I Dress Myself

At I Dress Myself we recognise the importance of ethical trading and are committed to growing a business based on sound ethical values.

Ethical Trading

We only source products from companies with robust ethical standards and have chosen to use garments manufactured by Continental Clothing for this reason. Continental manufacture most of their garments in a factory in Turkey that they part own to ensure good working conditions. They are members of the Fair Wear Foundation and are currently working towards obtaining the Fair Trade mark. We buy tote bags, tea towels and aprons from Bishopston Trading. Based in Bristol they work with partners in rural India and import organic cotton goods with the sole aim of fair trading.

We source our paper from Arboreta Papers, also based in Bristol. (Almost) their entire range of quality papers are 100% recycled and they are happy to tell you about the mill that the paper is made in and how it's transported. They even use self-gummed paper tape on their packages rather than plastic tape.

Ethical Trading works both ways - we like to work with people that share our values and there are some businesses that we have refused to work with as we don't want to support their unethical practices.

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Environment

We are continually taking action to reduce our impact on the environment and undertake waste minimisation, recycling and the purchasing of environmentally preferable goods wherever we can. We use water-based inks that contain no harmful ingredients at all (unlike the harmful plastisol and discharge inks that most screen printers use). We charge proportionately less for organic cotton and bamboo T-shirts to encourage our customers to go organic as it's believed that 20000 people die per year in developing countries as a result of the pesticides used on cotton crops. You can read more about our commitment to the environment in our environmental policy

Ethical Investments

We have chosen to bank with the Co-operative Bank so that our values extend to our finances, ensuring that our money does not fund state organisations in countries where there is a high degree of concern about a lack of human rights, or businesses with unethical practises such as tobacco manufacturers or arms dealers. Likewise, we have chosen to use Co-operative Insurance Services, the Phone Co-op and Green ISP.

Social Responsibility and Community Involvement

The I Dress Myself range and our website are designed to showcase local art, encourage the submission of ideas and designs and, hopefully, inspire artists and non-artists from around the world to get involved. We regularly offer work experience to students from Nottingham Trent and other universities.