CO Data

From Fibre to Fabric: a Look at Global Mills

A garment passes through several stages on its journey from raw material to retail market. Tracking data about these stages is key to tackling the environmental and social impacts of fashion.

To produce a garment, raw material is turned into fibre, that fibre is turned into yarn (or thread) and then yarn becomes fabric. Whether the material is cotton, wool, synthetic or cellulosic, the processes of transforming fibre to fabric to fashion are the intermediate stages in garment production.

Spinning, washing, dyeing, treating, knitting and weaving are all part of the transformation, performed by companies known sometimes as ‘tier 2, 3 or 4’ (or '2nd, 3rd, 4th tier') suppliers – as the…

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22 May 2018
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