Starting as a small team of 2 we created the initial ideas for ThriftyCouture. The general aim was to create a sustainable business that would be able to train and employ young unemployed people and older retired residents in fashion.
Having previously developed "GetMoreLocal" (www.getmorelocal.co.uk), we felt it was vital that the company had strong commitments to the environment and the community.
With 1.2 million tons of clothing going into landfill in 2005 in the UK alone (DEFRA2007), we found that there was an undeniable gap in the market for 'up cycled' products. With our chronic addiction to 'fast fashion' and companies and trends nowadays moving so quickly, it seems only logical to make use of the unloved and wasted clothing and remake it into something timeless and fashionable.
Thrifty Couture takes unloved clothes and with
good design and workmanship creates covetable and affordable fashion
The main obstacle to scaling up Thrifty
Couture from a project to a sustainable social enterprise is the lack of
trained dressmakers. So we are
training our own army of seamstresses!
Working with the unemployed, retired and elderly residents and
ex-offenders we hope to grow Thrifty Couture, offer employment and inspire
others to start their own designer-maker business based on upcycling existing
garments and keeping them out of landfill
Our main objectives:
- wean women off Fast Fashion towards Slow
Couture
- create a sustainable business from commercial
as well as environmental perspectives
- train marginalized residents to give them an
employable skill, and involvement
How are we going to achieve
these goals:
By showing women that there is another way to
obtain an original “look” that will also make their annual clothes budget go
further; they won’t be buying more frequently to replace the pieces thrown
away, these garments are well-made and durable, won’t cost more than her annual
fashion spend, and will ensure that they are buying ethically
By offering workshops to the public we
demonstrate how easy and fun it is to acquire or refresh a skill and can help
you become independent of the fast fashion outlets
By training marginalized communities in skills
which are now scarce, we can help make them more employable
Community benefits:
- Up-cycling garments is ethical, good for the environment, and sustainable as a commercial activity
- Learning how to up-cycle is sociable and fun (in workshops) and can offer sustainable employment (through training) for individuals who are on the margins of our society
- Exchanging knowledge and skills through the outreach programmes helps support inter-generational and intercultural relationships
Our Commitment to the Environment:
The project is designed specifically
to engage with those living in the London boroughs of Hackney, South Camden
(King’s Cross) and Islington.
Our raw materials are donated or
found. Our biggest sponsor
Retrograde Limited donated 1 metric tonne of used clothes and woollens to our
project in 2011 and we finally exhausted this same stock in mid-2012. We are now up to 1.3tonnes of clothing and cloth and counting
Sustainability is integral to the project.
We share workshop space with GetMore
and just as their team incorporates sustainability into the way they run their
day-to-day business, so we too, operate a tight environmental system. Examples
of how we do this include:
- Minimising office waste such as paper by only printing when it is unavoidable and only using FSC certified paper stock and 100% certified organic printer inks;
- Paper patterns, project bags, and clothes’ bags are made from recycled newspaper and old curtains;
- All cut-off remnants are either re-used in new creations, donated to Age UK for their craft workshops or added to the garden compost to aerate;
- Recycling all our recyclable waste via our landlord’s recycling bins and waste collection service;
- Using a plumbed-in miniaturised filtering system to provide filtered water to staff, avoiding bottle water waste and food miles;
- Sharing the maintenance of the garden and growing our own vegetables, herbs and fruit with GetMore team in their office grounds;
- Training our team to switch off equipment not in use;
- Using low energy cooling systems which uses fresh air from outside to cool the building;
- Using frosted windows in order to reduce solar glare and fixing aerators on taps in our offices;
- Encouraging remote working and hosting events within 2.5km of our offices and transferring materials by foot or bike, avoiding car use;
- Delivering our marketing and catering service by bike minimising car use.
