Hawaii Illustrated T-Shirt Collaboration with Emily Hughes

The Hawaii collection is a collaboration series with Emily Hughes (@plaidemily), an award-winning illustrator specialising in children's books from Hilo, Hawaii. Her style is characterised by connection and the natural world. With a pencil her style is hovers between dense shading and simple line work. This is her first collaboration with Steén and her first time working on fabric. The Hawaii t-shirt adult and baby/kids duo, that can be bought and used separate or together, celebrates the beautiful bond between mother figure and child. The perfect gift for a parent and their little one(s).

The t-shirts are manufactured in India from soft organic cotton using renewable energy. Organic cotton farming methods are better for producers and the ecosystem around the farms. Instead of more toxic pesticides and fertilisers, co-planting and insect traps are used along with the special ingredient - cow poo. It encourages biodiversity and leads to the extra soft feel of our organic cotton clothing. Fewer inputs also means less water, but even organic cotton is still a thirsty crop. So where you grow it matters. The fields that grow the organic cotton for our products are in the North of India, where the monsoons fill reservoirs that supply almost all the water needed.

Clean, renewable energy is a vital tool to reduce the worst effects of climate change. Throughout the circular supply chain, renewable energy is used. The manufacturing operations run on solar power and, in India, the factory owns two wind farms and a 150kw PV array. Renewable energy is affordable, reliable and something we are committed to using. Within the factory, machine-to-machine communications technology allows the team to dynamically turn equipment on and off only when it is needed, balancing our manufacturing demand with on site generation.

The t-shirts are sent to the UK in plastic-free packaging and are then printed here. The UK factory’s printed products are certified STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® meaning that the products are tested for the use of harmful substances. 95% of the water used for printing and dying is recovered, cleaned and recirculated creating a closed loop system.