How a female-led student founded crochet business is paving the way towards a more inclusive, ethical and sustainable future.
Trying to make it in the fashion industry when you have zero experience, affinity or interest in said industry sounds kind of mad but it has to be said, these naïve decisions add a bit of spice to life. Three friends and I got really obsessed with turning string into clothes over the first lockdown and started a sustainable crochet business, The Crochet Collective. Now I find myself flicking through Vogue magazines in WH Smith at the train station instead of my usual popular science picks. Being able to make my own clothes gives me such a rush. When our washing machine broke down recently, I ran out of clothes and I just thought to myself, “right, guess I’ll just crochet myself another bra”. This isn’t a call to get everyone to start crocheting or start fixing their clothes, not everyone has time for that. This is a PSA about sustainable fashion.
What is sustainable fashion? Wikipedia defines it as an umbrella term describing products, processes, activities, and actors aiming to achieve a carbon-neutral fashion industry, built on equality, social justice, animal welfare, and ecological integrity. But I think sustainability is such a buzzword. We use it everywhere in our brand, as do most businesses with any forward-thinking marketeers looking to appeal to a climate change believing audience. To be honest, the engineer undergrad in me is still not convinced my little crochet business is as sustainable as it claims to be, but she does know how many hours of podcasts it takes to crochet your favourite tops and bucket hats.
When you see crochetwear in the windows of stores like urban outfitters and H&M, please take a look at the price tag and at least wonder who has spent hours of their life on those stitches. These large vendors and textile manufacturers are often very cagey about where their clothes have been produced and because no one has invented a crochet machine, the crochetwear you see has definitely been handmade.
Fortunately, because the stakes are low and The Crochet Collective is a side hustle, we can make time to learn marketing strategies, develop a strong brand, pick up finance and accounting skills and figure things out slowly and patiently. One of our priorities this year is to conduct a life cycle assessment; I will be putting numbers to our activity and calculating the environmental impact of our operations and crochetwear so we can take action and offset our carbon footprint.
To achieve this utopic sustainable future, our approach is to first focus on inclusivity and social impact. Each year we donate 10% of our revenue to a charity of our choosing and in the pipeline, we’re looking to build a relationship with Knitted Knockers, a social project that provides knitted inserts to pad out bras and boost the confidence of people who have had a masectomy. On the topic of inclusion, one of the biggest questions we ask ourselves is how we can diversify our range. Bralettes, the main type of crochetwear we create, although not limited to being worn by those with boobs, are not explicitly inclusive. We’re aiming to cultivate a crochet collection that appeals to people of all gender identities because crochet fashion should be for everyone and whether you're part of the rack pack or the itty bitty titty committee, we've got you (quite literally) covered.
Becoming a more genuinely sustainable business is a big goal and one we are super excited to work towards. But we can’t do this alone. If you have any ideas, anything you would like to share with us or contribute to our goal of going carbon-zero then eventually carbon negative, please get in touch. Show your support and follow our progress on Instagram @The_CrochetCollective or get in touch by email for orders, enquiries, feedback and suggestions at thecrochetcollective.team@gmail.com.
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