The Hands that Heal Us is a collection inspired by the ever growing community of makers, creatives, local and social manufacturers all of whom play such an integral part in the Bethany WIlliams brand and supply chain. 

“The primary focus of this collection are the many hands that touch our clothing throughout the making process, through the integration of artisanal and hand-crafted elements, in the form of weaving, knitting, printing, patchworking and embroidery. The life of each garment delicately passes through the hands of our intricate supply chain, and for that we feel immense gratitude to our makers, our tools and our team that surrounds us.” – Bethany Williams 

This collection saw us grow our essential wardrobe offering and build on entry price point items. The four core themes that run through this collection are: ‘Our Makers’, ‘Our Hands’, ‘Our Tools’, ‘Our Team’. This season we worked again with artist Melissa Kitty Jarram for the print story, who was asked to integrate and interpret all of the making partners and their specific role in the supply chain into illustrations. 

Each season we work with organic, deadstock, upcycled, or natural materials. This collection sees our mainline debut of denim, merging the brand signature details and sustainable dark indigo raw denim together with circular and modular design principles. We worked in collaboration with denim experts, ROAD and their founders Rosie Ingleby and Amy Roberton. The denim for this collection was supplied by ISKO with a base of organic and recycled cotton and hemp. The range also features Bethany Williams branded unscrewable eco-finished metal buttons to ensure they are easily removable to continue the life cycle of the garment, as buttons can often be a barrier in the upcycling process. 

Historical references are present throughout, from material selection and colours to the garments silhouette, with this season nodding to utility and workwear. An integral part of craft are the tools - and with that how they are held and stored. The collection focuses on modular details such as detachable pockets and tool roles which can mix and match across garments, and tool loops which are traditionally used to hold tools, adding additional functionality to the clothes. 

This season also sees a venture into more refined outerwear styles, building on the tailoring in her last collection, All Our Stories. This is visible through the tailored trench coat, wool overcoats and vegan leather jacket, made from cactus. The collection also features bamboo silk including her first set of pajamas, which tailors to their more luxurious side, while remaining bright and playful. 

Knitwear has become a beloved staple for Bethany Williams, and this year we’ve worked again very closely with Barbara Guarducci, founder of Mending for Good, a consultancy agency that offers creative, ethical solutions to brands, with circular solutions and seeks to promote social justice through craftsmanship. Through this partnership, we also developed the seasonal woven textile through San Patrignano. This season's knitted samples have been beautifully crafted by both Manusa and our cherished London based knitwear community. 

This collection features a heritage houndstooth wool, woven in the Isle of Man at the Laxey Woolen Mill which is a family owned business. It is woven using wool that comes from the four horned Manx Loaghtan sheep, a breed that is native to the Isle of Man, where Bethany grew up. In addition, the collection features two bags, one using upcycled blankets and another with the signature San Patrignano woven textile in a fur like effect, both with wooden handles crafted by London based craftsman Spencer Martin. 

Craft is such an important part of our brand and supply chain, and one of the our passions is to support and nourish techniques and craft processes, to celebrate and help craft be accessible and inclusive. This season our charitable partner is the Crafts Council with whom we will be developing a series of community driven workshops and programmes. These programs will enable us to continue our ongoing work with East London grassroots organisation, The Magpie Project, and help to inspire the next generation of makers, creative entrepreneurs and changemakers. 

“In our 50th year, the Crafts Council’s anniversary campaign: Make! Craft! Live! is a rallying cry to unite all of us rethinking the role of making as a vehicle for social change. Bethany’s collaborative, open and playful approach to her business is underpinned by a rigorous commitment to ethical and sustainable growth and resonates deeply with our own values and beliefs.” - Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director for the Crafts Council.

The Hands that Heal Us presentation during London Fashion Week took place at the Design Museum to celebrate Bethany’s exhibition – Bethany Williams: Alternative Systems, a celebration of the new way of working proposed for the fashion industry by the studio’s work. 

