When Síofra Caherty set out to create a simple white tee with full traceability, she discovered just how complex ethical fashion can be
Plain, comfortable, easily dressed up or down, the white T-shirt is a wardrobe staple. More than 2bn T-shirts are sold globally each year. If you own one, chances are it’s 100% cotton – it’s the fabric of choice for 50%.
So far, so basic.
But when Belfast-based Síofra Caherty, designer of sustainable bags, decided to expand her Jump The Hedges brand with a run of fully traceable, 100% cotton, white T-shirts, she found the process far from simple.
“My bags are made from reclaimed materials such as truck tarpaulin, waste leather and aeroplane seatbelts that are sourced from all over Ireland,” she says. “Each one is hand cut and stitched in a small workshop in north Belfast. I wanted the same traceability for my T-shirts.”
The seemingly simple task became a passion project that took Caherty two years to complete. Before setting up her firm, she honed her skills as an outdoor clothing designer for Adidas, and was determined to recognise traceability and minimise waste. “Knowing the full origin of your fabric is very unusual,” she says. “It might have been knitted in a certain country but there’s often no information about where the fibre was grown and by whom.”
After months of research, Caherty sourced a traceable European-grown fibre. The non-GMO Greek cotton was traceable back to the field and grown using an efficient drip irrigation system.
“I turned up at the yarn factory in northern Greece and managed to convince the factory manager to take me on a tour not only of the yarn factory but also of the neighbouring cotton fields and ginning mill. Here I got to meet cotton farmers and get a full insight into the process.”
The yarn was knitted into fabric at a family-led factory in northern Portugal. “It felt like how I imagined the knicker factory in Coronation Street to be: a big group of women having the absolute craic while stitching away,” says Caherty. “It was amazing to watch these incredible seamstresses bring my T-shirt to life.”
It felt like how I imagined the knicker factory in Coronation Street to be: a big group of women having absolute craic while stitching away
Caherty’s boxy women’s fit T-shirts went on sale in July 2024, retailing at £45. A final drop is being released this month. “My initial idea was to have a fully transparent breakdown of the costs, but the costs ran too high with all the personal time, travel and effort I had to contribute to get it across the line. I decided on a price point that sat well with me and made the T-shirts accessible,” she says.
Despite the project’s challenges, Caherty is already exploring the possibility of adding sweaters created from regenerative cotton to her clothing collection.
“Someone recently asked: ‘Does anyone care where their clothes come from?’” says Caherty. “I think they do. And they can be assured that every pair of hands that contributed to the making of these T-shirts has been recognised, accounted for and respected.”
Main image: Síofra Caherty in her workshop. All photography by Kate Donaldson
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