Made in Britain - UK
Following the success of working with our partners and teams in India, we wanted to bring skilled textile jobs back to Yorkshire with the same ethical production ethos. Barnsley used to be home to thousands of garment workers and a thriving textile industry. As the factories closed down, it left many workers unemployed and no longer using their skills. We believe that creating and sustaining well-paid and rewarding jobs is the single best way to benefit a community and that’s what we try to do both in India and the UK.
Here is Lucy, our co-founder explaining more on why this was important to us...
"People have always been at the heart of Lucy & Yak; the brand is built around our team. We always want to see people do well and be looked after, however, we know in the fashion industry this isn’t always the case. When we started the brand, we knew we wanted to work with a supplier that looked after their team, someone who shared our values. We found the perfect partner for this in India and together we built a factory and a team, and the rest is history!
This went so well that we thought, why not do the same here in my hometown (Barnsley)? Barnsley used to be home to thousands of garment workers, mostly women that worked in the factories that made clothing for the high street many years ago. Most of these factories closed down or moved abroad, leaving many skilled people working in places where they couldn’t use their skills.
It sounds like a small change but the importance of well paid, stable jobs in rural Yorkshire, which employees can take real pride in, cannot be understated. We hope to one day to inspire a new generation of seamstresses and machinists to train and learn these wonderful skills so that they don’t die out."
