In producing their bright, tailored shorts, Colcha Clothing create sustainable, working communities in Africa. You can buy their products from The Big Issue Shop.
Colcha Clothing create sustainable communities around the clothes they produce. Working both directly within their factories in Ghana and South Africa, and through development partners, they aim to brighten the world, one pair of legs at a time. Co-founder Scott Jarrett explains more…
The brand launched in London in 2016, with our collection of bright and bold, tailored shorts, created from contemporary African fabrics with an added European twist.
All of our products are driven through an innovative business model, which is refreshingly simple. Wherever we find the fabric, we locate manufacturing. If there are too few workers then more are trained. If there are other social, economic and environmental issues negatively impacting the region, we work with experts on the ground to combat them.
In South Africa for instance, where poor working conditions and transient migrant labour is the norm, Colcha Clothing's production facility is run as a cooperative. All of the workers have proven their eligibility to work in South Africa, and are paid a basic salary, along with supplementary dividends based on their skills and experience. Unlike most clothing operations, the workers own the factory they work in, giving them job security, higher wages and the realisation of true social mobility.
Further than this though, we have developed relationships with key charitable partners local to production facilities, to deliver funding to the causes that need it. One of these organisations, Nkosi’s Haven Village, is the first AIDS orphanage in the country that allows mothers and their children to stay together after their diagnosis.
Initially working with them on education, providing funding for studying materials and uniforms, our aim is to collaborate with Nkosi’s to create small enterprises, which in time would be self-sufficient businesses, owned and run by local people.
Colcha Clothing empowers impoverished areas to prosper, through the creation of sustainable communities by local people. Our shorts aren’t bad either…
Check out the Colcha Clothing range at The Big Issue Shop …
The above article first published on bigissue.com in May, 2017.
