What is organic cotton?
Organic cotton means the fiber was grown to an organic agriculture standard, without the synthetic pesticides and fertilizers that standard prohibits. Conventional cotton is the rest. GOTS, the Global Organic Textile Standard, covers fiber content and processing when a product is certified to it. A cotton poplin on FabStitch is not organic, and not GOTS, unless that cloth's record says so.
- Organic refers to farming of the fiber.
- GOTS is a separate textile standard.
- Do not infer either from the word cotton.
What the difference is not
Organic cotton is not automatically softer, stronger, or lower GSM.
Hand still comes from yarn, weave, and finish.
How to use this answer
“What is organic cotton?” is the only question this page answers. The short answer is: Organic cotton means the fiber was grown to an organic agriculture standard, without the synthetic pesticides and fertilizers that standard prohibits. Conventional cotton is the rest. GOTS, the Global Organic Textile Standard, covers fiber content and processing when a product is certified to it. A cotton poplin on FabStitch is not organic, and not GOTS, unless that cloth's record says so.
The points to keep are Organic refers to farming of the fiber. GOTS is a separate textile standard. Do not infer either from the word cotton.
Related terms that belong here, and not as a keyword list, are GOTS, organic cotton vs conventional. Use them when they describe the same decision.
If the next step is a cloth rather than a definition, open the marketplace or the collection linked below and read the published composition and construction. This page does not add a price, a certificate, or a supplier count.
Care, weight, and sourcing only matter here when they change the answer to what is organic cotton. Otherwise leave them on the guide that already owns that subject.
Related questions
Does OEKO-TEX mean organic?
No. OEKO-TEX Standard 100 is a harmful-substance test, not an organic-farming standard.