The exhibition was curated by Head of Curatorial at the Design Museum, Priya Khanchandani. The dedicated free display explores the way in which Williams’ work confronts social and environmental issues through community collaboration and a spirit of reuse. 

AW22 Credits 

Creative Direction - Bethany Williams
A Film By Mae Sass
Film Assistant - Anna Sass
Poem - Eno Mfon
Music Direction - Benji B
Artworks - Melissa Kitty Jarram
Stylist - Nikhil Mansata
Stylists Assistant - Roshni Sukhlecha
Make Up and Hair - Maya Man (Assisted by Carly Roberts and Nic Marilyn)
Knitwear - Alice Evans, Lu Kyriacou, Julia Labis and Edith Bisseker
Buttons and wooden handles - Spencer Martin
Bags - Matta Siregar
Embroidery - Alice Mahoney, Tom Costello
Corsets - Rosie Evans
Social Partners - Manusa, San Patrignano in partnership with Mending For Good and  Making for Change
Models - Malick Darbo, Louis Yusnadi, Emma Breschi, Akuac Thiep, Matta, Alice, Claire, Ellis, Spencer, Coco and Beau
Production - Faye Scott-Maberly (Assisted by Krystal Rodriguez)
Communications - Creativ House
Location and thanks to - Hackney City Farm and London Green Wood.

Specials thanks to The Magpie Project, The Design Museum, The British Fashion Council,British Crafts Council, Caroline Rush, Jane Williams, Mending for good, Barbara Guarducci, Manusa, San Patrignano, Making for Change, British Vogue, Edward Enninful, CFE, Judith Tolley, Orto Print Studio, Lemon Head Prints, Road consultancy, Ethical Tee company, Ali and Yuksel, Tomorrow showrooms, Bow Sewing Centre, Spencer Martin, Claire Swift, Karen Kewley, Natalie Hodgson, Catriona Macleod, Matta Siregar, Rafin Jannat, Davina Amajor, Rosie Ingleby, Dawit Mulat, Ade Laniyan, Nataliya Brady, Tom Williams, Megan St Clair and Ryan Blackwell

All Our Stories is a collection inspired by our continued work with East London grassroots organisation, The Magpie Project, a charity that supports women and children who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The Magpie Project works to make sure that a spell in insecure or temporary accommodation does not result in permanent damage to life chances of the children who experience it.

“She still wears stories passed down to her by her mother. Words that no longer fit the same way because life has stretched and changed its shape, but the moral of the story remains. Like the smile on her face. Her joy is new, even though the ending is not. She has not forgotten the promise she made, never to waste these old tattered tales but to tell them to her children - again and again. To get to the end and watch them smile. They are their stories now. They are All Our Stories.”
– Eno Mfon, Spoken Word Poet

Artist Melissa Kitty Jarram - inspired by the folklore passed from generation to generation and childhood stories that continue to inform us in our adult lives - ran storytelling workshops with the Magpie families and illustrated the magical narratives they shared. She then used waste book covers in her illustrations to tell a new story.

The collection focuses on five main storylines shared by the families of the Magpie Project, “AOS”, “Blessing”, “Dinosaurs” and “The Girl Who Cried Tiger”, as well as Bethany’s own, “The Sun and The Wind” personal childhood story.

 “What we noticed through the story-telling workshops, was that the moral in each story always came back to kindness, care, and respect for one another and how these traits, whilst important in childhood, have just as much meaning in adult life.”
– Bethany Williams

The silhouettes of the collection are inspired by the V&A Museum of Childhood garment archive. This collection sees our first detailed exploration into tailoring with a suit inspired by a historical childrens skeleton suit from the 1800’s. The skeleton suit was the first children’s garment designed for play. The new shapes stand alongside our existing forms representing our continued development. The collection also features two corsets created with Welsh designer Rosie Evans using cutoffs from the collection production. In these corsets, Rosie has replaced traditional boning with a material made out of fruit packaging waste. 

At a time when the V&A Museum of Childhood has fully decanted for refurbishment, All Our Stories has filled the empty space with new stories and community faces for our campaign imagery. 

