A glossary of terms

The Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp is the association of the flax and hemp growers and processors of Europe, over 10.000 businesses in 16 countries by its own count, with its seat in France. It owns the two marks you will meet on linen: Masters of Flax Fibre (called European Flax until 2025) and Masters of Linen.

The two marks cover different lengths of the chain. With Masters of Flax Fibre you know that the fibre was grown and scutched in France, Belgium or the Netherlands, retted in the field without water, and audited by an outside firm. The spinning and everything after it may happen anywhere, and mostly does. With Masters of Linen you know that every step from fibre to yarn to fabric was done by European companies, only 38 of them at the last count. So “European flax” on a hangtag is a claim about the fibre, and “Masters of Linen” is a claim about where the cloth was made.

See alsoRetting, Made in Europe and Irish Linen Guild.

Websiteallianceflaxlinenhemp.eu

British Wool is the cooperative of the sheep farmers of the United Kingdom, set up by statute in 1950 and based in Bradford. It collects, grades by hand and sells the fleece of its 25.792 members, and owns the Shepherd’s Crook mark.

With the Shepherd’s Crook you know that the wool in the product grew on a UK farm, at 100 per cent or at least 50 per cent depending on the licence; only the cooperative’s Traceable logo may never be mixed with wool from elsewhere. All of it is non-mulesed, because mulesing is illegal in the UK. The mark says nothing about fineness: British breeds run coarser than merino, which is why this wool goes into carpets, tweeds and outerwear rather than base layers. By its own report the 2024 clip sold for 1,00 £ a kilogram, below the cost of shearing, so a brand that names British wool is paying for something the market barely rewards.

See alsoWoolmark, Harris Tweed Authority, Native Shetland Wool and Mulesing-free wool.

Websitebritishwool.org.uk

Circular fashion is a model that aims to keep clothing and materials in use for as long as possible, through design choices that allow garments to be repaired, reused, recycled, or composted at the end of their life.

Most clothing today follows a linear path: produced, worn briefly, discarded. Circular fashion is the attempt to close that loop, through repairable construction, take-back schemes, recycled or biodegradable materials, and rental or resale models. It is a system-level idea, not just a label, and the brands doing it well usually treat the full life cycle of a garment as part of the design brief rather than an afterthought.

See alsoRecycled wool, Deadstock and Responsible sourcing.

Cost per wear is the price of a garment divided by the number of times you actually wear it, a way to judge value over the life of a piece rather than at the till.

A 40€ top worn five times costs 8€ each wear. A 150€ coat worn 300 times costs 0,50€. Seen this way, a well-made piece you keep for years is often cheaper than a run of cheap ones you replace, and looking after what you own is what pushes the number down. It is the argument behind buying fewer, better things and wearing them longer.

See alsoSlow fashion and Circular fashion.

Deadstock is unsold or unused fabric that would otherwise have been discarded or stored indefinitely, repurposed by a brand to make new products.

The fashion industry produces enormous amounts of surplus fabric, and a small number of brands have built their work around using it. The benefit is that no new fabric is produced, which means lower environmental cost. The trade-off is unpredictable supply: a deadstock fabric runs out and cannot be re-ordered. Some deadstock claims are genuine. Others are a marketing label for fabric that was always going to be sold. Look for brands that name the source of the deadstock and explain why it exists.

See alsoCircular fashion, Responsible sourcing and Greenwashing.

Denier is the fineness of a filament yarn: one denier means the yarn weighs one gram per 9.000 metres. The metric cousins are dtex (grams per 10.000 metres) and tex (grams per 1.000 metres).

It is the number on tights and on outdoor shells. On tights, 8 to 30 denier is sheer and 60 and up is opaque, so the number predicts both look and survival rate. On a shell, “70D nylon” names a sturdier cloth than 20D. Lower is finer, not better: fine costs drape and sheerness, coarse buys toughness. Outside hosiery and outdoor gear the number rarely appears, and there is no law that requires it anywhere.

See alsoMicrofibre.

“Designed in” records where a product was designed and developed. “Made in” records where it was manufactured.

What counts here is whether a brand is based in Europe and produces in Europe. Both have to be true before a brand is listed on European Craftsmanship.

See alsoMade in Europe, Supply chain transparency and How I work.

