What does that even mean? We're not eating salad! It's true that we could say ecological, organic, responsible... eco-responsible fashion is in its infancy and it's still a vast project where everyone says a little bit what they want. At RisuRisu, organic clothing means that:
organic cotton flower

The cotton flower was grown without pesticides, chemical fertilizers and GMOs.

Knitting organic fabric

The yarn and then the fabric were manufactured according to very strict rules, most often we choose suppliers who have obtained the label (this is the best guarantee for the skin and the environment)

Organic dye

Dyeing and other possible treatments of the fabric (anti-shrinkage for example) have again respected the rules most often and this changes EVERYTHING because it is what comes into contact with the skin

Heavy metals, endocrine disruptors, and other harmful substances are found in conventional clothing, just like non-organic food or cosmetics. A garment that uses organic cotton without any other specification ultimately offers no more health guarantees than any other garment...

The legal framework

The main legal obligations are:
- The REACH standard, a European regulation that came into force in 2007, imposes certain restrictions on hazardous substances on companies that manufacture or market textile articles (in particular)
- A European regulation from 2001 requires that the composition of the fabric be shown on the label. These obligations are very insufficient and, in addition, many non-compliant articles enter Europe, escaping customs controls.

What's really in our clothes

A large number of highly toxic chemical substances with known and recognized harmful effects on health are found in clothing (source: report by ANSES (French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety) following the analysis of a clothing sample published in October 2018)

A significant proportion of our clothing (up to ¼ depending on the substances analyzed) contains carcinogenic substances, endocrine disruptors and at least allergenic and neurotoxic substances.

- among the carcinogenic substances: the presence of phthalates, azo dyes (notably CI disperse yellow), heavy metals (chromium VI), nickel is deplored
- among endocrine disruptors: the famous nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE)

Some advice

Washing any new garment is essential but insufficient because washing can actually release even more of certain dyes.
Pregnant women must be especially vigilant because all these substances pass into the blood and contaminate the fetus.
Avoid even more stain-resistant, rain-resistant, screen-printed, technical (sports, antiperspirant) clothing, etc., which are full of endocrine disruptors and even nanoparticles.

Buying second-hand or choosing labeled clothing is the best solution (or Oeko-Tex class 100) (source: Alternative Bien-être magazine, November 2018)

Babies' skin is fragile, you've heard it a thousand times. Infant skin is immature until the age of 6 months; it hasn't yet fulfilled its role as a protective barrier. And even then, the skin is an impermeable organ, which means it allows whatever is applied to it to pass into the body.
An organic garment will be soft (that's something) but above all guarantee as much as possible that harmful substances will not come into contact with the skin and therefore then inside the body with consequences on health in the more or less long term.

Doing your own laundry has several advantages: in addition to being environmentally friendly and economical, making your own laundry detergent is very easy. In just a few minutes, you can prepare enough laundry for several months! For those who don't know where to start on their journey to becoming self-sufficient, making your own laundry detergent is an easy first step!

To know exactly what we are talking about, RISU•RISU chooses the vast majority of its fabrics with the label, a reference for organic textiles.

The label has very strict requirements from the cotton cultivation (without pesticides) to the final product. The use of harmful chemicals is prohibited throughout the manufacturing process (fabric weaving, dyeing, etc.) and is monitored by audits. Wastewater treatment is mandatory, and employee working conditions meet social criteria. Not all of our products are certified because the Spanish workshop itself does not have this certification, which is very expensive for small businesses. However, most of our fabrics are, which offers consumers maximum guarantees, particularly for fabric dyeing.

80 billion items of clothing are produced each year
The textile industry is the second largest polluting industry in the world after oil and is responsible for 20% of water pollution worldwide.

Cotton cultivation accounts for 10% of global pesticide sales and 25% of herbicides