OVS, the Italian textile and fashion company, has gone on to enter into a partnership with Cotton made in Africa – CmiA which happens to be a globally recognized benchmark in terms of sustainable cotton production, so as to make sure that there is an end-to-end verifiable transparency.
Due to a network of more than 2,200 stores across Italy and abroad, most of which happen to be under the OVS as well as the Upim names, the company now happens to offer a range of its own brands, which includes the likes of CROFF, OVS Kids, Stefanel, PIOMBO, Blukids, Les Copains, and also Goldenpoint.
The collaboration with CmiA helps OVS to go ahead and offer verification from the cotton bale by way of the finished garment.
In 2025 so far, OVS has gone on to introduce almost 2.5 million products in the market, which happen to be made with CmiA-verified cotton. The product range goes on to include children’s wear and also denim items like jeans and jackets.
Simone Colombo, the OVS Group corporate sustainability head, said that they chose cotton that’s made in Africa so as to further expand their commitment to go ahead and source the best, the most important fibre when it comes to their collections. Moreover, besides this, they can make use of the CmiA Inside label to make sure that only CmiA-verified cotton gets used in their products. This happens to create transparency as well as trust for their customers as well.
It is well to be noted that OVS products, which happen to contain CmiA cotton, are now going to be displaying the Cotton made in Africa Inside label, therefore confirming that only CmiA-certified cotton gets used and that can, of course, get traced all across the entire value chain.
The process when it comes to verifying this transparency depends upon the Hard Identity Preserved- HIP system which needs proof that only CmiA-verified cotton gets through yarn and textile production phases before it gets labelled as Cotton Made in Africa Inside.
The very presence of the label makes sure of the physical traceability of the fibre, as per the CmiA guidelines.
Besides its focus in terms of environmental protection, which includes the quality of the soil, coverage of water resources, and biodiversity, CmiA also happens to include social benchmarks.
These include promotion of women as far as the producer communities are concerned, the human rights enforcement, prohibition when it comes to child labor, and of course the support for smallholder farmers.
Tina Stridde, the Aid by Trade Foundation managing director, remarked that they are pretty pleased to welcome OVS as a new partner in their international demand alliance when it comes to cotton made in Africa. The implementation of Cotton Made in Africa Inside by OVS makes a strong case about the transparency as well as the traceability that they consistently maintain, which is what they are very happy to see.
At present, over 30% of African cotton happens to be verified as per CmiA or CmiA Organic standards. Over 60 textile firms as well as fashion brands, which include Bestseller and OTTO, go on to incorporate CmiA cotton when it comes to their products.
