Ekyog

Ekyog was founded in Brittany in 2003 by Nathalie and Louis-Marie Vaultier, who started the label after the birth of their first child prompted them to look for clothing gentler on both skin and environment than what was then available on the French market. The brand works with 100% certified organic cotton and audits its manufacturing partners against a set of ethical and environmental standards — GOTS, SA 8000, GSR or Fairtrade — before admitting them as suppliers, rather than relying on a single house certification. Its self-declared positioning, "positive fashion," frames the brand's ambition as retaining the useful parts of the textile industry (production, employment, design) while removing what it identifies as the harmful ones. In 2007 the founders established the association Terre d'Ekyog, into which the company channels ten percent of its profits; the association funds schools and wells in Madagascar, giving the brand a direct philanthropic arm distinct from its clothing line. Ekyog has been sold through its own French boutiques as well as multi-brand ethical-fashion retailers over the two decades since its founding.