Arthur and Henry – Saving the world one shirt at a time.

As a business we make clothes.  Specifically men’s shirts.  Smart men’s shirts, the sort of thing one would wear to the office, or to the pub.  Probably not to Glastonbury.

We do this as ethically as we can, and if we can’t do it ethically then we don’t do it.  Being decent in what we do is the purpose of the business.  Yes, it’s important to make a profit, but only so we are sustainable.

We have recently launched our first official Fairtrade cotton collection. (Organic cotton as well of course.)  To be honest we are very, very pleased with ourselves – it’s surprisingly hard to produce formal shirts of this quality, in a limited edition with Fairtrade cotton.  If you can find anybody else doing this please let us know, we’d love to team up with them.

But now you can have a long sleeved, garment dyed Oxford weave shirt (in navy and white), and a short sleeved polo shirt (in red and navy.) Perfect for Spring and Summer.

The cotton comes from Balangir, Odisha in India.  Ranga, co-founder of Arthur & Henry, knows these farmers, and their story. He visits them often. Becoming Fairtrade has given them hope for the future.  They can farm with the certainty of a decent price at the end of the season, and they use the Fairtrade Premium for community education.  This is not some abstract certification scheme, or marketing greenwash, it is genuinely improving people’s lives.

The farming is organic, so both the farmer and the environment are protected from chemicals.  Depending on your philosophy intensive farming may or may not be a problem, but even if it’s fine in theory, in practice chemicals are often used and stored wrongly leading to environmental pollution and a dangerous farming environment.

And of course, the people that actually make the shirt are treated fairly and paid a decent wage.

So, Arthur and Henry – saving the world one shirt at a time.

Mark Lissaman, Co-Founder

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