The ESPR, short for Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, is the EU law under which products sold in Europe will get binding design requirements, with durability first on its list.

The framework has been in force since July 2024, and clothing is in the first wave of products it will cover. The specific rules for textiles are expected from 2027 and would apply about eighteen months after that, likely as minimum durability tests per garment category plus a Digital Product Passport carrying product information. Until those rules are adopted, the honest reading is that they are coming, not that they protect you today. You will meet the acronym in almost every article about where clothing regulation is heading.

See alsoUltra-fast fashion and Traceability.

EUCOTTON is the mark of the European Cotton Alliance, the federations of the cotton growers of Greece and Spain, founded in 2019. It is a registered EU collective mark for cotton grown and processed in the EU.

Europe grows a little cotton, about 2 per cent of the world crop by the Alliance’s own count, almost all of it in Thessaly and Andalusia, all machine-picked and non-GMO. With the mark you know that the cotton was grown and processed in the EU, audited by a third party; blends may contain up to half other fibre. What you do not learn from it is anything about water: Greek and Spanish cotton is irrigated, and the Alliance publishes no irrigation figure.

See alsoOrganic cotton, Staple length and Made in Europe.

Websiteeucotton.eu

Fast fashion is a model of clothing production built around producing trend-driven garments quickly, cheaply, and in high volumes.

The fast fashion model relies on short production cycles, low-cost overseas manufacturing, synthetic materials, and aggressive markdowns to keep volume moving. The cost shows up elsewhere: in poor working conditions across the supply chain, in environmental damage from synthetic fibres and chemical processing, and in mountains of textile waste.

See alsoSlow fashion, Greenwashing and Responsible sourcing.

A flat-felled seam is a strong, self-enclosed seam where the raw edges are folded inside and held down by two parallel rows of stitching, so nothing frays.

You find it on well-made jeans, shirts and workwear, where seams take real strain. Because the edges are enclosed and the load is spread across two lines of stitching, it outlasts a single overlocked edge on hard-wearing woven cloth. A French seam does a similar job on finer, lightweight fabrics. On stretchy knits an overlocked seam is the better choice instead, because it moves with the fabric.

See alsoFusible interfacing.

Interfacing is a hidden layer that gives structure to collars, cuffs and waistbands. Fusible interfacing is bonded to the fabric with a heat-activated glue, while sewn-in interfacing is stitched in instead.

The glue is why a too-hot wash or an aggressive tumble can loosen fusible interfacing, leaving a collar or waistband that bubbles and will not press flat again. It is worth knowing so you treat structured pieces gently. Better tailoring often uses a sewn-in canvas, which has no glue line to fail.

See alsoFlat-felled seam.

GOTS stands for Global Organic Textile Standard, an independent certification that covers the full processing chain of organic textiles, from raw material harvest to the finished product.

When you see GOTS on a label, the textile contains at least 70% certified organic fibres and has met environmental and social criteria at every stage of production, including the dyeing and finishing. It is one of the few certifications that audits the whole chain rather than just the raw material, which is why it is more reliable than “organic” used on its own.

See alsoOrganic cotton, OEKO-TEX Standard 100 and Supply chain transparency.

Greenwashing is the practice of marketing a product or brand as more sustainable than it actually is.

Vague claims like “eco-friendly”, “natural”, or “conscious” are common warning signs, especially when a brand will not back them up with specific information. The opposite of greenwashing is what European Craftsmanship looks for: brands that name their factories, name their suppliers, publish certifications, and tell you what they cannot yet trace. If a brand is vague when you ask, the marketing is doing more work than the supply chain.

See alsoSupply chain transparency, Responsible sourcing and How I work.

GSM is the weight of a fabric in grams per square metre. A summer linen might be 160 GSM, a winter coating over 500.

It is the number brands print most readily, and it is a weight, not a grade: a heavy cloth can be made from poor fibre, and a fine one from the best. Use it to compare like with like, two linen shirts, two T-shirts, where a higher GSM usually means a denser, more durable cloth. Across different fibres or weaves it proves nothing by itself, so read it next to the composition rather than instead of it.

The Harris Tweed Authority is the statutory body created by the Harris Tweed Act 1993 to protect the cloth of that name, and the owner of the Orb, the certification mark stamped on every metre since 1911.

