It is the calm after the Black Friday and Cyber Monday storm. The dust has settled, the credit cards have been stowed away safely, and orders will be coming through your front doors. In other words, it is the perfect time to reflect on the importance of sustainability and ethics in retail. 

We’ve laid out the business case in our first post for our one-of-a-kind campaign, Archibald Naked. Then, we covered how Black Friday doesn’t offer consumers a fair, sustainable deal. But what really is a fair deal today, and is it possible to be an ethical shopper in our muddled retail landscape? Our approach to ethics and sustainability goes beyond virtue signalling or tokenistic gestures and is a direct reflection of our values. It permeates everything, from production and transportation to how we price our items and the level of transparency we provide across every aspect of what we do. Here are our guiding principles… 

• Making the best things goes hand in hand with making them in the best possible way. We believe that genuine high quality is only ever the product of an ethical, sustainable production process. We take a nuanced approach to production and transportation that is adapted to every type of product we make. We don’t believe in a ‘one size fits all’ approach. This is because ethics and sustainability considerations vary greatly depending on the raw materials used, the country where a product is made, and the facility and people involved. 
• Where possible, we only make what is ordered and operate on a pre order system. Where this isn’t possible, we order very small batches of products based on our knowledge of what sizes, colours and styles are likely to sell. This means we never waste any products by over-ordering. We even sell samples we don’t end up taking through to production at a reduced price (or distribute them amongst our staff) but only when they adhere to our quality standards but may feature minor defects such as a barely visible scuff mark, or design features that we have opted not to use. 
• Our artisans recognise that the best leathers, cashmere and more make for the best final product. In order for raw materials to be high quality, they must come from an animal that has been treated well throughout their life and expertly handled by skilled artisans. And we only work with artisans who are true experts, and make the best things in the best way. They are skilled workers and artists who are remunerated accordingly. Oh, and you can see exactly how much they are paid on our receipt breakdowns on every single product page. Because we also think consumers deserve to know where their money goes. 

Most importantly, everything we sell is made to last. 

This means we are not part of the throwaway culture that permeates most of retail, and we don’t operate on a seasonal production cycle which encourages our customers to buy large amounts of low quality items. And we wouldn’t settle for any less.