brmstudio-blog

[brmstudio-blog]

Thank you.

It is with sadness that I must announce that brm will soon cease trading.

We’ve busied about today closing all of our online stores, with the exception of our Etsy store. Our Etsy store will remain open for the time being, and we will be listing all of the samples and ready-to-wear pieces we have in the studio at a discounted price. 

GO TO THE STORE >>>

This has not been an easy decision, but for me personally, it’s for the best. I’ve had a blast running brm but it’s time to move on.

Thank you to everyone who promoted us online, liked or shared our stuff, discussed ethical issues and especially to anyone who bought anything from brm - it was very much appreciated.

This tumblr blog will no longer be updated, but it won’t be deleted for the foreseeable future.

[brmstudio-blog]

Ethics: Diversity

This is post about brm, an eco and ethical women’s fashion label. We are inspired by vintage cuts and details, and everything is made in the UK.

These posts form our Ethics series - click on the #brmethics tag for more!

So far in our series, we’ve looked at standard ethical issues in the slow fashion movement - enivronmental concerns, fair trade, supply chain, animal welfare. 

But we think that fashion brands also have a social responsibility to be inclusive of marginalised people, both in hiring policies and in the types of bodies used to promote their products.

This is something that every brand can do, right now. It will take time for a big, fast fashion brand to source more ecological fabrics and adopt more ethical practices, but they can cast a diverse photoshoot right now.

Casting

We aim to cast local, diverse models in our shoots. We use ‘aim’ here, simply because the North East isn’t as diverse as other parts of the UK (it’s really white...) and it really depends on which models are avilable to work with us when we have a shoot to cast. 

Local because, well, travel costs are low (and low carbon), organisation is easier, and we love keeping things in the community. 

Diverse because a) it’s right and b) it’s much more interesting. We think our customers would prefer to see our clothes on a range of body shapes and sizes, against different skin tones, on people who present as non-binary/non-traditionally feminine, on people who may have disabilities, and on people of different ages.

Isn’t that a contradiction when you only offer clothes in sizes 8-14?

We hear you. We agree. Some of our pieces are offered up to a UK 18, and we are always absolutely delighted to get a custom order of a size we don’t offer. But, yeah, we aren’t inclusive of size at the moment. And we’re sorry for that.

At present, brm is a one woman show, so to be able to offer a large range of sizes right off the bat is difficult and incredibly time consuming, which is why we’ve made larger sizes by request only.

In future, we’d like to introduce a bigger size range, in accordance with which sizes have been requested - so, because we have been asked for 18s, we’ll add sizes 16 and 18 when we’re able, and then we’ll add sizes beyond that if people want them.

What about hiring policies?

That’s not a bridge we’re even close to crossing, but we will 100% look at bias-free ways to hire people when we’re there. 

[brmstudio-blog]

Ethics: Environment

This is post about brm, an eco and ethical women’s fashion label. We are inspired by vintage cuts and details, and everything is made in the UK.

These posts form our Ethics series - click on the #brmethics tag for more!

Those are apples from the tree in my garden.

We also have a blackberry bush, compost bin, and a raised bed that will have vegetables in it soon. But that’s personal, not business. What is brm doing, as a business, to help the environment? 

Quite a lot, we think.

Reduce, re-use, recycle

As is the nature of an business which trades online, we have lots of packages coming and going. We reuse as much of this packaging as possible - both packing materials like bubble wrap and tissue paper, and boxes/parcels. Most of these are reused for personal use, though, as many of them are branded with the logos of other companies, which is a little unproffesional...

We use compostable and recyclable packaging for our brm packaging. We do include a receipt/packing slip, but you can request that we email this to you instead!

We limit our use of plastic where possible, especially single use plastic. Lots of companies - even ethical ones! - wrap their clothing in polythene bags for transportation and we think this is terrible. We also use the smallest box possible - we don’t want to smush and crease your garments, but we will always find the most approriate box to pack your order in.

What about fabric?

Because we’re artisan-made, we can cut our pieces very economically, which leaves very little waste. The nature of clothing, though, means you do end up with scraps as the pieces of fabric are not straight edges - armholes, sleeves, necklines; these all leave scraps! 

Currently, we share our scraps with a local kids activity company called Williby Roc’s who run crafting parties and workshops using offcuts, recycled items and natural bits and bobs. Sounds like fun!

