A collective producing ethically-made pants offers women refugees the chance of work and boosts their self-esteemIt's a little after 11am and I am standing in the office of a Southampton factory unit with my trousers lowered while two women I have never met before discuss the
design of my underwear."Two panels, two side seams, no top seam," concludes Samia, an Afghan in her late 40s, looking her companion directly in the eye.Becky John is English and a little younger: "Marks & Sparks spring season last year," she says, nodding sagely. I am impressed. These women are connoisseurs of pants. They sit back and look thoughtfully at each other.After a few moments John says: "Our new designs will be similar to this." Three weeks later I speak to her on the phone. She assures me that their design problems are now solved: "Three panels instead of five. Three sewing steps instead of 12. We did the first trial run last week and it is just fantastic."John founded the ethical knicker-making collective Whomadeyourpants? to strike two social ills in one hit: to provide work for marginalised women such as Samia and to offer an alternative to buying underwear made in sweatshops. Although it praised Marks & Spencer for its work to improve labour conditions, a recent report by Labour Behind the Label and War on Want said workers making clothes for all of the 25
UK high-street brands it surveyed were paid less than a living wage.John – who previously sold corporate software for a living – says: "I've always loved underwear but I couldn't bear to buy knickers from a sweatshop. I came up with the name Whomadeyourpants? and that was it – I had to do it."John befriended the marginalised women she wanted to provide work for, but had to convince them that her odd-sounding plan was viable and persuade them to attend lessons in English and sewing. She also had to raise funds.Whomadeyourpants? opened in December 2009 as a workers' co-operative employing 11, along with n ...
Try our segmented RSS Feeds
