House of Baukjen to donate to charities this Black Friday

Sustainable womenswear brand Baukjen and maternity label Isabella Oliver, collectively known as the House of Baukjen, is boycotting Black Friday to donate profits to charity.

For the four-day cyber shopping weekend, from November 26 to 29, House of Baukjen will step away from the aggressive discounting of Black Friday to instead donate 100 percent of its profits.

It has selected two charities that echo its values of caring for people and the planet. Environmental charity World Land Trust, which works to save, protect and restore critically threatened habitat for wildlife, and the UK-based women’s safety charity Strut Safe, which has a free phone service to help women get home safely at night.

Baukjen explained that as an ethical, slow fashion, B-Corp company it wanted to “remain true” to its ethos and give back. As a brand, it already donates at least 10 percent of its profits annually to charity alongside numerous charity collaborations and donation schemes with Oxfam, Great Ormond Street and NHS Charities Together.

House of Baukjen creative director and co-founder, Baukjen de Swaan Arons, said in a statement: “As a leader in sustainability, we must stay true to our brand values. We don’t feel it’s right to participate and encourage overconsumption; it goes against what we stand for. Instead, we want to give back and really make a difference.

“As a business we want to do our very best for people and the planet, so we’ve partnered with charities that we are truly passionate about.”

This is the second year that House of Baukjen has gone against Black Friday discounting to instead encourage their customers to shop more consciously as part of its “buying less and buying better” ethos. Last year the family-run fashion group supported Centrepoint, The Trussell Trust, Papyrus, and The Prince’s Trust.

Emma Douglas, partnerships manager at World Land Trust, added: “While we wait for world leaders to make good on the promises they have just made at COP26, challenging our shopping habitats and addressing an increasing throw-away culture is something we can all do now.

“We are delighted to partner with the House of Baukjen to champion our living planet. Donations to our Buy an Acre programme this weekend will help us step up the fight to reverse global warming and protect precious forests all around the world for the benefit of everything that depends on them.”