Harris Tweed has a definition written into British law: handwoven by the islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides, finished there, from pure virgin wool dyed and spun there. With the Orb you know all of that, from about 150 weavers and three mills making one to one and a half million metres a year. What you do not learn from it is where the fleece grew: by the Authority’s own account most of the wool comes from the Scottish mainland. A garment may carry the Orb on its swing tag only if more than half of its outer surface is Harris Tweed.

See alsoBritish Wool, Worsted and Made in Europe.

Websiteharristweed.org

The Irish Linen Guild is the promotional body of the linen weavers still working in Ireland, founded in 1928, and the owner of the Irish Linen mark.

Irish linen is a weaving claim, not a growing one. By the Guild’s own account, no linen yarn has been spun in Ireland since the late 1990s, and the flax has come from France, Belgium and the Netherlands since the 1950s. With the mark you know that the cloth was woven in Ireland by a member of the Guild, which is still a rare thing. The Guild is also the one scheme body that publishes care advice for linen: wash at up to 60 °C, iron damp, no tumble-dryer.

See alsoAlliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp and Retting.

Websiteirishlinen.co.uk

The International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO) is the technical body of the wool industry, based in Brussels since 1930 and funded by its members: growers, traders, spinners and weavers. It sets the test methods by which wool is measured (fibre diameter, strength, cleanliness) and publishes the industry’s figures on what wool can do.

IWTO is not a mark you will find on a garment. It is the source behind many of the claims brands make about wool: that wool absorbs up to a third of its weight in moisture vapour, resists odour, and does not melt but only chars at very high heat. When a brand quotes a wool property, IWTO is usually where the figure comes from. Knowing the name helps you tell a measured claim from a marketing one, and reminds you to read its figures as the industry’s own account.

See alsoWoolmark and Micron.

Websiteiwto.org

A living wage is a wage high enough to cover the basic cost of living for a worker and their family in a specific location, including food, housing, healthcare, and a small amount of savings.

A living wage is different from a minimum wage. The minimum wage is a legal floor and is often well below what is actually needed to live. A living wage is calculated against real cost-of-living data and is meant to support a decent standard of living. European countries have varying minimum wage levels and varying gaps between minimum and living wages. Brands that publicly commit to a living wage across their supply chain are doing something most brands still do not.

See alsoResponsible sourcing, Supply chain transparency and How I work.

LWG is an international certification that audits leather tanneries for environmental performance, water use, energy use, and chemical management.

Tanning is one of the most chemically intensive parts of leather production, and the LWG certification is the closest the industry has to a serious standard. A Gold-, Silver-, or Bronze-rated LWG tannery has been audited against detailed environmental criteria, including how it treats waste water and tracks the origin of its hides. When a brand names an LWG-certified tannery on its product page, it is telling you something specific about where the leather comes from and how it was made.

See alsoVegetable tanning, Traceability and Supply chain transparency.

Lyocell is a regenerated cellulose fibre: wood pulp dissolved in an organic solvent and spun into a new filament, with the solvent recovered and reused. TENCEL is the best-known trade mark for it, owned by Lenzing.

Of the viscose family it is the strong one, and the one that keeps most of its strength wet, which is why it can go in the machine while much viscose cannot. The legal name on the composition line is “lyocell”, and a trade mark such as TENCEL may only stand beside that name, never replace it. Its known habit is fibrillation: under wet rubbing the surface can peach-skin and pill.

See alsoViscose and Pilling.

Made in Europe describes a product whose final assembly, the stage the industry calls Tier 1, takes place in a European country.

Every product has a supply chain made up of three tiers. Tier 1 is the final assembly: where fabric is cut and sewn, a shoe is lasted and stitched, a bag is constructed. Tier 2 covers the suppliers behind that factory: the mills that weave the cloth, the companies that produce thread, dyes, or zippers. Tier 3 goes further back: the farms where the cotton is grown, the tanneries that process the leather, the producers of the raw materials. On European Craftsmanship, “Made in Europe” refers to Tier 1. This is the requirement every brand has to meet. If a brand is transparent about where its materials come from and those materials are sourced in Europe, the brand also carries the European sourcing label. If a brand goes one step further and shows where the raw materials were grown or produced in Europe, it carries the 100% Europe label. The full breakdown is on each brand profile.

See alsoTier 1 production, Tier 2 production, Tier 3 production and How I work.

