Juste
• Exquisite, design led women’s wear• Cutting edge designs combined with traditional skills in weaving, printing and embroidery
• Fair trade production using fairly traded, naturally dyed, and recycled fabrics
• Sourcing and production based in Bangladesh and UK
• Sells both ready to wear collections and made to measure designs
The business
Juste was founded by Tamsin Lejeune with the aim of creating exquisite, design led women’s wear, made to fair trade criteria. The label works with the best new and established designers who create collections under their name, for Juste. Ready to wear collections are currently sourced and made in Bangladesh, to fair trade criteria. The business is structured to maximise value to the people behind the product, including a percentage of profits dedicated to a community fund set up by producers.
Juste combine cutting edge designs with traditional skills in weaving, printing and embroidery. The resulting fabrics are not only beautiful; they also add a unique value to the work of the fair trade producers with whom Juste form partnerships.
Sourcing/manufacture
All fabrics and components for both ready to wear and bespoke collections are currently sourced from fair trade producer groups in Bangladesh, in particular one group which has worked to revive traditional weaving and natural dye techniques.
Fabrics include handwoven, naturally dyed fine silks and khadi cottons, jamdani (transparent muslin, generally a cotton silk mix, with intricate handwoven designs) kantha embroidery (an intricate embroidery technique) as well as heavier silks and thick cotton weaves made from recycled yarns, for winter wear.
For ready to wear collections, Juste has worked to establish a partnership between a fair trade co-operative and a professional sampling studio in Bangladesh, making it possible to create high quality, design led collections made to fair trade criteria.
For bespoke collections, materials are sourced from Bangladesh and garments are made in the UK by designers for Juste.
Product/market
Current Juste designs include bias cut, naturally dyed silk and pleated intricately woven jamdani evening wear; sculptural tailored designs for day and evening made from recycled yarns, light handwoven muslins, and luxurious hand-printed silks.
The Juste aesthetic is all about clever cutting and draping, making it possible to create sophisticated designs which are simple for fair trade co-operatives to produce.
The colour palette is defined by jewel like natural dyes, ranging from indigo and deep green to gold, salmon, silver greys and deep madder.
The target market for Juste fashion collections is women aged 25-40, who look for clothes which are elegant and sophisticated and enjoy beautiful fabrics.
The current focus for Juste is bespoke, made to measure evening and special occasion wear. However the label will be re- launching ready to wear collections in February 2008.
Bespoke designs are sold through customers working directly with designers for Juste. Ready to wear collections are sold from independent boutiques, mainly in London, and will be available in Equa and other stores from summer 2008.
Juste also sells a range of fabrics, interior products and accessories including cushions and scarves.
Example retail prices for juste products are as follows:
Ready to wear collections:
Tops: £60- £150
Dresses: £180- £300
Jackets: £100- £250
Scarves: £30- £80
Bespoke designs, made to measure:
Evening dresses/ wedding: £300 for simple designs, upwards
Day wear: £200 for simple designs, upwards
Sustainability
Juste works with IFAT (International Fair Trade Association) affiliated groups for fabric sourcing and for the production of simple designs.
For more complex designs, Juste works to provide training to fair trade groups in pattern cutting and construction techniques. They also develop partnerships between fair trade co-operatives who reach disadvantaged communities and more established sampling workshops and professionals serving the mainstream fashion sector.
Juste looks to maximise the percentage of profits going to producers of fabrics and fashion collections. The aim is to create sustainable livelihoods; to increase opportunities and reduce environmental impacts of production whilst creating an elegant and cutting edge designer women’s wear brand.
In the long term Juste aims to develop partnerships with producers which give them a stake in the profits and offer them a level of ownership of the final brand.
In terms of the environment Juste currently focuses upon the use of naturally dyed fabrics as well as fabrics made from recycled yarns.
The brand works to minimise packaging and use recycled products where possible.
What next?
Because the range of fabrics sourced from Bangladesh is predominantly lighter fabrics, Juste is looking for sustainably sourced, high quality winter fabrics. These can be lined with Bangladeshi fair trade silks thus supporting the supply chain throughout the year.
The founder of Juste is Scottish and has been looking into organic wool fabrics made in Scotland. Using these fabrics supports and maintains traditional skills in the UK.
The business is also looking for means of producing very high quality and tailored ready to wear collections (including wools/ winter fabrics and fabrics sourced from Bangladesh) in the UK. In particular Juste would be interested in working with the Bangladeshi minority community in East London or elsewhere in the UK, many of whom are familiar with the fabrics sourced from Bangladesh and who have textiles or construction skills. Juste would look to develop a co-operative structure with garment workers in these communities to maximise benefits for them as a result of working with Juste.
In terms of the environment, Juste is working to source organic yarns for fabrics woven by fair trade groups in Bangladesh, for future collections.
In terms of product lines, Juste has experienced a lot of interest in special occasion wear, particularly for weddings, and the silks, jamdani muslins and kantha embroidery from Bangladesh used in Juste collections lend themselves to this. The next step for Juste to develop this may involve the creation of a series of wedding and bridesmaid dress prototypes, including accessories such as veils, which customers can choose from for their own occasion.
Finally, Juste has been building links with several fair trade producer groups in Africa, in Ghana, Kenya and Uganda, and would be interested in launching product lines in partnership with these groups.
In the long term once the Juste brand is better established, it will look at launching lower priced diffusion collections which will be accessible to a broader consumer base.
For more information visit the Juste website.
Check out Juste in our gallery.
