Who made my cotton? Making the invisible visible

Research on cotton supply chains, farm-level traceability, and the communal nature of cotton production.

What happened

Making a pair of jeans is no small feat; in fact, it requires many steps. Not all of them are easily traceable or even visible. While the mills producing the fabric and the washing and dyeing businesses are on the radar — and the factories sewing the garments too, due to recent efforts — following the cotton is harder.

Why it matters

Denim industry insiders Ani Wells and Anne Oudard wanted to know more about the farm level where the cotton in our jeans comes from. Their question “Who makes our cotton?” turned into a multi-year research project, in which they investigated how cotton moves through global supply chains. They noticed that the actual cotton growers remain largely invisible and started looking into farm-level traceability, the barriers to transparency and the relationships shaping cotton production around the world. They published their findings in the report “Who made my cotton? Step 4: The farmer’s ecosystem,” which was released on 7th October.

Along the way, Wells and Oudard changed their one simple question into many, more detailed ones like ‘What does farm-level traceability actually mean?,’ ‘How much information already exists and where does it get lost?’ Also, what kind of understanding were they hoping to gain through traceability?

“Cotton production is far more than an isolated farmer in a field. It is an interconnected ecosystem of land, labour, finance, input suppliers, community organisations, cooperatives, traders and local institutions that collectively shape how cotton is produced. Understanding this wider system is crucial if brands hope to address environmental and social challenges rather than simply document them,” is one crucial realisation.

This news brief is based on reporting published by FashionUnited on 2026-10-07. The original report is linked below.