As with all our work, the collection is created via social manufacturing partners who are built into the framework of social enterprise. We continue to work with community driven, UK based social manufacturing partner, Making for Change Poplar Works. For the first time, we used donations of Merino Wool deadstock from Lanificio Ermenegildo Zegna, which has been printed with eco-friendly inks via Orto Print in Peckham. 

Through the collaboration with Mending For Good, knitwear has been a key area of development for this collection where we proudly introduce a new social manufacturing partnership called Manusa. Manusa is a social cooperative that involves people from various backgrounds, specializing in hand-techniques including delicate crochet, embroidery and hand-knitting. Designed in collaboration with Alice Morell Evans, the knitwear uses Sesia Wool industry waste sample swatches, crocheted together with Seisia organic bio wool. Each year, the sample swatches created each season become surplus at the end of each production cycle. To utilise this waste, Bethany and Founder of Mending For Good, Barbara Guarducci, developed a sorting technique with Sesia for their team to separate the swatches.

Barbara Guarducci said “Mending for Good was born to provide design-driven technical solutions for the excess stock and left-overs of the fashion industry. Everyday tons of so far “considered” waste are still produced, that is why we love to collaborate with visionary designers such as Bethany Williams that sees waste as the raw material from which a beautiful story can start.” 

The book cover waste, provided by Hatchette, is used for our iconic Book Bags, and integrated into the collection’s garments through our woven textile collaboration with San Patrignano, an education and rehabilitation programme that teaches traditional Italian craft and a sense of community. 

Six looks from All Our Stories make up the brand's submission for the 2021 International Woolmark Prize finals. 

20% of the profits from this collection will be donated to The Magpie Project via The Bethany Williams Benevolent Fund, a fund set up by The Magpie Project and Bethany Williams in 2020.

Donate to The Bethany Williams Benevolent Fund. 

Collection Credits 

Creative Direction – Bethany Williams
A Film By – Olivia Lifungula
Director of Photography - Jan Solberg
Gaffer - Conrad Reid 
Gaffer - Will Watson 
Editor - Josh Homer 
Colourist - Alexandre Nerzic 
Music Direction – Benji B
Director of Stills Photography- Christina Ebenezer
Photographer’s Assistant: Nathan Ford
Poet and Model– Eno Mfon
Stylist – Ola Ebiti
Illustrator, Set Illustration and Model– Melissa Kitty Jarram
MUA – Rebecca Davenport
Hair Stylist – Lauraine Bailey at Evolved Artists
Knitwear – Alice Morell Evans, Mending for Good, Manusa
Embroidery - Alice Mahoney
Footwear – Grenson
Corsets - Rosie Evans
Bags – Stevan Saville
Communication – Creativ House 
Production – Faye Scott-Maberley
Set Build and Model - Sam Gosling

Models - Stephanie, King, Khalani, Blessing, Emmanuella, Ogechi, Chiamaka, Heather, Louis, Yus, Benjamin, Hanad, Bruno

Special Thanks – The Magpie Project, The V&A Museum of Childhood, The British Fashion Council, Caroline Rush, Jane Williams, Mending For Good, Barbara Guarducci, Manusa, San Patrignano, Making for Change, British Vogue, Edward Enninful, CFE, Judith Tolley, Orto Print Studio, Karen Kewley, Natalie Hodgson, Matta Siregar, Catriona Macleod, Dawit Mulat, Ade Laniyan and Megan St Clair. 

Our SS21 collection celebrates the ethos of the Magpie Project, an organisation we have been volunteering for and collaborating with since 2019. 

Newham-based Magpie Project works with children and mothers who are homeless or at risk of homelessness – 80% of whom have no recourse to public funds (NRPF). These children, like some 100,000 in the UK, live in destitution because their parents immigration status denies them the safety net of our welfare system. In 2017, the Project’s founder Jane Williams first became aware of the plight of these children in her community. She sought help from the local authority. She was told by councillors, service  providers and commissioners that they had no duty to look after these vulnerable children because they were not in the right catchment area, they were not entitled to help, they were “not our children.” Jane couldn’t let this stand. She set up the Magpie Project to insist that – no matter what – every child has the right to support: they are all our children. 

