Waterfront Mustard Merino Jumper

Jumper cut and sew: Malhas, Portugal

Wool: Emiroglio, Italy, sourcing wool farmed in Argentina and South Africa

Malhas is a small factory of about twenty employees, Brava has been working with them since 2017 and visits every quarter year. Brava purchases the wool and sends it to Malhas to knit.

Brava has an employee based in Portugal who checks all their Portuguese factories, in addition to this Brava visit every season.

Brava has drawn up a code of conduct based on the labour principles set out by WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production). Brava sends this document to all their cut and sew factories to sign and follow it. This code covers matters of fair wages, chosen, adult labour, a safe working environment, the freedom to unions and collective bargaining, reasonable working hours, no discrimination, harassment or abuse, environmentally conscious practises, adherence to national laws and custom laws.

The Fair Wear Foundation considers Portugal a low risk country for the production of clothes, meaning that Fair Wear deems there to be functioning institutions and legislation that protect workers rights. Portugal's main labour law is relatively strict in comparison to other garment producing countries and there is a system to lodge complaints.

Wool has both positive and negative environmental impacts. It is natural, recyclable, biodegradable and long lasting. However farming sheep can require land clearance and sheep are a source of methane.

The wool used in this jumper is mulesing free. Mulesing is a process where flaps of skin around the sheep’s tail are removed, often without anesthetic. This is to prevent flystrike, when blowfly lay larvae in this skin, which can cause infection and death. Flystrike is avoidable by other methods and mulesing is often considered cruel.

All of Brava's cut and sew and fabric processing factories are based in Europe, they are obligated to follow the EU laws on chemical and colour handling and methods, and the discarding of chemicals and dyes.