The Albini Group in partnership with Oritain has created the first 100 per cent traceable Supima organic cotton.

Using forensic science, Oritain analyses the naturally-occurring chemical properties of the actual fiber itself, creating a unique chemical fingerprint for the product that links it back to the field in which it was grown – which cannot be altered, copied or adulterated.

Oritain can test the product at every stage of the supply chain to verify that the fabric is consistent with the original fingerprint and has not been substituted, blended or tampered with. Only an exact match shows that the product is authentic. Thanks to this procedure, each step is traceable and it is therefore possible to go back, from the finished fabric, precisely to the field in which the cotton was grown.

Albini is an Italian textile business. Oritain, based in New Zealand, is an origin verification expert.

Through this innovative project to promote sustainable fashion, the cotton grown and picked by members of the Supima association in the US, and then dyed and woven by Albini, will be fully traceable thanks to a vertically integrated supply chain and state-of-the-art scientific methods.

Cotton samples are picked from the fields and analysed using forensic science methods, to verify their chemical properties. Oritain then uses statistical models to transform this information into a unique digital fingerprint for that particular fiber, whose journey can be monitored across the entire supply chain, making sure that it has not been substituted, contaminated or tampered with.

Using this procedure, it will be possible to trace the fabric's origin to the field where the cotton it is made of has been cultivated, a hitherto unprecedented level of traceability.