The collection – aptly titled All Our Children – not only finds its inspiration in the stories and lives of the people we met and worked with there, but also the importance of family spirit in a child’s life. Through the process of designing the collection, we included the families that are part of the Project via drawing workshops and playtime, and teamed up with illustrator and artist Melissa Kitty Jarram to transform the children’s drawings into prints and patterns that became part of the final textiles. “This is a true co-production with the Magpie community and it’s really validating for these women who have previously been disbelieved and unheard, marginalised and ignored to be valued and listened to at the highest level,”  explains Jane. 

Part of this collection is also a partnership with Somerset House – we collaboratively designed a flag with Melissa, that will be flown proudly on top of the House in honour of All Our Children from September 2020 until January 2021. In addition to the words, the vibrant design of a mother and child on the canvas references the Asafo flags of the Fante people in Ghana that traditionally symbolise warrior-like strength which is in this case assigned to the mothers of Magpie. 

Through our continuous work with environmental health in mind, we once again worked with deadstock, organic and recycled materials as well as with manufacturing units as part of social initiatives San Patrignano and Making for Change. Several pieces are patchworked out of deadstock jersey and nylon garments provided by Adidas Originals. For the first time, the collection includes tailoring which adds a new layer to the growing reach of our garments. We also worked with Welsh designer Rosie Evans on two different corset designs for which Rosie created boning out of fruit packaging waste. While we started and continue to be labeled as mainly a menswear label, Bethany Williams aspires to reach as many people as possible. With garments fit on both male and female bodies, the goal is to give more people access to wearing them, Bethany herself included.  

Following last season’s research at the V&A Museum of Childhood, SS21 marks the debut of Bethany Williams kidswear. Three looks made as miniature replicas of the adult ones encompass the narrative of the brand’s world being all-inclusive. At the beginning of the design process, we reached out to our community in order to accumulate both visual and verbal personal stories dating back to their early years. These tales became the inspirations for the silhouettes, with some of them being interpreted by Melissa into illustrations that appear hand-printed on the pieces. Building on the idea of familial unity,  we worked with ISKO VITAL™+ on creating matching adult and children’s protective face covers in organic materials printed with the collection’s graphics.

As part of our most focused vision yet, we present another newness. Bags, developed with Tottenham-based specialist Stevan Saville, are woven in San Patrignano out of book waste provided by Hachette Children’s and come in two different styles.

The first, a hybrid of a reading wallet and a book with a customisable metal name plaque, comes in three sizes correlated to different publishing formats: mini-dictionary, novel and large encyclopedia. The second style is an updated take on a childhood lunch box – a one-of-a-kind vintage piece wrapped in the colourful woven book fabric. Both styles come with detachable crossbody  belts and are 100% vegan products.  

Discover our collaboration with Stevan Saville. 

Instead of a catwalk show, we worked on visuals with friend and photographer Ruth Ossai.  Shot in accordance with the Covid-19 government guidelines in front of Magpie’s Newham offices, the lookbook photographs and film capture five families wearing the garments. The video is soundtracked with a poem specially written for this occasion by playwright and writer Eno Mfon. Powerful, moving and encouraging all of us to own up to our collective responsibility for the next generation, her words verbalise the mission of the collection and Bethany’s work at-large. “They say it takes a village to raise a child, And I say, we are that village and they are all our children.” 

As with every Bethany Williams collection, 20% of the profits from the collection will go to the charity it was made in collaboration with.  

This collection was dedicated to the loving memory of Lisa Hoang and Elie Che. 

