How Cotton Becomes Clothing and What Certifications Mean

Cotton is the most common natural fiber used in clothing and textiles in general.¹ You encounter it everywhere in daily life, from jeans to dress shirts, but many people don’t know how it goes from a seed to a final garment.

Additionally, certifications used for scoring products on FiberScore like the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), the Organic Content Standard (OCS), and Regenagri layer additional rules and checks onto this process to improve the health and safety of consumers, farm and factory workers, and the environment.

The following is a summary of the cotton garment production process along with details of how each step is impacted by GOTS, OCS, and Regenagri certifications.

---

The Cotton Garment Production Process: 5 Key Stages

1. Growing Cotton

Cotton seeds are planted in fields in the spring, and they grow into cotton plants that may be managed with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, or organically, with strict limits on synthetic inputs and a ban on genetically modified seeds. Farm workers and nearby communities face the greatest exposure to pesticides, water use impacts, and land practices, which can either harm or support local health and livelihoods.

GOTS requires that fiber comes from certified organic farms, meaning no genetically modified cotton and no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers allowed at the farms, but does not govern the labor standards for farm workers.²

OCS also requires material from certified organic farms and verifies that the organic content is what actually flows into the textile supply chain but does not influence labor standards.³

Regenagri requires farms to use regenerative practices focusing on soil health, biodiversity, and carbon reduction, and requires compliance with standards on child labor, forced labor, wages, working hours, safety, and freedom of association for farm workers.⁴

---

2. Ginning and Spinning

Cotton is harvested in autumn after cotton plants develop bolls, which are a form of fruit containing cotton and seeds. After harvest, collected bolls are ginned to separate cotton lint from seeds, then the lint is baled and sent to spinning mills, where fibers are carded into strands and twisted into yarn, which is sometimes dyed.^5,6,7

GOTS certification requires gins and spinning mills to comply with social criteria like safe working conditions and no child or forced labor and, when applicable, use only processing chemicals approved by GOTS.²

Under OCS and Regenagri, facilities must be part of the certified chain of custody to trace the organic fiber or regenerative cotton fiber, respectively, but neither standard sets chemical or labor rules beyond the farming stage.^3,8

---

3. Weaving and Knitting

Yarns are then woven or knitted into fabric, often using sizing agents to prevent breakage, followed by desizing to wash the agents out. Mills may use natural starch and cellulose-based sizes or synthetic polymer sizes.⁹

GOTS requires that chemical inputs used at these processing stages be pre-approved and that at least 75% of sizing agents be of natural origin or at least 80% of synthetic sizes are recycled along with social criteria for workers.²

OCS and Regenagri require that weaving and knitting facilities keep certified organic material or regenerative cotton separated and properly documented, respectively, but neither dictates whether sizes are natural or synthetic as long as fiber content claims remain accurate.^3,8

---

4. Wet Processing: A Critical Stage

Wet processing is where fabrics are scoured and bleached, dyed, printed, and finished with softeners, wrinkle-resistant treatments, and repellents.^10,11 Choices here determine whether workers handle relatively benign inputs and wastewater, or chemicals such as formaldehyde-releasing resins, PFAS “forever chemicals,” and carcinogenic dyes.²

GOTS treats wet processing as a high-risk stage, allowing only approved dyes and other processing chemicals, banning a wide range of hazardous substances (like certain heavy metal dyes, formaldehyde-based finishes, PFAS,and aromatic solvents for printing), and requiring a wastewater treatment plant that meets strict discharge criteria. Its social criteria also apply to this stage to cover general worker safety.^2,12

OCS and Regenagri continue to track organic content or regenerative cotton content, respectively, through wet processing but do not set their own chemical lists or social requirements.^3,8

---

5. Cutting and Sewing

Finished fabric is cut and sewn into garments in factories that may be far from farms and processing facilities. At this stage, the primary human rights issues involve wages, hours, freedom of association, and occupational safety for sewing workers.

GOTS certification extends through manufacturing, including safe and hygienic workplaces, no forced or child labor, reasonable working hours, and fair wages.²

OCS and Regenagri require that garment factories participate in the chain of custody audit system to keep organic content or regenerative cotton content claims credible, respectively, but neither influences labor standards at this stage.^3,8

---

Why This Matters

Cotton undergoes many processing steps to become usable clothing. The health and safety of materials and chemicals used, and the treatment of labor, depend on the rules and regulations at farms and factories.

Certifications improve cotton production for consumers, workers, and the environment. GOTS shapes both chemical and social practices across processing, OCS safeguards organic fiber integrity and traceability, and Regenagri safeguards regenerative cotton integrity and traceability while focusing on regenerative farming practices.

References

1. Textile Exchange. (n.d.). Cotton is the most widely used natural fiber in the fashion, textile, and apparel industry. https://textileexchange.org/cotton/

2. Global Organic Textile Standard. (2023). Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) Version 7.0. Available at: https://global-standard.org/downloads

3. Textile Exchange. (2020). Organic Content Standard User Manual Version 3.1. Available at: https://textileexchange.org/organic-content-standard/

4. Regenagri. (2024). regenagri Standard – Farms Version 3.3. Available at: https://regenagri.org/standards-documents/

5. National Cotton Council of America. (n.d.-a). Cotton: From Field to Fabric – Ginning. https://www.cotton.org/pubs/cottoncounts/fieldtofabric/gin.cfm

6. National Cotton Council of America. (n.d.-b). Cotton: From field to fabric – Yarn Production. https://www.cotton.org/pubs/cottoncounts/fieldtofabric/yarn.cfm

7. National Cotton Council of America. (n.d.-c). Cotton: From field to fabric – Dyeing, Printing & Finishing. https://www.cotton.org/pubs/cottoncounts/fieldtofabric/yarn.cfm

8. Regenagri. (2025). Regenagri Chain of Custody Standard – Textiles Version 2.0. Available at: https://regenagri.org/standards-documents/

9. Zhang, Y. (2013). Environmentally friendly sizing agent from corn distillers dried grains (Doctoral dissertation). College of Education and Human Sciences, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsdiss/167

10. ScienceDirect. (n.d.). Textile Wet Processing. Retrieved January 28, 2026, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/textile-wet-processing

11. Liu, S. (2025). Types of Finishes in Textiles. Skychem Group. https://skychemi.com/types-of-textile-finishes/#softening-and-wrinkle-free-treatments

12. Global Organic Textile Standard. (2024). Manual for the Implementation of GOTS Version 7.2. Available at: https://global-standard.org/downloads