Supporting garment workers in Leicester

I’m Maria Skoyles, a textiles specialist and founder of the Dorcas Dress Project.  We’re on a mission to see the fashion world transformed to a place that lifts people out of poverty, rather than holding them in it.  We work around the world to support dressmakers facing hardship.  Our beneficiaries may be unemployed, struggling from mental or physical health challenges or find themselves in some form of isolation. We train people to make and sell our products as a pathway into employment and to support their personal well-being.

Our unique dress is designed with no zips, buttons or trimmings. It can also be made to a high quality finish using only a straight stitch sewing machine. The dress is size adjustable reducing the need for large amounts of stock. This great enterprise tool therefore has small start up costs and is even accessible to people who live in the remote parts of the world where access to electricity and resources is difficult.  

There were an estimated 10,000 garment workers in Leicester in 2019.  Since April 2020, The British Retail Consortium estimated that garment workers had lost £27million, due to employers not paying the minimum wage. It has been identified that the very workers producing the clothes we often take for granted, “have been amongst the hardest hit by the economic catastrophe of Covid-19” (Worker Rights Consortium, 2021).  They are at the end of a complex web of negotiations for faster production and tighter margins.  These all begin with some well-known high street brands searching for the best deal, irrespective of whether they are ethically possible. Many garment workers in Leicester are first generation migrants who speak little to no English.  This makes them exceptionally vulnerable to isolation and exploitation.

This Crowdfunding campaign is specifically aimed at addressing these issues in Leicester. We have partnered with a local factory, selected with support from a Hope for Justice agent, for their ethical and sustainable values, to help demonstrate fashion can be a fair and equitable industry for all.  We want to provide garment workers with much needed free English lessons that many of them wish to participate in. We want to provide inclusive social opportunities for them to practice and share their new-found language skills with colleagues and neighbours across the culturally diverse communities within which they work.

This batch of dresses will be made using modern efficient industrial machinery, in a Leicester made recycled polyester jersey fabric, reducing waste and carbon miles.  The jersey structure provides a comfortable yet relaxed silhouette.  It is machine washable at low temperatures, dries quickly and require no pressing.  Our two colour options of black or navy, make this a perfect option for anyone’s workwear, office or evening wardrobe.  The dress celebrates women at all stages of life. As always our Dorcas dress is one size, adjusting to fit UK sizes 6 to 24; it can be worn through weight loss and gain, pregnancy and breastfeeding.  To meet minimum production volumes we need to receive pledges for at least 100 dresses in each colour.  When you pledge to buy a dress you can choose whether you would like a black or navy one.  You can also say you don’t mind, just in case one of the options is less popular and doesn’t meet our minimum volume.  The recommended retail price of this dress is £64.  We would like to offer a discount for all advance orders making each dress £58.  There is also the opportunity to make pledges for accessories designed by local students and produced by our local UK trainees, who are all learning to demonstrate improved employability skills.

Please go to https://www.dorcasdressproject.org/shop/crowdfunder-spring-2022 to see more images of the dress, bags and jewellery.

Profits will be used to support our existing sewing hubs and grow our charity work both here in the UK and internationally.  In Nigeria and Uganda, we are supporting dressmakers with much-needed equipment and training to run their own dressmaking enterprises.  Our online training platform enables us to provide quality, consistent teaching resources for our volunteers and trainees wherever they are in the world.  It enables us to monitor progress, success and receive feedback from everyone involved.  Our mentoring service is an invaluable resource for all our beneficiaries as they are able to access pastoral care and links to other partner organisations.

 I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the people and organisations that have helped to make this Crowdfunding campaign possible.  May I encourage you to pledge to order a dress and accessory, and to share this video so we can honour and respect the people that help us to feel good about ourselves.

Our tote bags are designed as training tools, each bag involves making 3 or 4 features in that are included in the dress.

Some of the additional rewards we are offering:

Dresses from Nigeria

We've had a bit of a rummage in our stock boxes and wondered if anyone would like to pledge and receive one of these lovely dresses, knowing that their pledge is being matched! Scroll down the rewards to find the right description.

Past collections:

Busy bee (pink/gold): Forest glade (grey and green): Copper corduroy stripe.