Show Credits

Creative Direction – Bethany Williams 
Director, Photographer & Filmmaker – Ruth Ossai 
Photography assistants: Luke Ossai, Ryan Connolly 
Film and Editing - Lorraine Khamali 
Poet – Eno Mfon  
Stylist – Tallulah Harlech  
Illustrator– Melissa Kitty Jarram 
Casting – Chloe Rosolek  
Music Direction – Benji B  
MUA – Rebecca Davenport 
Knitwear – Alice Morell Evans  
Footwear – Adidas and Helen Kirkum 
Corsets - Rosie Evans 
Bags – Stevan Saville  
Text – Dino Bonačić 
Communication – The Lobby London  
Production – Faye Scott-Maberley 
Models - Stephanie, Khalani, King, Mariam, Mohammed, Mesk, Melaz, Kemi, Leo, William, AJ, Akuac Team – Natalie Hodgson, Catriona Macleod, Megan St Clair  
Supported by the Adonyeva Foundation 

Special Thanks – The Magpie Project, Somerset House Trust, The British Fashion Council, Caroline Rush,  Wool and the Gang, ISKO VITAL™+, Orto Print Studio, Molly Evans, Joseph Henry, Eric Williams, Karen Kewley, Natalie Hodgson, Catriona Macleod, Megan St Clair.

Our AW20 collection, No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) celebrates motherhood, childhood, sisterhood, and the family we choose, highlighting the importance of this powerful bond. The catwalk show at London Fashion Week Men’s was dedicated to giving a community that is marginalised and silenced on a daily basis, a platform and voice to share their story.

Working in collaboration with Newham based charity, The Magpie Project. Founded in 2017, it's a coal-face, crisis-to-crisis, grassroots organisation created to make sure that a spell in temporary accommodation does not cause permanent damage to children who experience it. “We have supported over 400 mothers and 500 children in the past two years. Women and children who have become invisible to an unaware or uncaring society. At first glance, our world of living on £34 a week, and of infested and unfit accommodation seemed a million miles away from menswear.”– notes its founder Jane Williams. 

On multiple visits to Magpie, Bethany brought Melissa Kitty Jarram, a South East London based illustrator and artist, to hear the otherwise untold truths of mums and their small children forced to live in temporary and unfit accommodation, unable to work, or study, or move, because they have been deemed to have “no recourse to public funds”. The artwork collaboration for this season has been created from a visit to Magpie’s ‘Rhyme and Song’ session where Melissa illustrated the bond between mother and child.

As we worked closely with the children of Magpie – the garment construction and craft techniques inspired by children’s clothing shaped the collection. The Women’s Institute community works closely with Magpie and creates a personal blanket for every baby born into the Magpie family. We used recycled bedding and techniques often used on baby blankets, such as quilting and patchworking throughout the collection, to give a nod to this inspiring act.

We continued to work with various social projects, suppliers, crafts-people, and manufacturers for the production of this collection. Our knitwear was hand-knitted by Alice Evans and  Bethany’s mother Karen Kewley using Wool and the Gang yarns. 

For this season, a new Wool and the Gang x Magpie Project sock pattern was designed and developed. As a response to the fact, socks are one of the most un-donated clothing items and are in the most demand in the homeless community. The sock pattern is available for free download via Wool and the Gang, with two sizes to choose from. This allows anyone to download and knit socks, which are to be donated to the Magpie mothers and children.

Working in partnership with Adidas once again for AW20’s London Fashion Week Men's show, we celebrated the anniversary of the iconic Adidas Superstar. All models from the show wore superstars, with a select few of the shoes having been made in collaboration with Helen Kirkum. Helen works on creating sneakers from waste materials, she upcycled shoes, using Superstars donated through the new Adidas Infinite Play Initiative and waste materials from the collection development. 

As with every Bethany Williams collection, 20% of the profits from the collection will go to the charity it was made in collaboration with.  

Read our AW20 Press Release, written by Jane Williams’ the Founder of The Magpie Project.

