It's a priority for us to work with a manufacturer who has high ethical and labor standards. This means that the factory pays their employees competitive living wages and provides their workers with a clean and safe work environment. This is often a part of sustainability that gets overlooked. Unfortunately, even when something is made in the USA it does not guarantee that these standards are being met.
For these reasons we decided to work with Lefty, a woman owned business located in downtown Los Angeles. The fashion industry can be a very exclusive place, but luckily, Lefty was created to ensure small businesses and young designers receive the assistance they deserve when starting a clothing company. Lefty has implemented certain sustainability practices to lower the impact of the manufacturing process. For instance, they use an automated laser cutter, to ensure the least amount of fabric is wasted. This also eliminates the process of printing out each individual pattern, a model that is used as a guide in needlework, because the process has been digitized.