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A short note from Shauna Chapman the Founder of Quail.

Quail By Mail is a new clothing label located in the South West which specialises in organic and Fairtrade cotton clothing which has been designed and made in England. Quail is operated by a husband and wife team in the historic seaside town of Brixham, South Devon. The business idea sprang from their desire to leave London for Devon and have a green career to accompany their already green lifestyle. Shauna Chapman, Founder commented, We were already fans of local and organic food and moved onto cosmetics and soaps made in England and certified organic by the Soil Association, but we wanted to buy ethical and organic clothes as well. It was difficult for me to buy green clothes that didn’t look like I stepped off a beach in Bali, as lovely as they were.

To introduce truly unique clothing designs I decided to work with pattern cutters and graders and design the clothes from scratch and source my own ethical and organic fabric, Shauna said. Quail believes in British ingenuity and only commissions British fashion graduates. Design elements such as functioning pockets, pleats, generous cuts etc are Quail’s speciality. Our aim is to add maximum design value to the organic and Fairtrade cotton fabric. We also source sustainable haberdashery such as wood, coconut or shell buttons. Recently we discovered that larger sizes were needed to include a wider audience so we will begin to introduce sizes up to 20 before the end of Summer 2008.

“Product Provenance” is a phrase Quail has been using to show customers exactly how their fashion purchase came to be. The cotton used in 92% of the clothing line is from a single co-operative in India. The cotton starts as a non-GM seed sown in the Kutch area of Gujerat in Northern India. There, the agricultural process is certified organic by the Dutch inspection body, Skal and the agricultural and harvest practices are also certified as Fairtrade. Once harvested and processed the cotton is dyed using non-Azo (non-petro chemical dyes). The cotton is hand-loomed by a weaving community in southern India, which again is overseen by the Fairtrade Foundation. The fabric is exported to the UK.

Since it was important to Quail’s founders that rural and traditional manufacturing is revitalised in the UK, Quail only utilises small, independent Cut, Make and Trim units in Devon (97%) and London (3%). In the1980’s the decline of British clothing manufacture was caused by the lure of cheap labour overseas. It’s that same cheap labour that is coming back to haunt us with impossibly priced £3 jeans and the reality of textile machinists in developing countries working under appalling conditions. I think that producing a British product for the British market has an alluring quality to it! Reduced transport miles might also be a green factor not yet realised.

Quail has sourced local models to represent the brand and marketing material for retailing online. The mail order packaging used is recycled and recyclable brown kraft paper and a raffia bow. The entire lifestyle of the Quail founders at the live/work studio in Brixham is devoted to energy-saving, buying local, organic produce, fairtrade, traditional, reuse, reduce and recycle.

Having produced clothing with provenance, which is also ethical, green and British it is Quail’s aim to grow the business sustainably and create artisan, limited edition clothing items.

tagged Interesting companies & organisations and Quail By Mail

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