Winner of the Sustainable Award for Women Making an Impact at the Inspiring Women Awards, The Fruit Moth's founder Nicole Broad is committed to keeping her brand a true sustainable pillar in the fashion industry.
5% of all sales are donated to The Mustard Tree, a Manchester based charity helping the homeless and impoverished in Manchester.
A monthly donation is made to Ecologi HQ to offset carbon use in the business and plant trees for the future. Also, for any order placed on this website another tree is planted!
Any offcuts not used in the business are donated to local primary schools for craft projects, as well as collaborating with charities to create pieces for them to auction.
All stationery and packaging are 100% recyclable or biodegradable.
Using only Liberty London Tana Lawn cottons and vintage fabrics, The Fruit Moth designs are created to last a lifetime. Using traditional techniques like French Seams to ensure her designs can be washed and worn and loved for as long as possible.
"Liberty has been a pioneer of fabric innovation since we began printing our own designs well over a century ago. We work with a network of specialist printers , whilst alsohaving our own mill which prints the majority of our fabric, located near the banks of Lake Como – the centre of the European textile industry. Using both cutting-edge technology and traditional techniques, archival and studio-fresh designs are printed to stunning effect on bases such as linen, chambray and, of course, our signature Tana Lawn cotton.
Our specialists print millions of metres of fabric every year, using both rotary screen and digital printing technologies. Digital textile printing is widely considered to be more environmentally friendly than conventional printing; it uses less water compared to screen printing, which requires high quantities of water to wash the screens. It also results in less ink wastage as droplets of ink are printed precisely onto the fabric. It is estimated the digital textile printing uses 10% of the volume of ink used in screen printing.
A number of additional environmental initiatives have been adopted by the printing mill, including:
Water
To minimise the use of water in the printing process, the printing machines recover water used for washing fabrics, re-using it for the first wash of the colour pumps.
Energy
A heat exchanger has been installed to pre-warm water used in the washing process, minimising the energy used at this final stage. Across the site, LED lights are being installed on an ongoing basis
Chemical Waste
Throughout the year, Liberty facilitates random tests to assess the presence of Restricted Substances from the RSL of REACH. In 2020, the printing mill used 522,122 kg of products in its printing process. Of these, 351,708 kg (67%) comprise of GOTS-approved chemical inputs. GOTS-approved inputs come with an assurance of being free from hazardous substances, meeting environmental criteria, as well as low toxicity and high biodegradability. Using these inputs helps to lower effluent load and keep wastewater cleaner."