Made-to-order production is a model where a garment is only produced after a customer has placed an order, rather than being produced in advance and held as stock.

The conventional model produces clothing speculatively and then marks it down or destroys it if it does not sell. Made-to-order eliminates that waste by only producing what has already been bought. The trade-offs for the customer are longer wait times and limited returns. For the brand, it means lower cash flow risk and far less unsold stock. Several European brands work this way, often combining it with sized-to-fit or customised production.

See alsoSlow fashion, Circular fashion and Deadstock.

Microfibres are tiny fragments of fibre, often less than a millimetre long, that shed from textiles during wear and washing. When they come from synthetics such as polyester, they are a form of microplastic.

Every wash releases them, and synthetic loads shed the most. They pass through waste water into rivers and the sea. You cannot stop it entirely, but washing full loads, cooler and less often, and skipping the tumble dryer all cut how much a garment sheds. It is one more reason to favour natural fibres and to buy less.

See alsoCircular fashion and Slow fashion.

Micron is the diameter of a wool or hair fibre in micrometres, thousandths of a millimetre. Human hair runs 50 to 100 micron; fine merino runs under 20.

It is the single most useful number in wool. Prickle is a diameter effect: fibre ends coarser than about 30 micron poke the skin, and a small share of them is enough to make a fabric itch, which is why “wool allergy” is, in the medical literature, usually mechanics rather than allergy. Merino for wearing next to the skin sits below about 19,5 micron by Woolmark’s own line. No rule requires the micron anywhere, so a brand that prints it is telling you something most do not.

See alsoMulesing-free.

Momme is the traditional weight unit for silk: one momme equals 4,34 grams per square metre. A 22 momme charmeuse is a heavier, denser silk than a 16 momme one.

There is no ISO standard behind it, but the trade uses it consistently: habotai linings and scarves run about 6 to 8 momme, blouse charmeuse 16 to 19, bedding and pyjamas 19 to 25 with 22 the usual norm. You will meet the number on bedding and pyjama listings and on fabric sellers’ pages far more often than on garments, where the weave name and the weight have to stand in for it.

See alsoPeace silk.

Mulesing-free wool is wool that comes from sheep that have not undergone mulesing, a painful procedure where strips of skin are cut from a lamb’s hindquarters to prevent flystrike.

Mulesing is most commonly practised on Merino sheep in Australia, where flystrike is a real welfare risk, but the procedure itself is widely considered cruel and is banned in many European countries. Wool labelled mulesing-free comes from farms that prevent flystrike through other means, such as breeding flystrike-resistant sheep or careful flock management. A brand that names mulesing-free wool on its product page is telling you something specific about animal welfare in its supply chain.

See alsoResponsible sourcing, Traceability and Recycled wool.

Native Shetland Wool is a protected designation of origin, registered in 2011, for wool from pure-bred Shetland sheep raised on organic units on the Shetland islands and processed there to the GOTS standard.

Only the full name is protected. “Shetland wool” on its own may come from any sheep of the breed anywhere, and the mainland flocks are finer on average than the island ones, so the two are never the same fibre. With the designation you know the sheep, the islands and the processing. Shetland Wool Week, run by the Shetland Amenity Trust every autumn since 2010, is where the crofters, the spinners and the knitters of that wool meet.

See alsoBritish Wool, Micron and GOTS certification.

Websitegov.uk (protected food and drink names)

OEKO-TEX Standard 100 is an independent certification that tests textiles for harmful substances at every stage of production, from yarn to finished product.

When a fabric carries the OEKO-TEX Standard 100 label, it has been tested for over 350 substances known to be harmful to human health, including pesticides, heavy metals, and chemical residues from dyeing or finishing. It is one of the most widely recognised certifications in textiles, and it covers the safety of the material rather than its environmental footprint. A brand using OEKO-TEX-certified fabric is making a meaningful claim about what is and is not in the cloth.

See alsoGOTS certification, Organic cotton and Supply chain transparency.

Organic cotton is cotton grown without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fertilisers, or genetically modified seeds, in soil managed for long-term fertility.

Conventional cotton is one of the most chemically intensive crops in the world, accounting for a small percentage of global farmland but a much larger share of pesticide use. Organic cotton avoids those chemicals, but the term itself is loosely used. The most reliable signal is GOTS certification, which audits the full processing chain. Organic cotton without independent certification is a softer claim than organic cotton with one.

