Cotton Australia is celebrating a new partnership with one of the country’s most prominent rural and regional clothing brands which has turned to Aussie cotton for iconic items, worn by cotton growers and farmers everywhere.

The partnership with RB Sellars will be officially celebrated at two special events in Toowoomba on March 13 with young growers the focus of an industry forum exploring the future of farming, from sustainability to cotton traceability and innovation. A second event will be held at RB Sellars Store, in Toowoomba to recognise the Aussie cotton Burton and Sandy workshirts, staples of the RB Sellars brand.

The Australian workwear company has transitioned its hard-wearing range of apparel to Australian cotton because of its comfort, durability and breathability of the fabric.

RB Sellars CEO Jim Gall said the comfort of its customers, whether they are working on cotton farms, sheep yards or sitting in a truck, is very important.

“RB Sellars has a special connection to the land, and we are excited to back our cotton growers by using their fibre. We have found it to have superior softness and durability, a result of the longer length of locally grown fibres.

“The Australian Cotton mark represents the best standards in cotton today. It means that when a farmer comes in to buy a workshirt from us, they can feel proud that it’s made from a product grown in Australia.”

The Chair of the Cotton Australia Board, and an Emerald cotton grower, Nigel Burnett has welcomed the move by RB Sellars saying the interest in Australian cotton is recognition of the industry’s sustainability achievements and ongoing efforts to protect the soil and the environment.

“Growing a bale of cotton in Australia today requires 97 per cent less pesticides, 52 per cent less water and 34 per cent less land than it did in 1992.

“Our growers have a commitment to sustainability and they understand, as we do that there’s a need to leave the land in a better place than when we received it,” he said.

Many of Australia’s leading brands have cottoned on to Australian cotton. Consumer are leading the push, demanding fibre that has been grown sustainably, is of premium quality and has traceability credentials.

Brands have to apply to use Australian Cotton Mark on their products. To date, more than 85 million products have carried the Cotton Mark, with 33 million in the past 12 months.

Given that Australian raw cotton is exported and then imported as finished items, traceability is key to Australian Cotton provenance.

“The technology is there to show where a piece of fabric comes from, how it was grown and under what conditions,” explains Brooke Summers, who leads the Cotton to Market program for Cotton Australia. “It can then be followed through the manufacturing process all the way to the delivery of the end garment.”

For RB Sellars, their hugely popular workshirts, an important part of the RB Sellars range since 1996 is the ‘Aussie Farmers Uniform’. The Burton shirt began with company founder Richard Sellars-Jones and his schoolmate Harry Burton, a jackaroo who was tragically killed in an accident. “Harry had an incredible spirit to him, a spirit of adventure and a love for all things Australian, and in naming the shirt after him, it created quite a legacy,” Gall said.

With its generously sized chest pockets and reinforced double stitching, the Burton is a product that befits the legend. Gall notes an improved lustre to the cotton twill fabric – now made entirely from an Australian-grown fibre – in a design that easily straddles town and country. “Our emerald greens, blues and cherry reds are now truer and brighter out in the paddock,” he says. “Plenty of people wear them in the city, too.”