What Does GOTS Certified Actually Mean? (And Fair Trade Certified, Explained)

GOTS and Fair Trade Certified can look like just more labels stitched into your dancewear, easy to skim past. They're not marketing words. Both come from independent organizations that set a real standard and check who meets it, one for how the cotton is grown and processed, the other for the people who sew it.

Here's what each one actually covers, and how AYDN's manufacturing process uses them.

What is GOTS certification?

GOTS stands for the Global Organic Textile Standard, an independent certification body that sets requirements for organic fiber production from farm to finished fabric. For a textile to carry the GOTS label, it has to meet requirements at every stage, not just at the cotton field.

To earn GOTS certification, a fabric must:

• Be grown from cotton free of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers
  
  
• Avoid genetically modified seed
  
  
• Be processed and dyed without a restricted list of hazardous chemicals
  
  
• Pass through a supply chain that's independently tracked and audited at each step

AYDN is made with GOTS Certified organic cotton. That certification is issued and verified by GOTS itself, and applies to the manufacturer.

Why it matters for dancers: fewer processing chemicals generally means fewer of the residues linked to skin irritation, which is worth knowing if you're training for hours in tight-fitting gear.

What does Fair Trade Certified actually require?

Fair Trade Certified is a label issued by Fair Trade USA to facilities that meet audited standards for labor conditions. It's a facility-level certification, meaning it applies to where a garment is sewn, not to the brand that sells it.

A Fair Trade Certified facility is required to:

• Maintain safe, monitored working conditions
  
  
• Pay a living wage as verified through independent audits
  
  
• Allow workers the right to organize
  
  
• Pass Fair Trade premiums back into the community where the facility operates

AYDN dancewear is produced in a Fair Trade Certified facility. The certification belongs to the facility and is maintained through Fair Trade USA's ongoing audit process.

Both certifications work the same way: an independent organization sets the standard, and a facility or fabric mill is audited against it before the label can be used. That's different from a brand simply describing itself as "eco" or "ethical" without naming what body verified the claim.

Why this matters for what touches your skin

Dancewear sits against skin for hours at a time, often while you're sweating and moving through tight-fitting gear. Conventional cotton processing can involve chemical finishes and dye classes that have raised concerns around long-term skin exposure, and that's true for any wearer, not only people who already know they react to certain fabrics. GOTS restricts many of these processing chemicals as part of its certification requirements, which is why the label is worth looking for regardless of your skin type or history.

If you're curious about what non-toxic actually means in dancewear more broadly, we cover that in more detail in Why People are Choosing AYDN: Our Approach to Skin-Safe, Non-Toxic Dancewear.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Is AYDN itself GOTS certified?

A: The organic cotton used in AYDN dancewear is GOTS-certified. GOTS certifies fabric and its supply chain, so the certification is issued to the cotton and the mills that process it, not to AYDN as a retailer.

Q: What's the difference between GOTS and Fair Trade Certified?

A: GOTS covers the fabric itself, meaning how the cotton is grown and processed. Fair Trade Certified covers the facility where the garment is sewn, meaning wages, safety, and working conditions for the people making it.

Q: Does Fair Trade Certified mean higher wages?

A: It means the facility is independently audited to pay a verified living wage and to pass additional Fair Trade premiums back into the community, on top of standard pay.

Q: How can I verify a GOTS or Fair Trade claim?

A: Both organizations maintain public standards and, in many cases, searchable certification databases. You can review GOTS's requirements directly at global-standard.org and Fair Trade USA's at fairtradecertified.org.

Q: Does a GOTS label guarantee a product won't irritate skin?

A: No single label can guarantee that, since skin sensitivity varies by person. What GOTS certification does confirm is that a restricted list of processing chemicals wasn't used, which lowers one common source of irritation.