See alsoGOTS certification, Responsible sourcing and Greenwashing.

Peace silk, also known as Ahimsa silk, is silk produced by allowing the silk moth to complete its life cycle and emerge from the cocoon naturally, rather than killing the moth inside.

Conventional silk production involves boiling or steaming the cocoons with the silk moth still inside, which is what allows the long, unbroken silk thread to be reeled off in one piece. Peace silk lets the moth emerge first, which means the cocoon is broken and the silk has to be spun like a shorter fibre. The resulting fabric has a slightly different texture and is more expensive. Peace silk is rare, and most brands using it will name the source.

See alsoMulesing-free wool, Responsible sourcing and Traceability.

Pilling is the small balls of tangled fibre that form on a fabric’s surface wherever it rubs: against itself, a bag strap, or other garments in the wash.

Friction makes short or loose fibres migrate to the surface, where they tangle into pills that stay anchored by a few attached fibres. That anchoring is why the right removal is a fabric shaver or comb, which cuts the pills off cleanly, and never pulling, which drags fresh fibres out of the cloth and thins the knit. Pilling matters beyond looks: it is one of the properties laboratories grade when they test how durable a garment is, and a pilled surface is a common reason a T-shirt or jumper is given up on long before any seam fails. Washing knits inside out in a mesh bag cuts the friction that causes it.

See alsoMicrofibre and Flat-felled seam.

Recycled wool is wool reclaimed from existing textiles, either from post-consumer garments or from offcuts and waste from wool production.

Producing virgin wool requires land, water, and animal welfare considerations. Recycled wool sidesteps those impacts by giving existing fibre a second life, and the technique has a long history in places like Prato in Italy, where reclaimed wool has been spun into new fabric for over a century. The trade-off is fibre length and quality: recycled wool is often blended with virgin fibre to produce a yarn that holds up. A brand using recycled wool should be able to tell you where the reclaimed fibre comes from.

See alsoMulesing-free wool, Responsible sourcing and Circular fashion.

Responsible sourcing is the practice of selecting raw materials, components, and suppliers based on environmental, social, and ethical criteria, not just price and availability.

Responsible sourcing is a broad term that can mean anything from “we picked an organic fabric” to “we audit every supplier in our chain against social and environmental standards”. The strength of a responsible sourcing claim depends on what is actually being verified, by whom, and how often. The most credible claims are backed by independent certifications, named suppliers, or published audits. Vague claims with no backing are the easiest place for greenwashing to live.

See alsoSupply chain transparency, Traceability and Greenwashing.

Retting is the controlled rotting that frees a bast fibre such as flax or hemp from its stem: moisture and microbes break down the pectin that glues the fibre in place, and the fibre is then beaten out mechanically (scutching).

In France, Belgium and the Netherlands flax is dew-retted: the pulled stems lie in the field for several weeks and the morning dew does the work. How well the retting goes decides how fine, soft and even the fibre comes out, which makes it one of the biggest quality variables in linen, and one no consumer-facing number captures. A brand that names its mill or its fibre certification is the nearest thing to a promise here.

Slow fashion is an approach to clothing production and consumption that prioritises quality, longevity, and ethical production over speed and volume.

Slow fashion brands typically produce smaller collections, work with named factories, use better materials, and design garments meant to last for years rather than seasons. The trade-off is price: slow fashion costs more upfront because it is built differently. The argument is that fewer, better-made pieces cost less per wear than a wardrobe of disposable ones. European Craftsmanship features brands that fit the slow fashion model, though the term itself has been used loosely enough to lose meaning.

See alsoFast fashion, Made-to-order / On-demand production and Responsible sourcing.

Staple length is the average length of a fibre in a sample, measured in millimetres. Ordinary upland cotton runs 24 to 28,5 mm; extra-long staple starts at about 35 mm.

Longer fibre spins into smoother, stronger, finer yarn with fewer protruding ends, which is most of what separates a fine shirt cotton from a rough one. The number itself almost never reaches the shopper. It hides behind variety names, Pima, Supima, Egyptian, Sea Island, each of which stands for a length range without promising one. Everything except silk among the natural fibres is staple; silk is the one continuous filament.

See alsoOrganic cotton.

