Ethos

DulcieDot is an ethically made organic kids clothing brand, partnering with Aboriginal Artists. We aim to clothe and educate the next generation of world shapers with Aboriginal stories, continuing our culture and connection with First Nations and Non-First Nations kids. Our key garments are consciously designed to grow with your child, so they get that little bit of extra wear, so you can buy less, choose well and make it last.

We are passionate about social impact that facilitates economic inclusion with connection to culture, Country and language. Your purchase directly supports licensing payments for the Artists we partner with. It also assists us to build economic opportunities within the art, fashion and photography industries with both First Nations, refugee and new migrant photographers, artists, models and makers throughout Australia. 

Our social purpose is to build a platform that empowers First Nations artists to proudly share and celebrate culture, stories and their incredible artistry by building confidence, capability and enterprises within the art, fashion and photography industries. 

We are a slow fashion label creating limited edition small runs. Slow and small ensures we stay focussed on reducing our textile waste and are only making for the demand. This means we can sell out fast but it also allows us to support our makers welfare without applying unnecessary pressure and also pay more attention to detail - which again contributes to reducing garment waste.

At present our garments are handmade in both Sydney, Australia and in Agra, India. We are working towards becoming a fully locally made Australian brand.

We are proud to partner with The Social Outfit in Sydney, Australia. The Social Outfit is a social enterprise and charity empowering people from refugee and new migrant backgrounds, with a particular focus on female humanitarian migrants by providing employment and training in clothing production, retail, design and marketing. As well as manufacturing and selling ethical and sustainable quality products that help to financially support these communities. 

Our makers in India work under FairTrade conditions ISO certified to SA8000. SA8000 certification is the leading global social certification that ensures that the workplace is operated under ethical practices, and they are dedicated to fair treatment of all staff. We continue our mission of ensuring FairTrade and an active focus on social responsibility. Our manufacturers factory is also certified to the GOTS standard.

GOTS certified fabrics are created in a balanced ecosystem without the use of harmful chemicals or genetically modified material, toxic fertilisers or pesticides. This guarantees a healthier environment for farmers, workers, surrounding communities and our planet. GOTS standard ensures that the social, ethical and environmental manufacturing impacts are minimal and industry leading. Organic cotton uses 88% less water and 62% less energy. 

We also use non-toxic dyes to further reduce our chemical footprint, due to the nature of these dyes over time colours may not appear as bright as toxic dyed and synthetic fabrics. 

For our future collections we will also be incorporating up-cycled industry waste fabrics. 'Waste' in this case meaning: the fabric meterage left over from a large fashion brand production, that has been deemed unusable or worthless. These left over textiles are high quality fabrics still in perfect condition but simply there just wasn't enough left over for the brand to make another (adult) size set or otherwise of the garments. 

Australia is the second highest consumer of textiles per person in the world a circular economy for textiles is critical to achieving a sustainable textile industry, whether it is from up-cycled industry waste or repairing damaged clothes or passing them onto friends and family. Textile circularity provides a significant opportunity to drive both design innovation for better quality longer lasting garments as well as recover valuable resources from materials currently going to landfill.

All Artist collaborations copyright, licensing processes and royalty payments are managed with the Copyright Agency in accordance with the Indigenous Arts Code. DulcieDot is a Dealer Member of the Indigenous Art Code. 

We are both protected via an artwork / textile reproduction license agreement produced by the Copyright Agency. All copyright of the Art is always held by the Artist, DulcieDot only licenses an Artists designs for our textiles and we follow the guidelines of use put in place by the Artists. 

We ensure that the Artists we work with are kept well informed with every step of the production, we do not move forward on any collaboration and production unless we have the Artists full permission and copyright licensing agreements are in place to apply Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) standards. We have great respect and cultural appreciation when collaborating and sharing Aboriginal culture. 
Our financial model includes payment to artists on manufacture of garments ensuring that all Artists involved in collaboration are paid upfront to ensure they are compensated immediately (and not waiting for the garment to sell before payment). 

Our collaboration connections have been built from Aboriginal Community recommendations, mutual introductions to Artists, community centres, groups and as well as Social Media yarns. 

We first present each artist or group with information about our development processes along with examples of how their artworks can be used on DulcieDot garments. We discuss how the artist/s will be commemorated and remunerated then build a proposal tailored for that Artist or group. This proposal is reviewed and agreed on by the Artists and Copyright Agency before we proceed. We then work with the Artists to create patterns in digital form from their Artwork to be printed onto textiles for DulcieDot garments.

Artist Acknowledgements  
DulcieDot displays the Artist’s photo, biography and story behind their artwork design with a link to either each artists other works for purchase or commission on our website under the Collaborators tab, as well as a printed card with this information given with every item of clothing we sell with that specific design. Where applicable we share and link social media posts back to the Artists or Art Centre page to promote future business for each Artist.

Sustainability and slow fashion are weaved consciously into DulcieDot limited edition collections.

We want to reduce our impact on the environment by ensuring our garments are ethically made under FairTrade conditions from high quality GOTS certified organic and natural biodegradable environmentally friendly fibres as well as up-cycled industry waste textiles.

All of our orders come in compostable bags that can be broken down in your very own home compost. Our paper packaging and postcards are made from recycled paper and calico bags are a great reusable library bag. Our manufactures do not wrap our garments in plastic, instead we opt for paper and cardboard packaging.  

We are a slow fashion label creating limited edition small runs. Slow and small ensures we stay focussed on reducing our textile waste and are only making for the demand. Our key pieces are consciously designed to grow with the child to ensure they get that extra length of wear, so you can buy less, choose well and make it last. 

We are always learning and evolving here at DulcieDot and will continue to better our practices and processes especially involving supporting First Nations Women, slow fashion and our environmental impact.

Please WEAR, CARE and SHARE your DulcieDots with siblings, cousins, family and friends to ensure each garment life cycle and our stories live on!