Jeans for the socially conscious and fashionable

It was a case of waste not, want not, when 28 000 pairs of counterfeit designer jeans, destined for the scrap-heap, were given a new lease on life thanks to the intervention of our Abafazi Bebonke [Women Together] group.

To protect the real brands, the fake jeans could not simply be donated to good causes. But, with permission from the brand owners and the department of trade and industry, CWD undertook to 'de-brand' the jeans, before selling them to raise funds.

Fake rivets, buttons and labels had to be removed and replaced – and it was then that the project really took off. The four previously unemployed women engaged in the de-trademarking exercise unleashed their sewing skills – completely remodelling the jeans to create a unique fashion range which will be sold under our own Brand*New label.

The women now earn a monthly income and proceeds from the sale of the jeans will be used to create other empowerment projects.

Objectives

Long-term objectives of the Brand*New Jeans project is to create opportunities for women to escape the poverty trap permanently; to impart sewing and entrepreneurial skills; to show real impact – children sent to school, mouths fed, clothes bought – in the lives of those employed in the project; and to create a high quality product that will be purchased because of demand as well as its social value.