We’re also looking at new ways to use our scraps. We tried making eco-friendly bunting, but this still needed pieces of a decent size and certain shape to make it work. We’ve considred taking scraps and making new ‘fabrics’ out of them by stitching them together, and using this new fabric to make accessories, but we’re not sure how that will work yet. Watch this space!

Anything we can’t re-use goes to the fabric recycling centre at our local tip, but we try to avoid using it as much as possible. 

How’s your carbon footprint??

Teeny tiny baby shoes sized, we hope. A lot of our fabrics do come from countries like India, but they ship to the UK (to Cornwall) via boat, then ship to us in the North East via road. We make our pieces right here in studio, then send them out across the world. We do use airmail to post international packages, but we can arrange shipment via boat on request (it will just take longer to reach you!). 

On top of this, we a certified Carbon Neutral by Blue Dot Register which means that they assess our output and business operations every 6 months or so, and then we pay them to offset our carbon. They calculate how much carbon we ‘owe’, then use our payment to subsidise renewable energies like wind farms, or to plant trees, or other carbon offsetting projects.

[brmstudio-blog]

Ethics: Human Rights & Fair Wage

This is post about brm, an eco and ethical women’s fashion label. We are inspired by vintage cuts and details, and everything is made in the UK.

These posts form our Ethics series - click on the #brmethics tag for more!

Here I am, Jennifer, your CEO/Creative Director/maker/craftswoman/marketing manager/everything of brm, with my Who Made Your Clothes? Fashion Revolution sign.

I��m proud to be super hands-on with brm and I currently pattern cut, grade, cut and sew everything with a brm label. We are artisan made, and lovingly crafted. Let’s learn a little more about our promises, pricing, and plans for the future!

In the past, we’ve worked with a small, local factory, where we could communicate confidently with the makers, and visit if we need to. Costs and a need to re-use and recycle stock fabrics made us reconsider this partnership, so now everything is made right here in our studio.

As we grow, we are 100% commited to keeping production in the UK. There are more small factories in our region, and larger factories around the country that we would be delighted to work with, as long as they meet our standards.

Why in the UK? If your label says ‘made in the UK’, that’s a sign of quality, worldwide. 

However, we’re very aware of news reports suggesting factories in parts of the UK are in breach of working conditions, paying less than minimum wage to (often) migrant workers and working around existing labour laws, so we know that they are not necessarily ethical.

The laws are in place, though, which is more than can be said for many countries with high clothing production. We can also travel within the UK easily, to check up on our hypothethical future factories if we need to, which makes this less of a concern than if our pieces were being produced in China, India, or elsewhere. There is also no language barrier to overcome.

We believe in supporting local business where possible, and the manufacturing industry in the UK is slowly building back up (after being all but wiped out in the late 20th century), many thanks to the Made in Britain campaign. 

It also means our carbon footprint is MUCH smaller. Garments currently travel 0 miles from production to posting, and we’d like to keep that number as small as possible.

What about your pricing?

Our prices reflect our current production method. Artisan-made pieces (where one person crafts one garment from beginning to end) take more time to complete than the way a production line works (making several garments at once where each person will take one portion of the work, eg sewing certain seams), and that means more time per garment which means more money in wages, especially when this is calculated at a fair per-hour wage. Our future pricing will change in line with our production costs so that you are not paying over the odds for anything!

So you are Fair Trade?

We work to fair trade guidelines, but we’re not fair trade certified. 

In order to use the Fair Trade logo, you must have been through the certification process, and that costs quite a lot of money, which we don’t have as a small start up company. In fact, every product you wish to certify must go through the process, not just the company!

We do buy fabrics which have been officially certified as Fair Trade and we do include that descriptor in the listings which use those fabrics. Many of our fabrics do not have this certification, although some of those do operate to fair trade guidelines, as we do. This is for the same reason as above - the cost can be prohibitive. We work with small makers and vendors and they also cannot afford to obtain official certification, unfortunately. 

A couple of our fabrics are question marks - we simply don’t know if they’re produced under fair trade guidelines or not. We’re confident in the quality and good ethics of all of our organic cottons, but our non-organics and silk are a grey area. 

If you’re unsure, drop us an email and we’ll tell you all we can about the materials and making of the garment you’re interested in! 

[brmstudio-blog]

I was interviewed for Trusted Clothes back in April and forgot to share!! Click for chat about me, ethics, and brm. https://buff.ly/2jxImXF

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Ethics: Animal Welfare

This is post about brm, an eco and ethical women’s fashion label. We are inspired by vintage cuts and details, and everything is made in the UK.

