay stratum. Results show that organic flax copes better than conventional dry periods because it has deep roots. 

The delicate retting phase (the material operation by which the fibre is detached from the stalk) is generally easier with organic flax than conventionally cultivated flax because no chemical products have been used during growing. 

Flax follows a long cycle of crop rotation (6-7 years), increasing crop biodiversity and preventing diseases. It is also a carbon sink that holds 3.7 tons of CO2 per hectare. 

For some crops, organic yields are lower than in conventional agriculture. For flax, they are practically identical.

Hemp

Before the extensive cultivation of cotton, hemp was a standard textile fibre. Nowadays, it's almost totally forgotten, but as it is such a durable and ecological fibre, it was an obvious choice to have it in our material assortment.

There are many environmental benefits to hemp cultivation: It requires no synthetic fertilisers as it grows well without many nutrients. Hemp needs little irrigation, and it can grow in arid regions. The durable and robust hemp also outcompetes other weeds, making synthetic herbicides unnecessary.

Hemp has many similar qualities to linen: it's durable and rustic – and gets better and softer the more it is washed.

Tencel

Tencel™ Lyocell is the brand name for lyocell cellulose fibre manufactured by the Austrian company Lenzing. For this reason, you will usually find 'Tencel' in the composition information of fabric rather than 'lyocell.' In terms of its properties, Tencel is similar to viscose. However, the production process is more environmentally friendly: The fibre is produced through a closed-loop process, so almost all the solvents used in the spinning can be retained and reused. The process is more energy-efficient than viscose, and no harmful carbon disulfide is used.

Currently, Tencel is the most produced lyocell fabric. However, several new cellulose fibre innovations are also in the pipeline, which we will see entering commercial production. The processes under development use traditional cellulose raw materials and recycled cotton, cardboard, paper, or food waste. Organisations looking to develop new cellulose fibres include Finnish innovations like Infinited Fiber Company, Ioncell, and Spinnova.

Tencel™ is made from sustainably managed forests, mainly utilising the process of thinning - a technique used in sustainable forestry, making use of timber unsuitable for high-grade products like furniture. Unlike conventional cellulosic fibres, Tencel™ is produced using a closed-loop spinning process in which almost all the water and chemicals are recycled. An organic solvent is used instead of sodium hydroxide to dissolve the pulp. The production of Tencel™ requires less water and energy than cotton and as a natural fibre, Tencel™ is also biodegradable.

Cupro

Cupro is a 'regenerated cellulose' fabric made from cotton waste. It is made using the teeny tiny silky cotton fibres, known as a linter, that stick out of the cottonseed and are too small to spin. The linter is dissolved into a cuprammonium solution, a mixture of copper and ammonium dropped into caustic soda and then turned into fibre. Much like Tencel and Modal, cupro is a plant-based material chemically processed to produce the resulting fabric.

Cupro is said to have all the positive qualities of silk: it's silky-smooth and drapes just like the luxurious material.

Cupro is a by-product of cotton production and is a recycled textile. We know that cotton production is a wasteful and intensive process—it requires a massive amount of water and pesticides when it's not organic. So using every bit of the cotton plant helps reduce waste.

Since cupro is plant-based—unlike silk from silkworms—it is vegan and cruelty-free. Plus, unlike silk again, it is machine washable and more eco-friendly than the dry cleaning required for delicate silk garments.

Leftover and deadstock materials

Many deadstock fabrics can still be found that are leftovers from the European textile industry. Rolls of fabrics and materials have been lying around for years in untouched warehouses.

When we discover deadstock fabrics for sale, we search through the fabric rolls and pick the best and most high-quality ones to create limited-edition styles.

Leather and fur

Our garments and accessories are made only from the by-product material from the local food industry that would otherwise go to waste. We only work with local suppliers to guarantee its origins when working with leathers and shearling. We only work with two tanneries certified by the Leather Working Group, which on their behalf, controls low-impact practices within the leather industry. 

The vegetable tanning process is a slower, more specialised method, ensuring the high quality of the garment without using chemicals that damage the environment. The vivid leather colours are created using vegetable dyes. The entirety of their shearling products is made using chrome-free tanning. This process results in biodegradable products.

Our shearlings are 100% ethically sourced from our farm Hinders Gård, Inkoo, Finland.