Cotton is hitting the runway. It’s a favorite fiber for fashion designers, especially for the fall collections at New York Fashion Week shows this year. And fashion designers aren’t just using cotton denim, they’re also using it to create evening jackets, dress pants for men, dresses, blouses, and of course, corduroy. But it’s not just fashion designers that love the look and feel of cotton clothing. More than four in five consumers (81 percent) say cotton is their favorite fiber to wear, according to the Cotton Incorporated Lifestyle Monitor Survey.
Here are some fashion designers who use cotton to create their runway-worthy clothing:
Loomstate by Rogan
Gregory
Loomstate is a full service apparel company that chooses organic cotton for their entire line, and supports sustainable clothing production. The company sources cotton from Africa and provides education and healthcare to the communities they work with.
Noir and Illuminati II by Peter Ingwersen
Noir is a high-end, Danish fashion brand founded by designer Peter Ingwersen. Ingwersen set out to be one of the first luxury clothing brands to incorporate social responsibility into its supply chain and business model. He also founded Illuminati II, a cotton fabric brand that uses cotton grown in Uganda to manufacture its clothing and adheres to the principles of the UN Global Compact.
Faherty Brand
Faherty Brand is a another upscale fashion brand that uses cotton in many of its clothing. They first showed the fiber in their Fall 2018 collection at the Project Show during New York Fashion Week. The collection included shawl sweaters, ponchos, windowpane shirts, flannels, slub tees, twill pants, and ocean washed denim. In an interview, Mike Faherty, co-founder of Faherty Brand, explained why cotton is his favorite fiber: “Unparalleled softness for the value. The color variation and texture possibilities are endless. The ability to wash it with different techniques to get unique, vintage-inspired looks. It has warmth but a great amount of breathability.”
Bluer Denim
Bluer Denim is an upscale fashion brand that produces 100% American-made denim jeans. The jeans are designed in Portland, Oregon using cotton grown in Georgia, and manufactured in the United States.
In addition to fashion brands, many organization, including Fashion Revolution, are leading the charge to promote transparency within the clothing supply chain. Fashion Revolution’s mission is to “work together towards radically changing the way our clothes are sourced, produced and consumed, so that our clothing is made in a safe, clean and fair way.” They host an annual campaign in April called #WhoMadeMyClothes which puts a spotlight on global apparel industry.
