Hello party people!
Today we’re staying on the East Coast but moving a little to the West, all the way to Toronto! Guys, gals, gays, and theys, meet Franc, a sustainable fashion brand that creates classic basics to easily integrate with the rest of your wardrobe. They offer sizes XXS to 4XL. I currently own a t-shirt from them that isn’t manufactured anymore and a pair of high-rise sweatpants that is still listed in their online store.
I found Franc through Instagram, specifically, Marielle Elizebeth’s page (@Marielle.elizabeth), she’s a great resource if ever you want more sustainable fashion brands to shop with. What I love about her work is that she will ONLY collaborate and highlight truly sustainable brands, which is difficult to do in a fashion world full of greenwashing (the practice of a company playing up its green credentials to seem more environmentally friendly with the aim of selling more products, yuck). If you want to know more about her collaborations with sustainable brands, you can check them out here.
Now, back to Franc, when I was looking through their site, I found a quote I loved:
“We feel that personal style trumps fashion. And are obsessed with solving the problem of cheaply made clothes, made by underpaid workers in poor environmental conditions. We know fashion, can BE more and DO better. Join us in our mission to create a better, more conscious (still fashion-loving) planet. All our fabrics are knit and dyed (using Bluesign® certificated dyes non-toxic, low-impact, environmentally-friendly dyes) this is also done in Toronto, Canada.”
WOW, I don’t know about you but that statement makes me feel like an actual person wrote this and not some corporation trying to check a box. Franc is also a Certified B Corporation, if you don’t know what that means, it’s a corporation that meets the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. They made an oath to be using their business for good, rather than making sure they have the largest profit possible. You can read more about it here.
When looking through their site, it was refreshing to see everything about their brand all laid out for a consumer or future consumer to see. I particularly liked their Finer Details sections that broke down their fashion practices, their business model, and how their factories run. When it comes to the fabrics, Franc is ON IT for sustainability. The main fabric content they use for their styles is a TENCEL™ and GOTS certified Organic Cotton fabric Blend. The yarns they order are knit custom for them by their Toronto knitter. The yarns for their fabric have been spun exclusively for them by a certified (and rigorously vetted) TENCEL™ yarn supplier in Turkey, where our GOTS-certified Organic Cotton is grown and harvested. Unfortunately, Canada does not have the current capabilities to spin fibres into yarns, so this is their solution for it. Here’s an excerpt from their finer details section:
The fibre content that makes up our yarn comes from different locations: TENCEL™ comes from Austria, Cotton from the United States (if regular Cotton is ever uses), and GOTS Organic Cotton from Kahramanmaras, Turkey. The dyes that are used for fabrics are all Bluesign® certificated dyes. As well, the dye house that finishes and dyes our custom fabrics works directly with Index Energy. Index Energy supplies them with renewable energy to run the facility; they, in turn, use any filtered waste from dye production to create more renewable energy; they work in a cyclical system keeping the carbon footprint as low as possible.
One thing I haven’t talked about if my other posts are options for people who are more masculine presenting. Franc is mostly for more feminine styles but they do have a small section of masculine styles; if I’m being honest, clothing has no gender, that was just a tool to segregate gender (which is a spectrum and not a binary concept).
When it comes to manufacturing, Franc’s manufacturers are located just outside of Toronto. Both factories are located about 20 km away from where they work – which allows them to pop in at a moment’s notice. This close distance also helps to keep their carbon footprint incredibly low. They believe
it’s necessary to ensure the people who make their clothes are treated as well as the people who wear them. So they make regular visits. They know the workers are treated well and paid a fair wage as per Ontario employment standards.
I hope you enjoyed learning about Franc and will check them out! I don’t have many pieces from them but after looking through their website, there are a few pieces that caught my eye: Jogger shorts, 1/4 zip sweatshirt, and the trouser sweatpants.
-Kimiko
