SUSTAINABILITY

Emma believes in sourcing all materials as close to home as possible, not only to keep craftsmanship alive but also for the care of the environment and reducing energy consumption and global warming. Therefore since starting her business thirty years ago Emma has always made in England, whilst most clothing companies sought cheaper production overseas where the impact of manufacturing on the environment or employees cannot be monitored. 

Emma Willis shirting cottons are spun, woven and finished in a small mill in the Swiss mountains, washed in the abundant mountain water as part of the vital finishing process for cottons. This is one of the most environmentally destructive  processes in the vast cotton industry as cotton is mass produced in parts of the world where there is not adequate water and whole seas and rivers are being dried up, destroying the environment and habitat for both humans an animals. Emma Willis linens are also produced in areas of abundant natural water, in Northern France and The Netherlands. 

The company uses as little packaging as possible when finishing our shirts.  For all bespoke shirts we only use tissue paper to pack the shirts, no plastic clips or collar bands and for our ready to wear shirts in our shop we recycle all of the packaging by removing the plastic clips and collar bands needed to keep them presentable and sending back to our English workrooms  to reuse on new shirts.  This just leaves the cardboard and one sheet of tissue in the shirts, which can easily be recycled by First Mile, the excellent London recycling company Emma Willis has used for twenty years.

Shirts, boxer shorts and nightwear made skillfully, using the finest quality cottons and linens will last for years, worn by Emma Willis customers until they literally fall apart. They are enhanced by age, feeling softer and softer over the years, so the very opposite of fast, disposable fashion, another factor that is part of Emma’s whole philosophy to create a product that both her customers and she are comfortable are bringing not taking away from our precious world.