What's something that makes your brand unique? 
What makes us unique, based on our particular skills and experience, is digging into niche sizing. As a made to measure brand, we make our patterns to the individual measurements of our customers. This approach is part of our sustainability strategy as we feel that it has benefits for the wearer in terms of body positivity, and improved functionality. But it should also reduce waste. Firstly, we don’t make stock until it has been ordered - sometimes known as pull manufacture. The other way is through better fit as we find that often inaccurate fit can be why clothes are discarded quickly. By making fit more accurate, we can increase the wearers and the relationship between a wearer and a garment. Having something made for you, and taking the time to be involved in the design process, is part of a slow fashion mentality.

What is your bestselling style?
We are currently working on some crossover underwear/ outerwear pieces utilising botanically dyed silks. The silks are steamed with the dye elements wrapped inside in their ‘natural form’ so then the shapes of petals, leaves and seeds, leave traces on the silk, forming an abstract pattern. Inspired by this beautiful process to make some romantic non-underwired silk bralettes. Using biodegradable elastics (organic cotton and natural rubber), we can create pieces that can fully biodegrade at the end of life.

 It is significant to develop designs that can utilise these new materials. We are becoming more aware of the risk that microfibres and microplastics pose to our oceans and waterways, 35% of which come from synthetic clothing. And of course, lingerie is one of those that are washed frequently and will inevitable reach the end of its life relatively soon- due to the strains on it when in use. A safe method of disposal (composting) is crucial to us.

What are the ethical values your brand stands for?
We frame our ideas of ethics within a concept of ‘the good life’ - a sustainable and planet regenerative way of living that communities can produce together. Our new collections use certified Lenzing Modal and organic cotton (elastics) etc. We also think about the deeper context in which our products are made. The living wage is a big part of that. We think of it as the empowerment of Femme Bodies, and the due recognition of types of labour that are traditionally associated with them. Paid and unpaid care work, garment manufactures all deserve a living wage, even though they are often types of undervalued work and taken for granted. We don’t just pay the living wage to our technicians, but we also use our resources and experiences to campaign for a living wage across the industry. With the materials, it is important to build local networks of small scale local suppliers. That allows us to enter it to dialogue with those people and create together. We think it helps when the effects of certain practices are tangibly felt. We want people to wear our garments and to have an experience of increased soil fertility or biodiversity that can be achieved by sourcing regeneratively sourced fibres. And we also think it is crucial that the negative effects of say, dye runoff, aren’t just seen as an issue for a community halfway across the globe, and localised sourcing can help to bring those realities home. 

What's one thing you're looking forward to in 2021?
As we have some botanical dye samples underway, I'm really excited and looking forward to working on the samples! 

We're sure that you are going to want to know more about this exciting brand so come and meet Alice Holloway on Monday 25th January at 3pm where she will be going live on our Instagram to show us all the behind the scenes of Little Black Pants and for a Q&A session.