Supply chain transparency is the practice of openly disclosing where, how, and by whom a product is made at every stage of production.

A transparent brand will name its factories, name its material suppliers, and tell you what it cannot yet trace. A vague brand will use language like “ethically made” or “responsibly sourced” without saying where, how, or by whom. Transparency is the central axis of every brand review on European Craftsmanship. If a brand cannot or will not share basic supply chain information, it is not listed.

See alsoTraceability, Greenwashing and How I work.

The Sustainable Fibre Alliance is a non-profit, incorporated in the UK in 2015 with its office in Ulaanbaatar and funded by brands and processors, which runs a herder standard for cashmere in Mongolia and China.

Mongolia and China produce about 85 per cent of the world’s cashmere by the Alliance’s own count, and the European step is the spinning and knitting that follows. Its Animal Fibre Standard covers how the goats are kept, how the grazing land is managed and how the herders are paid; fibre is graded by length, fineness and colour, with no micron threshold. A brand may make the claim on a product only with chain-of-custody certification, so when you see the Alliance named on a cashmere label, the fibre has been followed from the herd to the mill. It publishes no figure for how far the rangeland has degraded.

See alsoMicron, Traceability and Responsible sourcing.

Websitesustainablefibre.org

Textile Exchange is a non-profit funded by brands and producers that publishes the industry’s annual fibre statistics and owns two recycled-content standards: the Global Recycled Standard (GRS) and the Recycled Claim Standard (RCS).

“Recycled” on its own says nothing about how much. With the GRS product label you know that at least 50 per cent of the material is recycled and that the factories were audited on chemicals, labour and environment as well. RCS starts at 5 per cent and covers the recycled share only. Both certify the share, not where the recycled material came from: recycled polyester is almost entirely made from drinks bottles, not from clothes. Textile Exchange’s Materials Market Report is also the source for the figure that polyester is about six in ten kilos of fibre made in the world.

See alsoMicrofibre, Recycled wool and Circular fashion.

Websitetextileexchange.org

Tier 1 production refers to the final assembly stage of a product, where raw materials are turned into a finished item.

Tier 1 is the stage where fabric is cut and sewn, a shoe is lasted and stitched, or a bag is constructed. It is where most of the labour cost sits and where European labour protections, wages, and working conditions apply. When a brand on European Craftsmanship is described as “Made in Europe”, it is the Tier 1 stage that is happening on European soil. The other tiers may or may not.

See alsoMade in Europe, Tier 2 production and Tier 3 production.

Tier 2 production refers to the suppliers behind the Tier 1 factory: the mills, weavers, dyers, and component makers who produce the materials a brand uses.

Tier 2 is where fabric is woven and dyed, leather is finished, zippers and threads are made. A brand can manufacture in Europe at Tier 1 while sourcing its Tier 2 materials from outside Europe, and still be honest about it. The brand profiles on European Craftsmanship record what each brand has shared about its Tier 2 sources where possible. Brands that source Tier 2 within Europe carry the European sourcing label.

See alsoTier 1 production, Tier 3 production and Supply chain transparency.

Tier 3 production refers to the raw material producers at the deepest level of the supply chain: the farms, ranches, and natural resource producers where fibres, hides, and other inputs originate.

Tier 3 is the cotton field, the sheep farm, the cattle ranch behind the leather. It is the hardest part of the supply chain to trace and the part most brands stay quiet about. Brands that disclose Tier 3 sourcing within Europe carry the 100% Europe label on their profile. The label is rare, and the brands that earn it have done uncommon transparency work.

See alsoTier 1 production, Tier 2 production and Traceability.

Traceability is the ability to follow a product back through the supply chain to identify where every stage and material came from.

A fully traceable product is one where you can follow it from the finished item back to the factory, back to the mill that wove the fabric, back to the farm that grew the fibre. Most products are partially traceable at best. The brands that do this work well usually publish supplier lists, name their tanneries or mills, or show certifications that audit the chain. Traceability is what makes a sustainability or production claim verifiable rather than rhetorical.

See alsoSupply chain transparency, Tier 3 production and Responsible sourcing.

Ultra fast fashion is a model of clothing production built around producing thousands of new garments per week at extremely low prices, sold directly to consumers through high-volume online platforms.

