Pakistan-based denim factory Artistic Milliners has collaborated with Retraced, the blockchain-based network to launch a farm-to-garment cotton traceability solution. Both supply chain participants are digitally linked as a result of the collaboration, enabling them to share data on a single platform.

The project is part of the mill’s Milliner Cotton Initiative (MCI) and will digitize and register cotton shipments directly from farms in Pakistan's Rahim Yar Khan, allowing individual farmers to be compensated for improved cotton cultivation and picking practices.

In 2019, Artistic Milliners unveiled the MCI initiative to increase awareness and inspire women around the cotton supply chain. It also encourages ginners to develop their potential and promotes practices for mitigating extortion.

Farmers who take part in the project will receive a smartphone application that will enable them to monitor the lifecycle of cotton from sowing, picking, and shipping it. It is then sent to the ginner, who can digitally distinguish between various cotton shipments and assess the quality using the application.

Cotton that has been tagged is sent to Artistic Milliners for spinning, dyeing, weaving, and ‘cut-make-trim,' where it can be traced further. The cotton thread would then be turned into denim for brands all over the world, allowing them to provide more transparency to their customers.

Co-founder and CEO of Retraced, Lukas Puunder, said traceability is an industry-wide issue that can only be addressed by a network that integrates everybody. They are introducing real-time fiber tracing the way it should be—from the bottom up, observing the natural flow of the material—with Artistic Milliners' MCI project. This project's goal is to lay the groundwork for completely digitalized traceability. It's a fascinating trend for the apparel industry.

The technology is being used by ethical brands like Boyish Jeans. The brand launched the Retraced blockchain-based accountability plugin to its e-commerce platform last year, giving customers a comprehensive update on the company's sustainable supply-chain partners. It set out to map out the whole supply chain so that the plugin could be found on any product website.

Omer Ahmed, CEO of Artistic Milliners, has great ambitions for collaboration and encourages everyone in the denim industry, including customers, to know where their cotton comes from.

Ahmed said transparency and responsibility in the supply chain are critical, and something they at AM take very seriously. Their goal is to provide full traceability from farm to fashion.