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Main Business Activity - Dynamic clothing company creating clothes from ethically sourced recycled materials Project Outline - Increased competitiveness through streamlined production processes and production of the Goodone 'Look Book', a high quality glossy brochure showcasing Goodone's sustainable fashion designs Nin Castle and Phoebe Emerson are co-founders of a small sustainable clothing company called Goodone, which is based in London. They create clothes which are made using ethically sourced recycled materials. Goodone are unique in the way they make their clothes as they deconstruct recycled garments and redesign them as an entirely new outfit. Nin and Phoebe met at Brighton University where they were both doing a degree in fashion. They bonded over their shared passion for issues such as social responsibility and the state of the environment. Nin says “We used to sit around trying to put the world to rights for ages and finally we decided we should work together, it made sense”. The pair’s original vision for their business was to create well-made directional designs by combining organic fabrics with reclaimed materials. However, Nin says, “There was just so much waste and so many possibilities that we ended up just doing recycled”.
According to Nin they knew what they wanted to do but realised they needed help to achieve their ambitions. It was at this point that they approached the Knowledgebase Collaboration Project for help in defining the right direction for their business. The two women were introduced to Yvonne Fuchs and Lunia Oliver from the London College of Fashion, who specialise in fashion management, branding and manufacturing.
The main issue Nin and Phoebe needed to address was their manufacturing costs and processes. Lunia helped the women to look at ways of streamlining their production, an important step to take if they wanted to compete with bigger businesses. Using recycled clothes meant that Goodone’s material costs were relatively low; their main expenditure was labour. The women create pieces by taking apart garments and creating an entirely new design, this makes the process of deconstructing and cutting fabric very time consuming. “Lunia broke down the whole production process step by step and showed me how I could tighten it up. She gave us targets to meet and showed us how to cost things properly”, says Nin. “She was excellent”.
Another key outcome from the collaboration is the Goodone ‘Look Book’, a high quality glossy brochure that showcases Goodone’s sustainable fashion designs and summarises their beliefs. “It’s made all the difference. We send it out to fashion editors, customers and prospective collaborators”, says Nin. “We couldn’t have afforded to do the book without the financial help from the project, which would have been a real shame”.
Nin credits the collaboration project with helping them “find the right direction for the business to go in and what steps to take to get there”. Although Goodone’s production is still small it is growing steadily. Nin and Phoebe have just completed their first major collaboration with The Hemp Trading Company, they turned un-saleable sweatshirts for boys into desirable jumper dresses for girls. The women’s aspirations for the future are to work with more High Street shops, using their commercial waste to create new pieces. They are currently collaborating with charities like Amnesty International and Shelter to turn there campaign t-shirts into new garments. “I’m hopeful that by collaborating with these charities we will raise the profile of Goodone, especially in the fashion press”, says Nin. |
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KNOWLEDGE CONNECT is a London Development Agency and ERDF funded programme delivered by ANGLE plc and Winning Moves Ltd.
