Margaret Howell is a fashion brand that focuses on making high-quality, long-lasting clothes from natural, raw materials. Their main goal is to create garments you can wear for years, which they see as their biggest contribution to the environment.
1. The Brand's Green Commitments (What they say they are doing) 🌳
| The Report's Terminology | What This Really Means (Layman's Terms) |
| Ethical Sourcing & Production | They keep most of their manufacturing (over 98%) in Europe, which means they can visit the factories easily and check on conditions. They have long-term relationships with a small group of trusted suppliers. |
| Living Wages | They ensure their suppliers follow a strict rule book (the Supplier Code of Conduct), which requires workers to be paid a Living Wage—enough money to cover basic life necessities, not just the legal minimum wage. They are also part of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), a major organization focused on fair labour. |
| Environmental Targets | They are serious about cutting pollution. They aim to cut their operational (Scope 1 & 2) pollution by 50% and the pollution from their supply chain (Scope 3) by 40% by 2030. Their stores and offices already run on 100% zero-carbon energy. They want to balance out any pollution they create although they say this will take decades. |
| Circularity & Waste | They design clothes carefully to reduce fabric waste and try not to over-order stock. Margaret Howell diverts all operational waste into recycling and uses recyclable materials for all customer packaging. |
2. Tracing the Journey (How Transparent Are They?) 🔍
Margaret Howell is very open about where their clothes come from.
- Supply Chain Tracing: They have successfully traced 83% of their products all the way back to the raw material stage (Tier 4) in the country where the fibre was grown. This is considered a high level of transparency in the fashion industry.
- Material Focus: They are actively tracking all their raw materials to figure out where they can use more "preferred fibres," which means things like organic and recycled yarns.
3. The Second-Hand Connection (Making Clothes that Last) ♻️
The brand's philosophy directly supports the second-hand market:
- Designed for Life: The clothes are high-quality, made from durable natural fabrics, and designed to be timeless. They have a high resale value and are perfect for second-hand stores. Manufacturers design "fast fashion" to fall apart quickly, making the contrast sharp. Official Resale: They even partner formally with the resale company Positive Retail; this company sells their extra stock, thereby guaranteeing the items remain in circulation, maintain their value, and are not discarded. They are also actively expanding their care and repair services.
Is Margaret Howell Completely Ethical? ⚠️
No brand is completely ethical, as there are always trade-offs and areas for improvement, and various third-party groups have different ratings.
The Key Finding in your report highlights the main ethical challenge:
The primary challenge is that their focus on small-scale, high-quality production, while ethical, limits their ability to compete with the environmentally damaging fast fashion sector that dominates the market.
In Layman's Terms:
Margaret Howell produces excellent highly ethical products. Yet the necessity of careful, local manufacturing makes them expensive and exclusive to wealthier buyers. This prevents the brand from gaining mass market traction and displacing environmentally destructive fast-fashion companies.
Ethical Trade-Offs & Missing Data 🔬
It is worth noting that some independent ethical rating sites (like Good On You in a July 2023 update) have given Margaret Howell a lower overall rating of "Not good enough". This is often due to a few key areas that the public report might not detail enough:
- Living Wages: While the brand commits to a Living Wage in its Code, the third-party rating systems sometimes require proof of it being paid across the entire supply chain, which they may not fully disclose.
- Hazardous Chemicals: Some reviewers note there is no public evidence of taking "meaningful action to reduce or eliminate hazardous chemicals."
Do They Use GOTS? 🌿
The report and the official Margaret Howell website do not explicitly state that their materials are certified with the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) mark.
- What they say: Margaret Howell mentions a focus on increasing "preferred fibres, such as organic and recycled yarns," and they are a member of the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI).
- What this means: BCI is a scheme focused on improving water use and pesticide management in cotton production, but it is not the same as GOTS.
Margaret Howell uses organic cotton but lacks the essential GOTS certification gold standard. While the brand guarantees fiber grown organically without pesticides, the absence of the GOTS logo or specific claim means the entire garment journey is not certified. This is crucial because GOTS ensures the full processing chain. Including spinning, dyeing, and finishing, to meet very strict environmental, social, and labour criteria, standards which the brand's final product might not otherwise meet in the factories.
In summary: Margaret Howell is a high-end brand that drives excellent internal goals for environmental protection. Also labour standards (Living Wages), and material tracing. However, their high price limits their reach, and there is no public evidence they have achieved the highest certification (GOTS) for their entire textile process.