Citizens of Humanity Sets ‘Industry Benchmark’ for Regenerative Cotton
Citizens of Humanity Group (COH), owners of the namesake brand, Agolde and Goldsign, continues to challenge industry norms and advance farming for fashion into the future.
“Change is so much more possible than it was before because we all have better information and knowledge—and a willingness to evolve,” Amy Williams, CEO of Citizens of Humanity Group, told Rivet. “How do we, collectively, support each other and figure out how to make the best choices?”
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It starts with partners that share a common goal.
The Los Angeles-based denim group has partnered with farm consultancy Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA) to debut Integrity Grown, a data-driven standard for growing regenerative cotton.
Through on-the-ground teams of agronomists and farm consultants, combined with field technology that measures progress and results, Integrity Grown aims to eliminate the guesswork in regenerative growing. The standard is intended to set a high bar for regenerative cotton growing practices that increase yields while lowering chemical inputs and water usage, COH stated.
AEA anticipates Integrity Grown to become the gold standard for regenerative cotton.
“The Integrity Grown standard creates a deeper level of transparency for consumers in the cotton growing practices of the regenerative farmers who are supplying us,” Williams said. “We’ll now be able to more deeply understand the impact of our regenerative cotton supply, with the goal to improve one of the most chemical intensive and soil degrading systems of agriculture: growing cotton.”
COH launched its regenerative cotton program in 2022 after looking into the farming practice at the end of 2021. The company has been working with AEA ever since.
To date, 11 U.S. farmers—all recognized as members of the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol—and three farmers in Turkey are part of the program. Designed to support farmers with the financial, technological and educational resources needed to transition, COH helps remove the barriers and financial risks during and after the move.
Since the program’s launch, COH reports that it has procured over 3 million pounds of regenerative cotton.
“This commitment extends beyond improving soil health and reducing the use of harmful pesticides; it’s about revitalizing entire ecosystems and communities,” Williams said. “The benefits are multifaceted, from sequestering carbon and enriching the nutritional profile of the land to bolstering the economic stability of farmers and surrounding communities.”
By working together and in partnership with cotton growers, AEA and COH hope to transition more growers to regenerative cotton growing practices, with the goal of expanding the market for regenerative cotton on the global scale.
“One of our larger goals is showing people what’s possible—because we are smaller, we have the benefit of being a privately-held company, so we can hold ourselves to a standard,” Williams said. “The goal is to show other brands that work with the mills . . . here’s the path forward, now everyone [should] follow it in a way that’s suitable for them. When someone else can come in and actually do some of the work initially, it makes it easier for other groups to adopt.”
Cotton grown through the program will be introduced in the Spring 2024 collections of Citizens of Humanity and Agolde. More products will be added throughout the season. The company’s goal is to one day have every garment made from Integrity Grown standard regenerative cotton.
“Everyone can play a role in what’s possible,” Williams said. “If more of us said regenerative cotton was the standard, that’s when transformation truly starts to happen.”
To celebrate the “industry benchmark,” COH unveiled a campaign with Canadian model and environmentalist Shalom Harlow wearing regenerative cotton styles from the Citizens of Humanity. Photographer Laurence Ellis shot the campaign as well as images of the farms the group is working with.
“Shalom Harlow has been speaking on the importance of sustainability and advocating for change in the fashion industry long before it was front and center,” said Jared Freedman, VP of marketing at Citizens of Humanity. “She’s been a fashion icon spanning four decades; frankly I couldn’t think of someone more perfect who personifies this project more than Shalom.”
In a statement Harlow said “regenerative cotton offers an alternative for our highly polluting fashion industry.”
“I want the clothes that I wear to enable healthy practices for the farmers that grow our cotton and caretake the land that we all rely on for a cooperative, supportive and thriving future,” she said.
