Patrick Grant launches Community Clothing project

British designer Patrick Grant has launched a not-for-profit fashion brand called Community Clothing with the aim of reigniting British clothing and textile manufacturing.

The social clothing initiative is dedicated to making clothes, creating jobs and supporting the UK textile community, and Grant has set up a Kickstarter fund inviting the public to pledge their support by placing advance orders for the clothes.

The hope is that Community Clothing can raise 75,000 pounds over the next four weeks by allowing consumers to pre-order a range of quality, staple everyday garments for both men and women.

Commenting on the launch, Grant said: “I believe that everyone in Britain should be able to afford to buy exceptional quality British-made clothes, and to play their own part in sustaining and creating British jobs. Community Clothing will make British clothes affordable to all.

“I also feel passionately that at the heart of great communities lie great employers and that at the heart of personal pride lies a great job. Community Clothing will support great employers and great workers in communities across Britain.”

Community Clothing’s plan is to use spare capacity in slack periods to make great, cost engineered clothing and sell directly to the consumer, cutting out the usual wholesale and retail mark-ups.

Grant, who owns Savile Row tailor Norton and Sons and is the creative director for ready-to-wear label E Tautz, believes that seasonality of demand across the fashion industry has had an adverse effect on British manufacturing, and Community Clothing can help preserve jobs and keep factories running year-round.

“In Britain we have a proud tradition of making the very finest textiles and the very best clothes. But the British clothing industry faces all sorts of serious challenges. For several months every year, even the best British factories are nowhere near full. This can lead to seasonal hiring and firing, zero hours contracts, or worse - factory closures,” added Grant.

Social clothing initiative Community Clothing aims to reignite British textiles

The debut collection features three key items for men and women: a five-pocket pair of jeans priced at 49 pounds; a classic Harrington jacket priced at 79 pounds; and a single-breasted cotton twill raincoat for 119 pounds - with the outerwear coming in either navy or khaki. The hope is if the campaign goes well that production can start as early as March with delivery to customers in July.

Grant explained: “By designing with simple manufacturing in mind, these products can be sewn in the same premium fabrics and with the same quality as the best high-end designer clothes.”

Community Clothing has established links with a with a network of factories across England, Scotland and Wales in traditional clothing and textile making communities. The initial production run of jeans and outerwear will be manufactured at the Cookson and Clegg clothing factory in Blackburn, which Grant acquired last year saving it from closure.

Profits from the social clothing initiative will be invested in programmes in those same communities where the factories are located, a statement from the company confirmed, and these will provide skills training, personal development programmes and apprenticeships that help get people into skilled work in the textile and garment industry.

Initially, Community Clothing will be available via the Kickstarter page, with an online store planned, before the opening of a bricks-and-mortar presence this summer. The Kickstarter campaign, which has a target of 75,000 pounds, will run until March 15.

Images: Community Clothing