AW20 Credits

Creative Direction - Bethany Williams 
Art Direction, Illustrator and Filmmaker –  Melissa Kitty Jarram
Stylist – Tallulah Harlech 
Casting – Chloe Rosolek 
Poet –  Eno Mfon 
Music Direction – Benji B 
Hair – by Federico Ghezzi at Saint Luke Artists using Kevin Murphy
Make Up – Anne Sophie Costa at Streeters using Elemis
Knitwear – Karen Kewley and Alice Morell Evans 
Footwear – Adidas and Helen Kirkum 
Accessories – Natalie Hodgson 
Communication – The Lobby London 
Production – Blonstein Productions 
Backstage Photography – Amber Rose Dixon

Special thanks to – The British Fashion Council, Caroline Rush, The Magpie Project, Wool and the Gang, Orto Print Studio, Molly Evans, Joesph Henry, Eric Williams, Karen Kewley, Natalie Hodgson.

Our SS20 collection, Butterfly Cafe, was created in collaboration with Spires, a South London based charity that helps hundreds of homeless and disadvantaged people all year round. The collection focuses on the female only ‘safe space’ where Spires’ female staff and volunteers offer a consistent and long-term approach to each woman who comes to the Spires centre for help. Open to vulnerable, socially isolated women and women engaged with sex work; Spires completes a holistic assessment of need and a care plan for each client. 

SS20 was named after the Spires’ Butterfly Café – a weekly run session which offers a safe space and meeting point for vulnerable women to socialise over food and drink and partake in creative activities to learn and develop skills in arts and crafts, jewellery making, knitting and card making. When speaking to the support workers at Spires they told Bethany that the ‘Butterfly Café’ got its name from the transformative effect the sessions were having on the women’s lives – these themes of growth and transformation are reflected in the collection as well as in the show location, the Garden Museum. 

Every element of the collection is thoughtfully produced and hand-crafted. Her now signature knitwear uses Wool And The Gang ocean waste plastic yarn and recycled denim yarn knitted by hand by Bethany's Mum, Karen Kewley and Alice Morell Evans. 

The SS20 collection introduced tailoring and fitted shapes, with denim throughout. The black and indigo denim used within the collection comes from Chris Carney Collections, a recycling and sorting facility. It was unpicked, washed and reworked, creating the range of black and blue denim printed looks. Working in collaboration with illustrator Giorgia Chiarion on the prints for this season. Giorgia visualised what it is that makes the women feel safe and secure, as well as the route of the outreach night bus which works within the community, through her beautifully abstract illustration style.

We continued to work with social projects in the creation of this collection –‘Making for Change,’ a pioneering programme created by the Ministry of Justice and London College of Fashion, UAL at HMP Downview for the jersey production, The Manx Disability Workshop who produce our buttons, and San Patrignano, a drug rehabilitation community in Italy who have woven recycled textiles from tenting. We worked in partnership with Adidas Originals – who supplied footwear from their Home of Classics collection, the all-white Supercourt featured in each look.  

As with every Bethany Williams collection, 20% of the proceeds from the collection will go to the charity it was made in collaboration with.  

Show Credits 

Creative Direction - Bethany Williams 
Art Direction and Print Design – Giorgia Chiarion 
Stylist – Tallulah Harlech 
Casting – 11 Casting 
Set Design – Lydia Chan  
Hair – Hair by Federico Ghezzi at Saint Luke using Schwarzkopf Professional 
Make Up – Makeup By Michelle Webb on behalf of AOFMPro using Dermalogica Knitwear - Karen Kewley and Alice Morell Evans 
Footwear – All models wearing the Adidas Originals Supercourt available at www.adidas.co.uk  #HomeofClassics 
Communication – The Lobby London 
Production – Antony Waller  
Music Direction – Dean Bryce, featuring the poem ‘Growth’ by Janet Devlin 
Shownotes – Frances Corner 

Special thanks to – The British Fashion Council, Caroline Rush, Spires, Adidas, London College of  Fashion, UAL, San Patrignano, Giorgia Chiarion, Making for Change, Wool and the Gang, Orto Print  Studio, TIH Models, The Lobby London, Frances Corner, Orsola DeCastro, Eric Williams, Karen Kewley,  Natalie Hodgson. 

In the words of Professor Frances Corner OBE, Head of London College of Fashion, UAL and Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of the Arts London... 

