With the well known talent of British designers, the famous skills from Saville Row and London Fashion Week at the top of its game. You’d probably imagine a booming textile industry in modern-day Britain. This unfortunately isn’t the case due to cost effectiveness causing UK based brands to outsource their manufacturing overseas. This can have its fair share of positives, it’s now common knowledge that it’s a lot cheaper to have clothing created where labour is cheaper in countries such as China and India and of course it creates jobs for these areas. However there are a larger number of social and environmental negatives that we are all aware can come from this. For example, there is no way of knowing whether the working conditions are acceptable when you are unable to regularly visit the factory. Then of course there is the issue of the CO2 emissions produced when shipping from places so far from the UK.
The mass of brands manufacturing overseas has impacted British made clothing drastically causing a number of establishments to close and leaving only a small percentage of brands supporting the local industry. Little Kind London started in 2020 and had ‘being locally made’ at the forefront of it’s mission. Founder Jasmine Jayyousi had been working within the fashion industry for over 10 years and noticed that not only due to the impact of the pandemic but also due to British brands manufacturing choices, it was causing the London textile scene to get smaller and smaller. Starting a line of clothing for children all designed and manufactured in small batches in London “felt like a good place to start in supporting the local textile community, have a smaller carbon footprint and be part of tiny step forward in protecting the high-quality reputation of the British-made clothing industry. You can also ensure all working conditions are fair and have more of an involvement in the process when it’s right on your doorstep.”
