Carcel is the Scandi brand with a conscience you need to know
One of the eternal challenges facing most fashion editors is promoting brands with an ethical angle and finding ones that are actually good. More often than not, the offering veers towards handbags made from ring pulls that have washed up on a beach or hemp T-shirts printed with “Save the Planet” messages. So when a brand comes along with Scandinavian-designed Céline-inspired silhouettes und a positive backstory, we cannot type fast enough.
Carcel is the brainchild of Copenhagen-based Veronica D’Souza. D’Souza spent some time in Kenya visiting women’s prisons and was shocked to discover that the inmates were often poor woman who had been imprisoned, not for serious crimes, but minor offences, usually stemming from their poverty-related backgrounds. Most of them were already sewing everyday, but without support, and not making any money.
Inspired by this, D’Souza then managed to set up a partnership with a Peruvian women’s prison where the workers get a fair wage for their work on the brand, and inside each garment, you will find the name of the woman who made it. According to its Kickstarter page, the number of women in prison in Peru has doubled the past 15 years. The brand says, “Peru has a long tradition for alpaca and knitwear. We use the fantastic expertise of these women and turn otherwise wasted time into skills and paid jobs so women in prison can support themselves and their children”. Fair and fashionable, what more would one want?
The Brand’s Manifesto
