Fabric, Fiber and Sourcing Knowledge

Cotton does not arrive as a shirt: it is grown, ginned, carded, spun, woven, dyed, cut and sewn, and a dozen decisions along that chain determine how a garment wears and washes out. This section traces that chain in plain language — from seed variety and rainfall to ring-spun yarn, sanforizing and the difference between a woven and a knitted shirt — then maps the certification systems (GOTS, GRS, Fair Trade, OEKO-TEX, SA8000) onto the specific claims they do and do not support. It is the reference desk for readers who want to know why two shirts priced twenty dollars apart can be entirely different products.