Ultra fast fashion produces at a scale and speed the conventional fast fashion industry cannot match: thousands of new styles uploaded every day, garments priced at a few euros each, and a supply chain built on opaque sourcing, minimal worker protections, and aggressive use of synthetic materials. The environmental and human cost is significant, and the volume of clothing produced under this model has reshaped what consumers expect to pay for a garment.

See alsoFast fashion, Slow fashion and Greenwashing.

Vegan leather is any leather alternative made without animal products, ranging from plastic-based synthetics to plant-based materials like cork, mushroom mycelium, or apple peel.

“Vegan leather” covers a wide range of materials with very different environmental profiles. PU (polyurethane) is the most common and is essentially plastic. Newer plant-based alternatives like Piñatex, Mylo, and apple leather are more interesting environmentally but are still relatively rare. From the label “vegan leather” alone you cannot tell whether the material is plastic or plant-based, which is why specific material names matter more than the umbrella term.

See alsoVegetable tanning, Greenwashing and Responsible sourcing.

Vegetable tanning is a method of turning hides into leather using natural plant-based tannins, typically from oak, chestnut, or mimosa bark.

Most leather in the world is chrome-tanned, which is faster and cheaper but uses heavy metals and produces toxic by-products if not carefully managed. Vegetable tanning takes weeks instead of hours, uses no chrome, and produces a leather that develops a distinctive patina over time. It is more expensive, but it is also closer to how leather has been made for most of human history. Italy, Spain, and Portugal are home to most of Europe’s remaining vegetable tanneries.

See alsoLWG (Leather Working Group), Responsible sourcing and How I work.

Vertical integration is when a brand owns or directly controls multiple stages of its production, rather than outsourcing each stage to separate suppliers.

A vertically integrated brand might own its factory, its dye house, or even its raw material source. The benefit is control: tighter quality, full visibility into working conditions, and faster response to changes. The trade-off is cost, which is why most brands work with external suppliers instead. When you see a brand that designs, manufactures, and finishes everything in-house, vertical integration is usually what is making that possible.

See alsoTier 1 production, Supply chain transparency and How I work.

Viscose is a regenerated cellulose fibre: plant pulp, often wood or bamboo, chemically dissolved and spun back into a soft, silky filament. It sits between natural and synthetic, natural in origin, industrial in the making.

In the EU only the official fibre names may appear on a composition label, and “bamboo” is not one of them, so bamboo-derived fabric must be labelled viscose. The plant’s own properties do not survive the chemistry; what you are wearing is the viscose process, whichever plant fed it. Its siblings are made the same way with gentler or different chemistry: lyocell (closed-loop solvent, the process behind TENCEL), modal (a stronger modified viscose) and cupro. Viscose drapes beautifully and breathes well, but it is weaker when wet, so it wants gentle washing, and cheaper viscose can shed and crease. If a label says viscose while the marketing says bamboo, you have learned something about both the fabric and the brand.

See alsoGreenwashing and Microfibre.

Woolmark is a certification mark for wool, owned by The Woolmark Company, a subsidiary of Australian Wool Innovation, which is funded by a levy on Australian wool growers. Products with the mark are pure new wool and have passed tests for fibre content, colour fastness, pilling and shrinkage.

With the Woolmark logo you know two things: the wool is new, not recycled, and the garment was tested to a published specification. Woolmark Blend means at least 50 per cent new wool. What you do not learn from it is where the wool grew: the specification has no country clause, so Woolmark wool can come from anywhere. For origin, look for British Wool, Native Shetland Wool or the Harris Tweed Orb. Woolmark also draws the line for next-to-skin merino at about 19,5 micron, which is why that number appears on base layers.

See alsoMicron, Worsted, Mulesing-free wool and IWTO.

Websitewoolmark.com

Worsted is yarn (and the cloth made from it) spun from combed wool: the short fibres are removed and the long ones laid parallel before spinning. Woollen yarn skips the combing and is only carded.

The two come from the same fleece, but result in two different fabrics, and the difference comes from how the wool is treated before it is spun. Worsted comes out smooth, dense and hard-wearing, the cloth of suiting and fine trousers, and it is the speciality of the old worsted districts such as Biella and Yorkshire. Woollen comes out softer, loftier and less durable, the cloth of tweeds and chunky knits. When a label says merino but the jumper feels rustic, the spinning route is often the difference you are feeling.

See alsoRecycled wool.