By far the most important person behind the brand is Anya Pearson aka “Faith”. With over 20 years in the fashion industry Anya has worked for large high street names including New Look, Warehouse and M & Co in both design and buying. Throughout this time she has seen UK manufacturing decline sharply as large chains chase the lowest price around the world at great cost to UK manufacturing (and the exploitation of overseas workers) with the related student courses being closed down leading to a large loss in skills and capability in the UK. Her experience in the fashion industry allows Frank & Faith access to highly skilled UK manufacturers including our Organic Cotton knitwear factory which uses cutting edge seam free technology in its production. Anya designs our collection with a nod to the latest trends and colours to keep our ranges “on trend” but wearable and accessible to everyone.
Our passion for UK manufacturing is linked to Anya’s close connection to this industry, the minimisation of “clothes miles” and our ability to monitor the working conditions of these factories which would not be achievable if we manufactured overseas.
Working in the background is “Frank” her chartered accountant husband who takes the burden of the all the unsexy areas of accounting, legal, systems and IT to keep the show on the role.
If you want to know any more about us why not drop us a comment?
March 30th, 2010 - 4:26 pm
I must say I’m a bit biased as I am Frank & Faith’s Web Designer (!!!) BUT I feel compelled to comment myself (no, they didn’t ask me to either!) as I can honestly say that they make a great husband and wife team and it’s really inspiring to see them as individuals and as a company stand by their ethical values and know that people do want ethical clothing but they want them to be fashionable too! It’s been great to see the collection get bigger and better each time – so here’s to Frank & Faith leading the way in UK ethical fashion! : )
April 1st, 2010 - 7:07 pm
Hi There!
I’m currently writing my dissertation on how the ethical practises of small scale retailers can be implemented into larger scale retailers. Its great to see another ethical brand who have transparency through the whole of their supply chain
Do you think this is something that could be implemented by a high street retailer? Do you feel the cost implications would be too great?
Kind Regards… Nicola
April 6th, 2010 - 2:09 pm
Hi Nicola
It’s an interesting concept and obviously one I would be really keen on implementing across the whole of the High Street.
We can pick up a bag of carrots from the supermarket these days and know the name of the farm it came from, the name of the farmer who grew it, how many calories it has in it and how best to cook it even!!
Consumers made that change in the way producers of food had to label up there produce, they demanded to know where and how their food was processed and I think eventually this will have a knock on effect for the way our clothes are labeled too.
Our clothes tell us nothing of where they were made and the chain of events that took place to make them and I think this worries a lot of consumers.
At Frank & Faith we give people a choice and the small changes we make now with our shopping habits will have a huge impact on all our futures. So make your money talk, consumers are the reason for the move towards ecologically and socially conscious choices. You are the reason that things are starting to change. Remember how small the organic fruit and veg sections were at some super markets? Now look at the organic, fair-trade and sustainable offers we have on food now! The money in our pockets is as powerful as your vote. Make your shopping decisions matter. We all get fed up with how long it takes governments to change things around, but the power of the pound is a potent tool, which we should all put to good use.
So in answer to you questions! Yes this should be implemented by all high street retailers and yes there will be cost implications but nothing these multi, multi million pound organisation can not swallow
Hope that helps
Frank & Faith