Meet our Creative Partner ~ Brothers and Sisters

Planning Meeting at Brothers and Sisters

We want to share our whole story with you and an important part of story of the Fableists is its characters. All of us share some common ground in that we have been connected to the advertising and film production world. We have been very lucky to spend much of our working lives in a creative environment, where collaboration is just part of the job. Over the years (too many to mention!), we have met, worked with and been awed by some amazingly talented people. Starting The Fableists didn’t spell the end of these relationships, it meant another opportunity to work with creative people we admire. We hope that through creative collaboration, we can help make some positive changes to the world in our own little way.

We are keen to get our ‘threads’ and story out to the world and shared our ideas and plans for The Fableists with a few advertising agencies. A chance meeting with Andy Fowler and Juliet Haygarth from Brothers and Sister in London grew into a friendly chat, that lead to further conversations. Our shared passion for the ethos behind The Fableists and their creative input and brand-building knowledge resulted in our partnering with them.

We knew straight away that Brothers and Sisters were the ideal partners for us. We couldn’t work with just any agency, it had to be one who really understood what we were trying to do. Sure, we are growing a business, and that is what all ad agencies are built to help with, but it’s not just any business. A sustainable business works on a triple bottom line model, in which the same emphasis is given to environmental and social impact as is given to profits. And you need to have partners who are 100% behind that goal.

Brothers and Sisters is one of main characters in our story. They are building the image of The Fableists and keeping us on track to bring our plans to fruition. We met with the team today, and had a cracking meeting to discuss our next steps. Photographed above are Matt Cooper, from the Fableists, planner Sophie Davies, Managing Director Juliet Haygarth and Andy Fowler, Executive Creative Director.

Introducing our Limited Edition Artist-Designed Tees

The Fableists’ ‘Happy Factory’ by Anthony Peters

Over the next few days we will be sharing some of our t-shirt designs with you. They are all created by amazing illustrators and very cool graphic designers. They will be available for purchase this summer.

The ranges will be made available in limited editions, so when they go live on our site, you will have to get them whilst you can! Our aim is to not mass produce but to make works of art on tees, that you can feel proud to buy and your kids can feel cool wearing. These aren’t your typical kids’ tees and we think they will make your kids stand out from the crowd. We will also be producing these in limited prints signed by the artists (very small numbers).

One pound from each t-shirt we sell will go in to a charity that we are in the process of developing that will help educate kids. More about that soon.

The Fableists’ ‘Wear Me Out’ by Anthony Peters

Our first featured artist is Anthony Peters, who is based in Brighton, UK and represented by Kelly at RAREBIRD (see images). We LOVE these and think he has nailed our brief! They are called ‘Happy Factory’, ‘Make Art, Not War’ and ‘Wear Me Out’.

The tees are all made from 100% organic cotton and are GOTS certified. They are produced in a factory that is wind powered, producing a negligible carbon footprint.

We hope that you love them as much as we do – we want some in adult sizes!!

‘Make Art, Not War’ by Anthony Peters

Visiting Factories in Kolkata

Sujal Basu, Mr Jaipuria Sr and Rajat Jaipuria at Rajlakshmi Kolkata

Last week, Matt Cooper of The Fableists visited a couple of factories in India where we are making some of our clothes. Here is the story of his visit.

The first factory and business that we met with, Rajlakshmi, is run by Rajat Jaipuria, who took the business over from his father. It is a very different business today than it was then, but the family has been running this factory since the 1930’s. We heard about Rajlaksmi through a conversation with Chetna Organic, a collective of organic cotton farmers, who have 15% ownership of the factory.

Rajat got into the organic world about 15 years ago and has never looked back. They are producing really nice garments at the factory, with great attention to detail and some great staff, who I really enjoyed spending time with. I saw every part of the factory and even had the pleasure of eating a fantastic lunch (three quarters subsidised by the owners) with the team. I would be more than happy to eat there every day – the food was amazing!

The business has grown from a team of 3 people to about 1000 over the last 15 years (spread across 3 buildings) and the staff who started with Rajat are still there, which was great to see. I spent most of my time there with my production contact, Sajal Basu and with the lovely Ann Reloux and Rajat who owns the business. I came away super impressed with their knowledge, their huge passion for Organic and ethical trading and just, well, what nice people they were! You will be hearing from them and reading more about them here soon.

At Work in Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills, Kolkata

I also visited a dying plant whilst with the guys and was equally blown away by that. It burns no carbon, but runs on rice husk, which was amazing to see first-hand. All the water they use through the dying process is cleaned and re-used after going through many filters.

So, we came away dead pleased from our first trip, fully understanding where the cotton comes from, how it reaches Rajlakshmi and the processes it goes through before it reaches you. Put basically, the cotton appears from a collection of farms (through Chetna) with a fair-trade stamp and the process covered is all GOTS compliant, and these guys are passionate about what they are doing.

We will continue to make sure that we report back to you (our future customers) on the people and companies we work with. We think you need to know every little part of the process.