These posts form our Ethics series - click on the #brmethics tag for more!

brm didn’t start out, as a company, with a strong belief in animal rights. Although we love animals (Smudge, up there, in particular - RIP little man), incorporating vegan values into our company values wasn’t on our agenda. But now it is.

We were commited to not using fur or leather in our collections from the get go, but this was a financial and practical choice at first, rather than a vegan one. Those fabrics are expensive and hard to work with, so why would we?

But as we started to market brm, and get involved in the sustainable style community, it became evident that there was a big crossover between that, and the vegetarian/vegan community. We learnt how silk was made, and were taken aback. I cut down my meat consumption, eventually going veggie properly in 2016.

So where are we now? We won’t use fur. We won’t use leather. We won’t use cruel ‘wools’ like Angora, whose industries are more like the fur trade.

We still have a roll of silk to use up - which we will, in the interest of no waste - but after that? We won’t use silk (or if we do, it will be peace silk.)

We have decided against using horn buttons.

We will though, at present, continue to use wool. We understand this is an animal product, and by that definition isn’t vegan, but as a byproduct which doesn’t harm the animal, we’re a little torn. We’d love to know how vegans feel about this. Would you buy wool products?

[brmstudio-blog]

Ethics: Trims & Details

This is post about brm, an eco and ethical women’s fashion label. We are inspired by vintage cuts and details, and everything is made in the UK.

These posts form our Ethics series - click on the #brmethics tag for more!

I’m sad to say that our trims and finishes are our downfall when it comes to ethical credentials. Let’s look a little closer.

Buttons

The picture above shows a set of pink vintage buttons and a set of deadstock/end of line white buttons. Both are plastic.

The problem with plastic buttons is, of course, biodegradability. Using vintage or deadstock buttons is fine, but often they don’t come in huge numbers, which can make production difficult. We only have around 40 of the pink buttons, and around 90 of the white ones.

We do buy buttons in small batches so that there’s as little waste as possible, but they’re still plastic. 

The other options though? Not much better. Horn buttons are strong and natural, but wouldn’t be considerd vegan. Wood buttons are also strong, and natural, but new wood means cutting down trees, which isn’t particularly sustainable. Glass buttons are heavy, or delicate, and often too large/gaudy (we like small, round buttons!)

We think the best option could be shell buttons, but these can be quite delicate. If we could find recycled plastic buttons, or reclaimed wooden buttons, perhaps we can strike a happy medium.

Zips

Zips are also a concern - tapes are often synethic fabrics such as nylon or polyester, and teeth are plastic or metal.

We do custom order our zips so that there’s no waste; they are exactly the colour, length and type that we need for that garment.

Bindings

Bindings are no problem. We make our own bindings from the same fabric or a contrast fabric most of them time, and we keep a small stock of 100% cotton bindings for other projects.

Branding

We’ve struggled with branding sustainably. We use 3 types of labels in our garments - brand label, size label, and care label. At present, our care labels are printed using laser/digital printing onto synthetic ribbon. Our brand and size labels are woven in a Damask style using synthetic fibres. 

Obviously these aren’t ideal. We’ve looked into sourcing organic/natural labels for all 3 of these, but the only suppliers we can find either have very high minimums and/or are based in the US, which means a high carbon footprint AND high shipping costs, or high costs for an amount of labels far beyond what we need.

So we source non-sustainable labels in a sustainable way - we buy our labels from UK based companies, in manageable amounts, to keep their carbon footprint low. In fact, the company who print our care labels is based in a town about 50 miles away from the brm studio.

Other

We also use other trims like poppers/press studs (we use metal ones!) and elastic (elastics tend to be synthetic, unfortunately).

Like we said, trims can be the biggest barrier to being sustainable, and this will be by far the most negative post. We will always strive to find better alternatives - but sometimes, as with our branding labels, we must look at the options and decide whether the benefits of using more sustainable trims would be outweighed by the shipping distance or the prohibitive cost.

[brmstudio-blog]

Our Ethics: Fabric Sourcing

This is post about brm, an eco and ethical women’s fashion label. We are inspired by vintage cuts and details, and everything is made in the UK.

These posts form our Ethics series - click on the #brmethics tag for more!

brm is a small  business, based in the North East, far away from big fabric hubs. So how do we source fabrics?