When Bethany said she wanted to change the system many doubted it was possible; but four collections in and she’s proving that fashion does not have to come at the expense of people and planet. Ever since Bethany graduated from MA Menswear at London  College of Fashion, UAL in 2016, she has been unwavering in her desire to create a business based on her values. It’s a brave  stance from a young designer about to enter one of the most competitive industries in the world. But Bethany has always been different. Before graduation, her Mum could be found backstage, busy knitting socks and adding the final touches to her  collection. For Bethany everything is personal, her beautifully original pieces, rich with hand-crafted detail translate into collections that  her customers treasure. Fashion that is meaningful that connects us with humanity; to the people that made the garment, weaved the  fabric and carved the buttons. Fashion that encourages social enterprise and gives a percentage of profits back to good causes. This  way of working is not easy; to create a business that places sustainability and social responsibility at its core is not without challenges, but as her beautiful new collection, The Butterfly Café demonstrates, she continues to meet these challenges head on. 

Bethany’s work brings into sharp focus some of the country’s most difficult problems, from homelessness to domestic abuse, but her  work is much more than social commentary. Her ethos is one of collaboration – where social and environmental concerns go hand in  hand; she embeds herself within communities from charities to prisons, to provide meaningful employment and create engaging and  empowering opportunities to create positive change.

Our AW19 collection, Adelaide House takes its name from a women’s shelter based in Liverpool, one of only five such facilities in the country, which provides a safe place for women leaving prison or dealing with issues such as domestic violence and homelessness. This collection is produced in collaboration with Adelaide House. 

Inspired by the city of Liverpool – the first city in the UK to have social housing and by the prominent socially engaged female politicians that have helped support their local communities. 

Our AW19 collection was showcased at London Fashion Week (LFW), where Bethany was awarded the QEII Award for Design, 2019. 

For the LFW show, we suspended recycled tent material above the catwalk, giving a nod to the importance of shelter. This tent material was then also used for the production of the collection as not to waste any material. In line with all of Bethany’s previous collections, ‘Adelaide House’ was produced using recycled and organic materials. Bethany has worked alongside Liverpool’s The Echo Newspaper, utilizing their waste products and book waste from San Patrignano in Italy – a community that welcomes those suffering from drug addiction and marginalization and helps them to once again find their way. Our relationships with social manufacturing projects – Making for Change, San Patrignano and The Manx Disability Workshop, represent our long-term commitment to providing skills and meaningful employment for those in the production process. 

AW19’s knitwear has been created in collaboration with Wool and the Gang’s wool fibre, a range of renewable, biodegradable and deadstock yarns. Our sample garments are hand knitted by Bethany’s Mum Karen Kewley, Cecile Tulkins and Alice Morell Evans. The denim within the collection is sourced from Chris Carney Collections, a recycling and sorting facility and is unpicked and washed before being reconstituted and hand printed into new garments.   

The soundtrack for AW19, was mixed by Benji B and featured the voices of women from London College of Fashion, UAL’s ‘Making for Change’ programme. A unit which provides support and training in specialist machines skills for women at HMP Downview. The unit constructed the jersey pieces for this collection. 

As with every Bethany Williams collection, 20% of the proceeds from the collection will go to the charity it was made in collaboration with.  

Show Credits

Creative Direction: Bethany Williams
Art Direction: Giorgia Chiarion, Akinola Davies
Stylist: Tallulah Harlech
Casting: 11 Casting
Hair: Efi Davis using Toni & Guy
Set Design: Lydia Chan
Make Up: Kristina Vidic using Code8
Knitwear: Karen Kewley, Cecile Tulkins, Alice Morell Evans
Footwear: Adidas and Helen Kirkum
Communication: The Lobby London
Production: Blonstein
Music: Benji B featuring the voices of to the women from London College of Fashion, UAL’s ‘Making for Change’ programme
Shownotes: Frances Corner

Special Thanks – The British Fashion Council, Caroline Rush, Adelaide House, San Patrignano, Giorgia Chiarion, London College of Fashion,  Making for Change, Wool and the Gang,  TIH Models, The Liverpool Echo, The Lobby London, Frances Corner,  Stacey James, Clare Farrel, Helen Kirkum, Adidas, Orsola DeCastro, Eric Williams, Karen Kewley, Harry Glaisher, Adwoa Aboah, Alfie Kungu, Amadou, Alex Morton, Cedric Mizero, Emman Debattista, Helene Selam, James Massiah, Jeffrey Obed, Kris Mcallister, Mopesola, Saffiyah Khan, Sonny Hall, William Soames.

