Inmakulate organics was a five-year creative exchange project launched in 2006 to establish a sustainable garment production system of organic textiles and ethical manufacturing. The aim was to build knowledge and generate awareness of organic textile materials between the UK, Colombia and Peru, by facilitating the process of design, sampling and production of organic-textile certified garments.
Initial investment by participating brands and designers, focused on enabling teams of designers and ecologists to provide knowledge exchange workshops around the theme of organic agriculture and textiles in the three countries. Simultaneously, we developed our first sustainable framework for textiles and created prototypes through the production of samples and collections. The end results were showcased in various events organised by the Textile Exchange, Inexmoda, London Fashion Week, Source Expo, Village Underground and Perumoda.
Working with farmers and small garment manufactures in Peru and Colombia the project was able to collect data about the awareness of organically sourced and processed textile materials within the regions of Medellin, Bogota, Lima and Cusco.
Ethical manufacturing was also taken into account within our measuring framework and resulted in various discussions about the feasibility of working with group minorities in Latin America. One more specific case occurred during our work with a small cooperative of single mothers who were displaced from their home communities, as a consequence of armed conflict. These cases alerted us to the need to extend our research and propose alternative professional support where needed. Subsequently, the assistance of a trauma therapist to be available during the manufacturing process was implemented.
Another aspect of this project aimed to introduce transparency within the supply chain. Inmakulate connected brands and designers with third party providers to help with traceability issues.
The journey from agriculture to finished garments highlighted the disconnection within the textiles’ system and the need to implement more in-depth local and regional sustainability projects. Both government and private funding and decentralised technology need to be implemented to support communication, transparency and the wellbeing of everyone involved. For more information about this project please get in touch.