Western Shirt ~ First Look

Unisex Western Shirt from The Fableists

This unisex western shirt looks sharp on boys and girls. Made in 100% organic denim chambray, it plays hard and washes up well. It is inspired by traditional western shirts, which feature a front and back yoke, mother of pearl fasteners and two breast pockets. This style originated in the 19th century American west and was popularised by the singing cowboys of the 1940’s and movie and television legends of the 50’s. It is great for riding bucking broncos, cutting a fine figure in Central Park, or splashing about at the British seaside.

(in the background you can sneak a peek at one of our limited edition, artist-designed t-shirts!)

What’s in a Name?

The Fableists’ Swing Tags

You might be wondering about our name…

‘The Fableists’ is a word of our making. We want to tell modern stories that have morals but at the same time we want to be seen as a brand that is a lot of fun, with a rebellious spirit. So, we slammed two words together:

A ‘fable’ is a short story with a moral & an ‘activist’ is a person who is passionate about what they believe in and helps to educate others and convince them to embrace their beliefs.

So,
the Fableists is a group of people creating cool, sustainable clothes for little punks. We aim to tell you everything about the clothes we make. We want you to know where the cotton we use is grown, who picks it, where it is woven into cloth and dyed, by whom and how. We want you to know – first-hand – that people and the planet are not being harmed to produce the garment you buy from us.

A Visit to India to Inspect A Factory

Mud Flap on Bike Outside the Factory

Last week, Matt Cooper, founder of the Fableists, went to India to visit one of the factories that we are using to make our clothes. He will be telling you a bit more about his visit and introducing some of the people that we met over the coming days.

He visited The Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills, Kolkata, a family-run business with long serving employees, and Fair Trade accreditation. We have chosen to work with them because they are passionate about their commitment to working sustainably to produce high quality, 100% organic cotton clothing. We have also chosen Rajlakshmi because of their involvement with Chetna Organic, who are committed to ethical and environmental practice. Chetna works with small and marginal farmers (over 15,000 of them) in the rain-fed regions of Maharashtra, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, India. With strength in numbers, they are able to keep the quality of output high, while also ensuring that cotton farming remains a viable livelihood by getting fair prices for the farmers. They are also 100% Fair Trade and organically certified.

Rajlakshmi buy their organic cotton through Chetna and, in exchange, the collective own a stake in the factory. This is a great example of two groups supporting one another in order to improve the output, and also maintain cotton growing and manufacture in their region. They are both committed to working sustainably from soil to garment.

Smock Top and Smock Dress ~ First Look

Here are a couple of our first items of clothes. They are made in 100% organic cotton chambray. The Smock Dress is based on a vintage Parisian dress and the unisex Smock Top is based on vintage work wear. The Smock Top looks just as good on boys, we just didn’t have any on hand!

Both will be available soon through our web site in sizes 4-10.

Getting the Branding Right

The Fableists Stationary

The first stop on the journey to launching The Fableists was to come up with our branding, including our logo, stationary, labels and more. This is the first thing that you all see when you visit our web site, so it was not something that we wanted to take lightly. For this important project, we turned to the team at BERG, an independent ideas studio in Glasgow as we have worked with them in the past and like their style. The keywords that they used when developing The Fableists’ identity were: fun, rebellious, confident, punk, dare to think different and accessible, among others. From this brief, BERG came up with the Lightning Bolt ‘F’, which brings together our name and our attitude. We wanted to use recycled paper, in line with our goals for sustainability.

We have shared a few examples of their work in establishing The Fableists’ brand above. We believe they have really captured the feel of our company and this inspired us to crack on and realise some of our own creative ideas in terms of the clothing design.

The Fableists Will Launch Soon!

We are a design-led company creating sustainable children’s clothes with a nod to vintage clothing and work wear. We are about well designed, utilitarian clothing with punk-rock flair. Our clothes are built for play, comfort and standing out from the crowd. They are sharp and equally at home in London, New York and Paris, or over in the local park. We are very proud of our brand but don’t need to splash it all over the clothes.

At the same time, our clothes won’t cost the Earth. The making of our clothes does not damage the environment and we make sure that everyone involved in their making is paid a fair wage and works in a safe environment. We encourage you to take care of your clothes so that they last longer and pass them on to someone else when you’re done. We want you to buy fewer of our clothes as we think less is plenty.

We believe in being a transparent company and won’t cover up anything that we are doing to make our clothes. If you’re not told where your clothes come from…it’s probably not great news. The Fableists tell the stories of how our clothes are made, from start to finish. And the story does not end there, we have lots in store.

We are making sustainable clothes for cool little punks – join our movement!

Our Promises

All the clothes in our first range are made from 100% organic cotton and are GOTS certified
Everyone involved in making our clothes is paid a fair wage and has a safe work environment
We do not support sweatshops and have personally visited the factories where our clothes are made and dyed
We don’t beat the price down at the expense of labourers in the clothing factories or farmers growing the cotton
We will teach you to take better care of your clothes to help them last longer
We want to make consumers aware of the devastation buying mass produced clothing causes
We want to stand out from the crowd and make changes to the way we make clothes now – not 10 years down the line
To make beautiful, timeless clothes that are not dictated by the whims of fashion
We will not become a big, faceless company