A look at how social enterprises are thriving at the top end of the market for clothes and accessories. "I didn't want to work for a charity. I didn't think it would allow me to creative enough. But I did want to change the world, and if you look all around you – it's business that is changing the world".
Cameron Saul is a social entrepreneur operating in the heady world of high fashion.
Following a trip to Uganda in 2002, Saul had stumbled across a quirky wireframe bag handmade locally from recycled bottle tops. He stuffed a sample into his rucksack, and then pitched the idea to his father when he got back to the UK. He got good fatherly advice, but also sound commercial wisdom – his father had founded Mulberry in a Somerset garage in 1971, and nurtured it into the super brand it is today.
An unusual product combined with an ethical backstory, alongside good industry connections, meant the launch was a moderate success. Saul had co-founded Bottletop as a charity vehicle to re-distribute the profits. Ten years later, they are now helping an average of 35,000 young people at risk of contracting HIV each year.
Their next round of innovation came when Wayman, Saul's business partner, received a phone call from his holidaying mother. She had stumbled across a ring-pull weaving technique while in Salvador, northern Brazil.
Wayman leapt on a plane to find out more, and quickly found that the bags were relatively commonplace.
Furthermore, everything needed to create a luxury handbag could be sourced within Salvador's city limits, and the city was poor – in desperate need of regeneration.
The bags that were being manufactured were beautiful, but before he could endorse exporting them for sale, he needed to fix the ethics of the operation.
"The co-operative that was manufacturing them just wasn't very co-operative. There was a lady running it who seemed to be raking in most of the cash. We managed to get hold of phone numbers for two of the workers, and rang them later that evening. They were being paid a pittance."
They recruited a local man to reorganise the production process on more ethical grounds, and now employ 40 local women. The handbags are selling well in Harrods, Liberty London and via their own website. With prices ranging up to £600 per bag, Bottletop is certainly aimed at the top end of the market.
"It's the best part of the market to be in if you're a social enterprise. Trying to make low-priced goods work at scale isn't going to work. But the top is still moving, despite the dip," explains Wayman.
The pair have flown out Parisian accessory designers to work alongside the co-operative and teach them new techniques. Every stitch and weave is produced to an exacting standard, with the bar set by the fashion brands of Knightsbridge and Paris. Even the labels sewn into the insides of their bags mimic the sleek labels the more traditional houses show off on their pieces.
"Looking good is just as important as being ethical," says fellow entrepreneur and styling consultant, Veronica Crespi, founder of Rewardrobe, London's first "slow fashion" consultancy.
"Slow" fashion is a buzzword in ethical fashion – intended as an antidote to the seasonal collection model which drives hype around the latest designs, and then encourages consumers to throw it away when next seasons "must-have" items are released. "Slow" is about taking time to buy garments which have been ethically produced and will last in your wardrobe for years.
"The big thing about sustainable fashion is that a lot of people still think it's all about hemp," says Crespi. "To change perception on this, you have to get consumers to buy the product not out of conviction, but because they think you have a truly beautiful product."
Crespi points out that as much as 50% of negative environmental impact from the fashion industry comes after purchase. "Washing garments at high temperatures, or dry cleaning them, and then throwing them in the bin when you're done, can be really harmful to the environment. I like to educate my clients on how they can purchase, care and wear more sustainably."
She is also hopeful for the future of the scene.
"When I started in 2009 there were hardly any ethical brands, now there are now six or seven hundred from all over the world. New stores are opening every day that are focusing on ethical clothing. Even mainstream stores like H&M are producing their own ethical products. Some say it's a PR stunt, but at least it is reaching a large audience."
Breaking into the high street has been an exciting leap forward for Isobel Davies, founder of British wool brand Izzy Lane. She remembers seeing her range of knitwear in Topshop on Oxford Street.
"It was pretty exciting – to see British wool up there. It was everything we've been building and campaigning for."
The British wool industry is controlled by the Wool Marketing Board, established in the 1950s and requiring all wool sheared each year to be sold to them, and them only. They are then the sole sellers of wool on the open market, with much of the annual shear ending up being exported to the Far East.
The pricing is set annually, and although there have been recent increases, Davies is adamant that it's not enough.
"When I started in 2007, farmers were paid a pittance and they were better off just burning it – which many did. It's slightly better now," claims Davies. "When the government set up the Wool Marketing Board, your annual wool sale would pay your tenancy for the year. Now you're lucky if it covers your transport costs for the wool."
Davies is also passionate about animal welfare and, taking inspiration from the food industry, wants to introduce a welfare standard for clothing.
"It's strange that if you buy leather, cashmere or wool, you can't read on the label where it comes from, how those animals were looked after," she explains. "One of the problems with the Wool Marketing Board is that there's no traceability. Once the wool is sold to them, no record is kept of how the animals were looked after. I wanted to make sure that my clothing came from ethically farmed sources, but buying wool in the UK didn't allow me to do that."
Determined to ensure the welfare of animals she was shearing, Davies has now rescued nearly 600 rare breed sheep from slaughter, and tends them herself on her North Yorkshire farm. The RSPCA has twice awarded her their prestigious "Good Business Award" for her efforts to improve animal welfare. The Wool Marketing Board has also granted her a special licence to produce garments from her own flock.
"It's a pity that a young British designer can't go out to a wool farmer and offer to buy their wool at a good price, I'm lucky but typically everyone has to go through the Wool Board. I'd like to see the industry opened up to the market, and to enterprise," she concludes.
But with the British textile industry almost completely wiped out, it's clear that social entrepreneurs operating in the UK have a long way to go.
"I can just about string together all the different trades needed to complete the wool process. The scouring, the combing, the dying, the weaving, the finishing – all this before it's turned into yarn and then cloth. At one point there was only one spinner left in the entire UK. Luckily another one re-opened and we completed the chain again, but it was close."
Posted by Alastair Sloan
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