Artistic Milliner, the Pakistan-based denim mill made an announcement that Bestseller, its longtime brand partner and owner of fashion labels such as Vero Moda, Jack & Jones, and Only- Bestseller, has joined its latest organic cotton initiative to commercialize indigenous organic cotton in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan and add transparency to the value chain.

Milliner initiative, which is related to organic cotton was established in 2020 as a pilot program that promoted visibility and workers’ rights throughout the entire scope of the cotton supply chain, starting from picking to spinning. The program is developed in partnership with WWF Pakistan and the Government of Balochistan and satisfies 13 of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This program especially benefits cotton pickers who are mostly women, who through the program, are able to access life skills training and better picking resources.

The program’s emphasis on fiber traceability is what grabbed the attention of the Bestseller team, as the company recently launched its own experimental sustainability platform, Fashion FWD Lab. These companies are working together to implement processes that eliminate loopholes from the value chain with the help of blockchain-based traceability technology.

Bestseller’s sustainable materials and innovation manager, Camilla Skjønning said that they aim for visionary collaborations like these in the Bestseller’s Fashion FWD Lab. They want to help them in scaling it up and bringing it to a point where along with meeting all global standards of certified organic cotton, they also add an element of data-driven traceability in it.

In return to the fund provided by Bestseller for the Milliner Cotton Organic initiative, they will have access to a portion of the cotton. As per the CEO of Artistic Milliners, Omer Ahmed the first crop will be harvested in September, and the farmers are already seeing the benefits. Ahmed said that the organic cotton of Pakistan which is sourced via Milliner Cotton Organic is being grown in one of the most underdeveloped communities. The farmers are seeing a new ray of light with long-term pre-orders for their cotton and because of this, the entire community will prosper.