We started by searching for UK-based sellers of organic and fair trade fabrics online. 

We mainly buy fabrics from one organic vendor, who works directly with weavers in India and ships new styles by boat to the UK. They are a small family-run company, just like us, and are based in the South West of England. 

We love working with other small companies - this particular vendor is super quick to reply to queries and has sent us scans of the GOTS ceritificates for the fabrics we’ve used when we’ve asked. They sell fabric by the metre for retail, but also wholesale, in rolls, which gives us lots of flexibility to try new styles.

Fair Trade

The vendor we work with offers a range of organic cottons - both woven and jersey - bamboo based fabrics, and end-of-roll high end wools that would be out of our price range otherwise. Some of these fabrics are also certified fair trade, but most are not.

The lack of a fair trade certification doesn’t worry us. The company is fairly transparent and regularly sends newsletters featuring pictures from the weavers themselves. We know that getting a Fair Trade ceritification for your product can be a lengthy and expensive venture, which is why we don’t have fair trade certification, despite being confident that we fit all of the criteria!

One of our previous vendors, who sadly closed down in late 2017, did supply fair trade and organic cottons in shirting weight - if you’re buying a blouse or top from us, chances are it is from the stock we bought from them before they closed and it is certified Fair Trade (they were also delighted to be able to share their certificate with us!)

The Big Guys

In 2014, we took a trip to Paris, to Premiere Vision. For those not in the know, PV is the biggest fabric trade show in the fashion business, and everyone, from Primark to Prada, visits PV to look at the new season fabrics. We found it difficult to source eco fabics at PV, finding very little in the way or organic or fair trade fabrics. We did find some Italian Wool Mills who were working with undyed, natural wools or wool from sheep who live very close to the mill, so have a low carbon footprint. We’d love to use some of these luxurious fabrics in the future, but right now the minimum orders are a little high.

Anything else?

We also love Offset Warehouse, which is a UK-based vendor selling fashion and interior fabrics which are end of line and/or eco. Lots of organic, natural and fair trade fabrics here, and some real gems. They sell retail so the fabrics are a little more expensive per meter, which is why we haven’t splashed out on any of their fabrics yet - but of our suppliers and potential suppliers, they have some of the most exciting eco fabrics going.

ANY QUESTIONS?

Have we answered everything? Would you like to know more?

[brmstudio-blog]

Look out for our stunning summer occasion dress - the Pleat Yoke Dress in Blue Gingham organic cotton - available to order soon from all of our stores... 👗💚

[brmstudio-blog]

Buy Today; Ship Tomorrow

Head over to our Etsy store to see our Ready-To-Ship range - a selection of ready-made Collection One pieces that can be shipped with no wait time!

These were pieces which were hanging in Whosit & Whatsit, our bricks-and-mortar stockist, until they sadly closed down late last year. We also have some Collection Two sale-ready samples which were also stocked in W&W but they need to be photographed before being added to the store - watch this space!

These pieces are mostly in a size 10 (UK), but the Butter Yellow Shell Top above is available in sizes 8-14 (UK)

[brmstudio-blog]

Goodbye, Weave

We’re sad to announce that we’re no longer working with Weave, our production partner in Northumberland who, until this week, fulfilled orders of around half of our current product range.

Why?

A number of factors - pricing, availability, manufacturing time (as we had to fit around bigger orders and brands). Some of our fabrics are just sitting there, un-used, where we could re-use them on different styles; some of our patterns are at Weave so we can’t offer customisation on those styles without major upheaval. This path offers us more flexibility for our customers.

What does this mean?

It means all of our production is moving in-house - every aspect of brm now comes from the brm studio direct to you, the buyer. We may work with freelance sewists in the local area in future if we need to; they’ll always be paid a fair wage for their work. 

It does mean shorter delivery times on our products as we can get to work on an order straight away instead of waiting for confirmation and a slot from Weave - you’ll find all of our listings on Etsy, Folksy, Ecohabitude and our brm store have been updated to reflect this shorter make time.

[brmstudio-blog]

Holiday Reminder!

Are you thinking about the Holidays already? 

If you’re considering ordering a brm piece for party season or as a gift, remember that we are made-to-order and to leave a little extra time for production & delivery.

We recommend ordering by mid-November at the latest. 

