Sisterhood: A Sustainably Conscious Brand, In The UK
In 2015, Eve Jones created Sisterhood, a UK sustainably conscious, fashion brand that uses recycled materials in packaging, low impactful fabrics, and fibers. Sisterhood’s styles are designed to make you feel beautiful and effortless, and the company creates timeless pieces that are intended to be worn forever. Creating ethically is also important to the company, which ensures that all factory workers receive fair and above wages. Sisterhood also donates monthly to sustainability projects to help give back to the planet. Sisterhood’s priority, in sum, is to make sure its clothes don’t have an ugly past.
How does the brand promote inclusion and diversity?
At the moment the brand isn’t where I want it to be with inclusion and diversity in terms of showing our clothing on different bodies. This is simply because being such a small, independent brand, only having myself working for the company, budgets are extremely tight. There are a few factors that complicate our situation. The first being that it can cost £1000’s for samples to be produced as we are paying for sample yardage and new patterns to be made, and we sometimes need a few rounds of samples per style to get the correct fit and finish. I fit them on myself currently so have to arrange them in a size S for that reason, adding another size of samples for our photoshoots before production means adding extremely high costs. We just don’t have the funding at the moment. Another factor is our sizing is currently limited: size UK 6-14. We can only split into 5 sizes with our factory for the quantity we are able to order (without severely overproducing stock we wouldn’t be able to guarantee we will sell). We are working hard to get to a place where we can add more inclusivity. Shooting with different body types and expanding our sizing range is high on our list of things to accomplish this year. This is a high focus on where I want the brand to be. Finding a balance as a brand owner is really hard at times, especially when finances restrict what you would love to be creative. Hopefully opening up about the difficulties can help people understand that it isn’t for lack of interest in what we are trying to do.
On your website you mention becoming carbon neutral as a brand. Do you have a certain time frame by which you want to achieve that?
Currently, our brand is carbon neutral. We calculate each month our outgoings for any production/ shipments/ couriers/ etc., and we donate to projects around the world, which give back to the planet in different ways to balance our carbon emissions.
Since you’re an online brand do you have plans to expand and open up a retail store?
Currently, we don’t have any plans for a retail store of our own, but hopefully this is something to consider in the future. We are, however, trying to focus on wholesale and being stocked in some third-party stores to allow greater access to our clothing in stores.
What makes your brand stand out from other sustainable brands?
I think our honesty about finding a balance with sustainability is something I hope makes us stand out. Many brands are becoming better in their practice and some are shouting from the rooftops about being completely sustainable. But, actually, I think finding a balance is the key. The new production of clothing will never be truly sustainable, but we can try our best to create things that will last and slow down the industry in every way possible.
What is the meaning behind the name of the brands?
I picked Sisterhood in the beginning as the reason I had the confidence to start the brand due to all of the incredibly supportive women around me at the time. I also loved the meaning of being in something together as a collective. This is why as the brand grows and progresses it’s important to become more inclusive of all women.
I see you donate to many earth-positive projects. What is the process behind picking which one to donate to?
We use a website carbonfootprint.com, which lists lots of different projects all around the world, from wind farms to hydroelectric power plants, gas management and thermal energy generation projects, and more. We just try to vary each month what we donate to.
Are there any celebrities/ influencers you would love to see wearing?
Yes I would love to see Zoë Kravitz, Zendaya, Margot Robbie, and any of the Euphoria cast as personal favorites. And as for influencers sone of my all-time favorites are Lucy Williams, Matilda Djerf, and Bentheliem. I’m in love with their style.
Since you are a British brand do you think British consumers are more eager to buy sustainably than other consumers like Americans?
I definitely think it’s a prominent thing in the UK right now with people being more aware of their impacts on the planet. However, I also think a lot of Americans are also eager to shop better. We actually have a lot of success with international customers buying sustainably with our biggest countries being UK, USA, France, and Australia.
Do you have any plans to expand your product lines in the future?
Yes we do. We are actually waiting to launch new sustainable swimwear this summer, which is exciting for us. We recently added knitwear, which is my favorite new addition and we will be looking to expand into other areas as well.
Social Media.
Facebook: @sisterhoodjointhe
Instagram: @sisterhoodthe
TikTok: @sisterhoodthe
Interview by Sahar Kariem, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine
Tearsheets by Alexa Dyer, Graphic Design Intern, PhotoBook Magazine
Images courtesy of Sisterhood
