The Ethical Fashion movement is really taking off and rightly so. Here in the UK a company called Quail caught my eye.
Making Clothes in Devon the ethical and green way
Quail By Mail is a clothing label located in Devon which specialises in organic and Fairtrade cotton clothing which has been designed and made in England. Quail believes in British ingenuity and only commissions British fashion graduates.
Design elements such as functioning pockets, pleats, generous cuts etc are Quail’s speciality and all clothing lines are produced as limited editions. Interested in producing vintage-inspired practical clothing with genuine ethical integrity, Shauna Chapman, founder of Quail said:
“Our aim is to add maximum design value to the organic and Fairtrade cotton fabric. Recently we discovered that larger sizes were needed to include a wider audience so we will begin to introduce sizes up to 20 before the end of Summer 2008.”
To combat Greenwash, Quail uses the phrase “Product Provenance“ to show customers exactly how their fashion purchase started from the non-GM seed grown organically in India to the recyclable paper and raffia bow packaging used to parcel up orders”. The entire lifestyle of the Quail founders at the live/work studio in Brixham, South Devon is devoted to energy- saving, buying local, organic produce, fairtrade, traditional, reuse, reduce and recycle. Having produced clothing with provenance, which is also ethical, green and British it is Quail’s aim to grow the business sustainably and create artisan, exciting ‘proper’ fashion!
In the past fashion journalists have commented that ethical fashion just isn’t cool. You can see from the pictures that just because it’s ethical clothing it doesn’t mean it’s not fashionable. I’d certainly wear these clothes as would a number of people who I’ve pointed in Quail’s direction. They have a really lovely box pleat shirt but I couldn’t get a picture on here.
Check out the website at www.quailbymail.co.uk
