Stewardship · Since 1893
A quiet standard
In 1989, Catherine Montéa moved our entire cotton supply to organic — twenty years before certification existed. The mill in Lyon thought she was eccentric. We still buy from them.
We have never used a synthetic fibre. We have never sent a scrap to landfill. We have never laid off a single knitter. These are not marketing claims. They are the habits of a family that still eats lunch together on Sundays.
I.
GOTS-certified organic cotton from the Mississippi delta. Single-origin undyed merino from the Bernese Oberland. Garment-washed European linen. We touch every bale before it is cut. If it has a chemical smell, it goes back.
II.
We are thirty-eight people. Twelve hand-knitters in Appenzell. Six cutters in Vevey. Four finishers. One inspector who has worked here since 1976. Every person is paid above the Swiss living wage. Every person owns a piece of the atelier.
III.
A generous seam allowance. A longer stitch length. A reinforced gusset. A date on the label. We build clothes the way our great-grandmothers built them: assuming they will be opened in a drawer thirty years from now.
The Journey of a Single Garment
01
Merino sheep graze above Interlaken. Cotton is picked by hand in the Mississippi delta. Flax is retted in Belgian rainwater.
02
Raw fibre travels to St. Gallen, Lyon, or the Bernese Oberland. Woven, knitted, or brushed by machines older than our founders.
03
Only natural dyes and low-impact pigments. No chlorine, no heavy metals. The water leaving our dyers is cleaner than the water entering.
04
Cut in Vevey. Sewn in Vevey. Inspected by hand. Folded in tissue. Every piece is touched by at least four pairs of hands.
05
Shipped in a recycled-cardboard box lined with acid-free tissue. No plastic. A sprig of dried lavender from the garden behind the atelier.
0%
Synthetic fibres used, ever
1989
Year we moved entirely to organic cotton
38
People who make every piece by hand
∞
Years we will repair any Montéa garment
The Repair Pledge
Send any Montéa piece back to us — at any age, in any condition — and we will repair it for the cost of postage. If the fabric is beyond saving, we will send you a new one and mend the old for a child who has none.
Write to the atelier →"The most sustainable garment is the one you never have to replace. We have been trying to make that garment since 1893."
— Catherine Montéa, Fourth Generation
