People Before Profit:

A New Fair Trade Fashion Business Model To Support Garment Workers

Founder and Designer Jenny Allan explains how a life changing trip to India sparked an idea that led her to start her unique Not For Profit, Social Enterprise label, aptly named ‘Jenerous’.

Jenny, tell us a little about your background in the fashion industry:

I started out as a CAD assistant at Debenhams in London, and ended up designing for a couple of their formal and special occasion brands. I was there for over 10 years, I then had my first child, Sophie, so I took a little break. I returned for a while, then had my second daughter and made the decision not to go back after I had her. It was a big step to leave the fashion industry for a while as I knew it could be hard to get back in. As my youngest daughter was due to start school, I started to think about what was next. I thought back and reflected on an experience I had had at Debenhams.

While I was there they had allowed me to take a mini career break and do some voluntary work in India for 3 weeks. I was teaching at a school in Delhi and felt really challenged by the poverty I saw and the need for work. As part of the school they had a women's empowerment programme. These women came together to socialise, but they were also doing hand embroideries and selling them. I thought how can I use my experience in fashion to create jobs or provide work and training for women like these. When I came back from India, I ended up having my daughter fairly quickly after and life just carried along. So it is quite a lot later that I’ve actually started my brand, but it’s always been there as an idea for me.

“It has been a very interesting first year to launch a brand!” 

What led to the creation of Jenerous?

I started to research what this idea of mine could look like, and whether it was viable or not. Eventually I booked a trip back to India with my father (he’s my travel companion and has a lot of experience traveling to India, as well as being the Director of Jenerous)  to source suppliers and fabrics. We went to two different places that I had found through my research. The first one was a small set up that wasn’t at the level we needed to produce clothing.

The second option was a Fair Trade manufacturer in Bangalore. Again it was small, but it was already running and internationally exporting products. It was a much easier first step for us. We took some sketches and patterns with us, did some sampling and met a fabric supplier who does hand block printing. Then we returned to England to process everything we had seen and to make the decision whether we were going to really do this.

The next step was to place an order with the fabric supplier and manufacturer. When the garments were ready, we had an in-person launch in September 2019 followed by our website going live in October. It has been a very interesting first year to launch a brand!

How did you come up with the name?

It took us a long time to figure out the name, I wanted the name to have meaning behind it, we are a brand that’s all about giving, we’re set up as a non profit social enterprise. It’s in our company's constitution. We felt the name reflects our mission (and it includes my name in it which is an added bonus!) 

“We have been selling scarves and face masks - donating all of the profits to our supplier. To date we have now donated 124 days worth of salary for them.“

Tell us what makes Jenerous such a unique business model in the fashion industry:

We are a Community Interest, Not For Profit Company.

What that means is we operate as a normal business, but are under an agreement to give back a minimum of 65% of profits to the community (which for us is our manufacturers and charities in India). Alternatively we can reinvest it back into the company for work done for the good of your community. 

As a new company we aren’t going to be making a profit at the moment - it’ll take us a while to break even. So one thing we have done is made the decision to donate a portion of every sale right from the beginning. We give at least 10% from each sale to charity projects. With our first season’s sales we have donated to a charity that gives sari’s to women with leprosy. Throughout the pandemic we have also been raising money and donating to our supplier in Bangalore.

We work with Fair Trade manufacturers who guarantee the workers are being paid a fair wage, are given breaks in the day, vacation and a safe, clean place to work. They’re not forced to do overtime and of course there is no child labour. We last visited our manufacturers in January just before the pandemic hit, and fortunately managed to place an order in time for our product to be completed and to pay them in full. As part of working with Fair Trade manufacturers, we pay 60% of the payment upfront and 40% upon completion. However to help them with cash flows to pay their staff we have been selling scarves and face masks - donating all of the profits to our supplier. To date we have now donated 124 days worth of salary for them.  

Because our supplier is quite small, when they were shut and not able to work during the pandemic this year, a lot of brands cancelled their orders, and many companies hadn’t paid them yet due to the delayed payment terms.

“The people are the real focus for us. That's the main driver of why we’re doing this - we want to make a positive difference through ethical fashion and to change lives through the production of our clothing.”

We love that there is such a huge focus on the people behind the clothes, why was this an important aspect of your label?

The people are the real focus for us. That's the main driver of why we’re doing this -we want to make a positive difference through ethical fashion and to change lives through the production of our clothing. Manufacturing in the right way, but also giving back to charity projects. That’s what we are really about, which I think is quite unusual. Sustainability is a really big thing at the moment, but my perception is that it’s become more about fabrics than the people who make the clothing.

Do you feel there is more of a demand from consumers for transparency in fashion or is there still a long way to go? 

I think the demand is definitely growing and during the pandemic it has been brought to the attention of the public more which is a positive thing. There’s still a lot of education required, I know a lot of people who wouldn’t necessarily even be thinking about the people behind the clothes. 

“I’m sure all factories must be experiencing a similar situation where retailers aren’t placing orders in the same way because customers are not buying clothes in the same way and there’s less demand.”

How has the pandemic affected business and the lives of your garment workers in India?

Our team had to close for a few weeks a couple of times this year. Now they’re back working but Covid cases are still rising. I recently spoke to them and they’re struggling because the volume of orders is now lower.

Clients like us are struggling to sell product, which means we aren’t going to place as big of an order as usual. Our plan originally was to go to India in November to book more products for next year's collection. But since we are not going to be able to go this year, we have just placed orders for some accessories with some excess fabric we need to use up. 

They’re obviously just one factory but I’m sure all factories must be experiencing a similar situation with reduced order volumes due to lower customer demand.

It’s also massively affected our plans for the business this year. When you first launch, in your mind you think ‘I’m going to have this website and I’m going to sell through my website’ and then you’re like ‘oh, this isn’t going quite as well as I thought it would’. My whole strategy was to go to pop ups and events and have the product physically there so people can try it on and get to know my brand. So obviously I haven’t been able to do any of that. But we have tried to do everything that we can digitally.

Talk to us about sustainability, why is it important to you and what steps have you taken to ensure your business is friendly to the planet:

We were really keen to source sustainable fabrics, which has been quite a challenge to order low quantities at an affordable price for retail. We found our ethical block printer that sources organic cotton for us which worked out really well. We also bought some dead-stock fabric to support the local Indian businesses. Going forward we are looking at other sustainable fabrics. Our packaging is biodegradable too. As much as we are about the people behind the clothes we are also about the planet.

Lastly, do you have any advice for fellow industry professionals wanting to create positive change in fashion?

Just go for it really! It was a big step to do this and it took a long while for me to get to this stage. I did a lot of research and tried to prepare as best as I could, but at some point you’ve just to take that step and see how it goes! If you have an idea or a dream to do something, you should try it and give it a go.

You can find Jenny’s fabulous designs on the Jenerous website.

If you’d like to support the garment workers at Jenny’s supplier in Bangalore, you can do so via the link below:

DONATE

Alternatively if you purchase accessories from Jenerous, all profits from the sales are donated:

PURCHASE ACCESSORIES

By Emma Golley

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