As a small business - we recognise that we have a very tiny voice in this industry and so we know the changes we can control are not as much as we would like. However - here is what we have been able to achieve on our long road to a more sustainable and ethical business :  We have reduced the number of core fashion suppliers we work with - this means that we have grown relationships with them and a level of trust. We ask that all of our suppliers confirm that they have good working conditions. All of our suppliers have confirmed that, and any we had any doubts about - we moved on from. However, we want to be transparent that it is really impossible to be 100% sure of this - we know our core suppliers regularly have to pass audits and that gives us a lot of comfort, but unless you are literally working there beside them every day, we can never know for sure how they are treated when others are not around. All we can do is go with our instincts from dealing with them over a growing period of time - to trust that they are telling us the truth, and also believe that the audits are being carried out in a straight forward and above board manner. That's why it's so vital to KNOW our suppliers directly and who they are rather than buying from a third party. Another step we have taken is moving from fast to slow fashion. We started as a vintage store, then got caught up in selling cool brands and moving a little into fast fashion, We found out pretty quickly that while this was an easier way to make money, it just didn't sit well with us. We couldn't accept the waste, the quality, the lack of transparency. We started the long journey to become a 100% own design slow fashion brand, and that's the road you find us on now :)  A smaller section of our casual and debs offerings are still through agencies in L.A  as we are too small of a business to produce that volume of styles by ourselves. We are slowly taking more control of that so that we only work with the smaller selection of suppliers - we've actually gone from 100% other labels to around 70% Folkster/30% other labels in the last 5 years. It's been very difficult at times but we fundamentally believe that controlling all of our own production relationships is the best way to have a greater understanding of the working conditions involved.  It won’t be possible for us to produce all of our own home and books collections though,  so we ONLY work with long standing, respected suppliers. We also buy in small amounts to avoid overstock/waste and combine shipping as much as possible. We are also starting to develop relationships with Irish small gift suppliers too - from their home workshop to our shop. We know we have a lot more we want to achieve, but we hope you can see from this mail that our intentions are to become a 100% own production fashion brand that can do our OWN continuous factory visits and bring that confidence to our customers too, married with respected third party stock too. It's been an eye-opening and educational transition from fast to slow fashion - but we are so pleased to be on this better road.  Also here is an overview of a few of our main fashion suppliers :  -Our main supplier is a family business in Barcelona. They make almost all of our bridesmaids and occasion wear and they are AMAZING to work with...we've visited with them and were so impressed by how they treated their team, and the working conditions. Our aim is to move all non-beaded stock production to them, which we have been doing over the last couple of years. -One of our suppliers is a factory in India owned by an amazing American woman who offers her team good working conditions and 401Ks. We know she is passionate about fair employment from dealing with her directly - so that gives us confidence. Also when we have asked to visit the factory, (all of our visits were postponed due to Covid) she had no problem at all and encouraged us to do so. Sometimes in the past when we've asked people, if they are in any way cagey about our potential visit  -  that's when we feel it best to move on from them.  - Another production company in India we work with is one we found through a trade fair. They also have assured us they are all above board, audited and again been very encouraging to us to come and visit which is very reassuring. We thank you for questioning our approact to sustainabilty - it's questions like that which drive this industry to try and do better. It's our mission to always keep trying to do better every day :)