Our Green Cotton partnership

Novotex took part in growing the first organic cotton ever to be certified by an independent institute and was the first in the world to produce a t-shirt from the certified cotton.

This was ground-breaking back in 1991 but to make it more extraordinary Katharine Hamnett endorsed the project by designing the iconic “GREEN COTTON NOW” t-shirt. Have a look at the full story

Collaboration is at the very heart of Novotex. It was Leif who Patagonia first sought out in their early days “Leif was emphatic that production processes were not proprietary. He was a believer in sharing information and encouraged others to do so about all aspects of their environmental practices, no matter where on the spectrum they happened to be. Some companies had no environmental awareness at that time, while others aspired to learn. Knowing one's strengths, weaknesses and creating benchmarks of what goes in and what comes out of our actions is essential for setting and achieving goals. "Someday," he said, "all companies will be doing business with the environment in mind."

Today Novotex have their own manufacturing facility in Ukraine which is certified according to ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 14001 (environmental management). The company is also awarded with GOTS, the Oeko-Tex 100 label and the EU eco label The Flower which means that all our designs are carefully monitored from germination to delivery for their environmental and social impact. You can learn more about this on our Production page.

Leif died of a stroke in 2002. His inspiration and vision is carried on today by his daughter Sanne who heads up Novotex’s Green Cotton Fred’s World and Freds Federation Children’s Wear brands. The White T-Shirt Co is now excited to be Novotex’s partner in developing their Green Cotton brand into high quality, fully certified organic Women’s and Men’s Wear.

Founded on the values of responsible design and manufacture both partners are passionate about ethical production and sustainability and look forward to sharing news of the partnership as we grow.