*orders in the UK/pieces made in the brm studio might be able to leave it a little later but there are no guarantees outside of the lead time which is listed in all of our stores, on all of our products. Lead times vary from product to product.

We also accept Etsy Giftcards >>> See our Etsy Store!

[brmstudio-blog]

Sustainability doesn’t mean perfect, it means you’re making better choices. Don’t understand what I mean? Just ask Ecocult …

[brmstudio-blog]

High Waist Slim Fit Trousers in Grey 100% Wool - LIMITED EDITION

You may remember this post about the making of a pair of fitted trousers - they are now available to buy as an EXCLUSIVE to our Etsy store. These are very limited edition! Click to buy from out Etsy store via the above image or this here link, and enjoy the first image - a very popular Instagram shot of our new trousers out and about...

brm is an eco and ethical clothing label based in the UK.

If you liked this post, why not follow us? You can follow us on tumblr (our main blog), on other social media, or sign up to our newsletter on our website. We’d also love for you to share this post...!

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Sharing this article from Well Made Clothes which discusses changing attitudes to ’seasons’ in fashion - they discuss it in terms of new business models such as Burberry and Tom Ford’s buy-from-the-catwalk model and so on but I think there are some points they’ve missed.

At brm we present seasonless collections. In all truth and transparency, this was a financial and time-limit choice - it’s expensive to produce and shoot a new collection every 6 months (assuming you stick to the spring/summer, autumn/winter model which I think many small to mid-size brands do, especially as industry events like Premiere Vision are held every 6 months), as well as for me, personally, working part time on the side... it’s a lot of work for one person!

But seasons, to me, don’t make sense in 2016. I market to a worldwide audience with an array of climates, from Sweden to West Coast US, from Taiwan to Australia (and the latter is on the opposite season schedule, being in the southern hemisphere!) - even if I was just selling the UK, out weather is very changeable and often people will want, for example, items with sleeves in summer. 

For me, it isn’t a savvy business model to say “here is our spring/summer collection” and that’s all the is available. It makes more sense to say “here is my first collection” and produce a capsule collection that can be mixed and matched and works for as many scenarios as possible. It means for me, as a start-up, that I don’t have to worry about the time limit on producing collection two, as it doesn’t have to be out to fit in with a certain season.

It’s also, of course, more eco friendly. Seasons encourage the changing of trends and the buying of new pieces, whether from high-end or high street brands. 

I really like Study NY’s model of releasing a small capsule collection every month (3-4 pieces) which build to a complete collection across the year - the whole years worth of pieces make a complete collection, but there are a select few new styles to keep the customers interest. This is great from a customer POV as we are used to seeing and wanting new items frequently to keep our interest, but from Study’s POV they can concentrate on getting those 3-4 pieces right before moving on to the next ones, instead of stressing about all 50-ish pieces at once for a show.

I look forward to seeing new innovations in how collections are presented, likely from eco companies who are looking for ways to encourage less waste and more considered buying.

brm is an eco and ethical clothing label based in the UK.

If you liked this post, why not follow us? You can follow us on tumblr (our main blog), on other social media, or sign up to our newsletter on our website. We’d also love for you to share this post...!

website // twitter // instagram // facebook // pinterest

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Repost/regram from Whosit & Whatsit who, sadly, have had to close their doors for good today.

This is a big blow for the independent scene in the North East and for every one of their sellers, including brm, but they put their all into it and we wish them well in their future projects 💚😢

What this means for us is that we no longer have a physical stockist - though of course we do still have all of our online stockists (Etsy, Folksy, Ecohabitude and our website). We are always looking for other stockists, both online and offline.

[brmstudio-blog]

Making Of... Slim Trousers

Making of... Slim Trousers: Making Of... was made to highlight how much work goes in to making the average garment in order to ope up a conversation about how we take for granted the craftsmanship, workmanship and pure man-hours that go into making our clothes, and how, in doing that, we de-value women's work, both in the western world & in developing countries. 

The fashion industry is one of the largest employers of women worldwide, but those women are often underpaid and undervalued.

I’d love to get some shares on this video - it’s meant to be fun to watch and in the spirit of How It’s Made at the same time as highlighting an issue that is important to me and to brm as a company.

brm is an eco and ethical clothing label based in the UK.

If you liked this post, why not follow us? You can follow us on tumblr (our main blog), on other social media, or sign up to our newsletter on our website. We’d also love for you to share this post...!

website // twitter // instagram // facebook // pinterest