Photo of factory employees making LaBante London handbags
We manufacture in Guangzhou, China in a sweatshop free environment. Guangzhou is one of the richest province of China and is a huge contrast to what the working conditions that existed 15-20 years ago. Now it has one of the highest purchasing powers in the world and the workers especially in Guangzhou are paid very high wages to cover their living expenses.
We love our workers – so we also ensure that our seamstresses also get maternity cover when they decide to have children. Their well being is important to us so we only work with factories that have SEDEX certification. In addition our founder and design team regularly visit our factories to perform spot checks and social audits as part of our due diligence processes, to ensure the products continue to be made in a safe and ethical environment and, we continually check payroll, attendance sheets, so no working double shifts, something that we are very proud of.
We try to create a circular use of items so instead of wastage we reuse our own waste and push the boundaries of sustainability. As such we use only two kinds of faux leather, both of which are in sync with the larger environment.
Vegetable leather is a byproduct of vegetable waste, instead of it going to a landfill, this is recycled to make a form refined material which looks and behaves like real leather. This material is used in our premium collections for exclusive collaborations with department stores. Please watch the website for more details of these collections.