Karpāsa London Ltd., a purpose-driven startup company, has opened a 100 percent organic cotton luxury home textiles and apparel online store.
The company said organic cotton fabrics provide an eco-friendly and sustainable alternative to environmentally conscious consumers. As per the Soil Association report, the organic cotton market in the U.K. is approximately 45.4 million pounds and the market has grown 127 percent since 2017.
Bed and bath linens are increasingly available in organic cotton variants in the U.K. market, but Karpāsa London has chosen to go beyond these categories.
“At Karpāsa London, we made a conscious decision to promote sustainable fabric and ‘slow fashion,’” Soma, the director of Karpāsa London, said.
“Organic Cotton uses 91 percent less water for production compared to conventional cotton,” Soma said. “Karpāsa London products are durable and made with the best quality premium organic cotton fabric in classic colors to help our customers make the right fashion choices.”
Karpāsa London supports handcrafted products made by handloom workers in Malabar, India, which is a dying industry in the region. Karpāsa means cotton in Sanskrit.
Malabar was once renowned for its handloom products custom made for Buckingham Palace and the White House. The business also supports child education by sponsoring underprivileged children directly from its profits.
Textile Exchange’s 2021 Organic Cotton Market Report showed the 2019-20 crop year was a record-setting one, with the largest volume of organic cotton fiber harvested globally. In total, 229,280 farmers grew 249,153 tons of organic cotton fiber on 588,425 hectares of certified organic land in 21 countries. This represents 4 percent growth in fiber volume and is the fourth year in a row that organic cotton production has increased, Textile Exchange said. Organic cotton accounted for almost 1 percent of the global cotton harvest in the season.
“The demand for organic cotton has been growing steadily, particularly the last four years,” La Rhea Pepper, Textile Exchange founder and CEO, said. “All signs point to increasing demand for organic cotton as brands expand their use of the fiber in their product lines in response to concerns over the textile industry’s impact on the environment and consumer demands for sustainable choices.”