Friendly Fashion, Happy Planet
Creating fashion in the least harmful way possible is our number one priority. Ethical manufacturing and environmental sustainability can look a lot of different ways. Green-washing brands use buzzwords with no clear definition leaving the consumer to dig for answers.
Our solution at Five Petal Flower is to be fully transparent about how our items are made and their impact on the planet. We've created this transparency guide so you can see our process for yourself!
These icons can be found on every product listing.
Re-used materials
Materials sourced from existing items or old projects. This can include thrifted textiles, old clothing, re-purposed items, and scraps from previous sewing projects.
Stashed materials
Materials that were purchased more than five years ago, waiting to be used in our stash. The most sustainable thing to use is the stuff you already have.
Sustainable materials
Materials made up of natural fibres (tencel, cotton with OCS or BCI certification, wool, linen, hemp) and/or materials that are processed in a way that minimizes environmental impact (recycled polyesters and plastics, ECONYL)
Thoughtfully-used new materials
New materials chosen sparingly and used with a careful low-waste process. We use polymer clay and UV resin for our handmade jewelry at this time, as it's small-batch friendly and leaves almost no scraps/waste.
Ethically made
No humans were harmed in the making of our cute clothes. We have a strict no-sweatshop policy, and will only work with manufacturers that treat and pay their employees fairly. We look for certifications like WRAP, BSCI, and the Fair Wear Foundation.
Low-waste process
The way you work matters. We always take the time to cut our fabric with as little waste as possible. Any scraps left are sorted and kept for future projects, and are frequently cycled through. This process extends to our clay and resin work as well.
Handmade in-house
This icon marks a product that was handmade by me (Pixie!) at my home studio in Atlantic Canada.
Print on Demand Information
Our t-shirts are manufactured by Comfort Colors at their award-winning facility in Honduras. You can read more about Comfort
Colors' ethics and sustainability practices here.
They are printed via Printify at two facilities, Print Geek in Canada (for Canadian or USA orders) or Monster Digital in the USA (ships to the rest of the world). Printify has an extensive code of conduct you can read more about here.
A harm-reduction approach
Unfortunately, the majority of craft & sewing supplies you see in big-box stores come from factories that don't disclose their conditions. Finding ethical and sustainable sources for each and every trim and button would be ideal- we're just not quite capable of that yet! This is why we prioritize second hand materials, use what we already have, seek out natural fibres when buying new, and disclose each and every bit of this to you!
We believe approaching the fast fashion problem with a harm reductive mindset encourages more widespread positive change. Fifty people trying their best is just as valuable as five people "doing it perfectly"!
"You cannot do all the good that the world needs, but the world needs all the good that you can do." -Shelby Orme