In the words of Professor Frances Corner OBE, (previous) Head of London College of Fashion, UAL and Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of the Arts London... 

When Bethany said she wanted to change the system many doubted it was possible; but three collections in and she’s proving that fashion does not have to come at the expense of people and planet.  Ever since Bethany graduated from MA Menswear at London College of Fashion, UAL in 2016, she has been unwavering in her desire to create a business based on her values – with social and environmental awareness at its heart. It’s a brave stance from a young designer about to enter one of the most competitive industries in the world.  But Bethany has always been different. Before her graduation  show her Mum could be found backstage, busy knitting socks and adding the final touches to her collection. For Bethany everything is personal – her beautifully original pieces, rich with hand-crafted detail translate into collections that her customers treasure. Fashion that is meaningful that connects us with humanity; to the people that made the garment, weaved the fabric and carved the buttons. Fashion that encourages social enterprise and gives a percentage of profits back to good causes. This way of working is not easy; to create a business that places sustainability and social responsibility at its core is not without challenges, but the QEII Award for Design, which she receives today, should demonstrate that it is possible to embrace and face head on the challenges that threaten our industry, from resource depletion to climate change. 

  Bethany’s work brings into sharp focus some of the country’s most difficult problems, from homelessness to domestic abuse, but her work is much more than social commentary. Her ethos is one of collaboration – where social and environmental concerns go hand in hand; she embeds herself within communities from charities to prisons, to provide meaningful employment and create engaging and empowering opportunities to create positive change…

  Today’s  show  is characteristically personal, featuring models who are friends and activists who champion and support the issues which Bethany cares deeply about.  In the audience will be colleagues and students from London College of Fashion, UAL and those from the charities and organisations who she continues to work closely with her.  The showcase slows fashion right down and represents the antithesis of disposable culture...

  Bethany has created an alternative system for fashion production, she is proving that fashion can be extraordinary, individual and beautiful AND take into account the people and the resources in the system. She exemplifies an ethos which is capable of changing the way we view and consume fashion. A true fashion activist challenging the status quo and for this Bethany, we salute you. 

Our SS19 collection No Address Needed to Join, follows in the environmental and socially enterprising foundation laid with Bethany’s debut collection Women for Change. For this collection, we worked in collaboration with The Quaker Mobile Library and British publishing house, Hachette UK. The collection celebrates the innovative Mobile Library in the use of waste materials from the publishing industry. 

The Quaker Mobile Library is an organization that makes literature available to borrow for people in marginalised parts of society, those who have no fixed abode required for registration to public library services. As with every Bethany Williams collection, 20% of the proceeds from the collection will go to the charity it was made in collaboration with.   

No Address Needed to Join is made from recycled and organic materials – which link closely to the theme of books and libraries. We took waste products from Clay’s book manufacturing in Suffolk, one of Hachette UK’s printing partners, to San Patrignano in Italy. Bethany worked alongside the community to weave fabrics mixed from book waste, waste from San Patrignano and other donated pre-production waste, from mills in Italy. San Patrignano is an education and rehabilitation programme for people with drug dependency that teaches traditional Italian craft and a sense of community.

Bethany continued to work with London College of Fashion's Making for Change programme – which supports the training of female prisoners from Downview Prison. The Making for Change programme will be constructing the jersey pieces for the production of this collection. Our production focuses on working closely with innovative rehabilitation programmes such as San Patrignano, Making For Change at HMP Downview and Manx Workshop for the Disabled who create our buttons. All who provide skills and meaningful employment. 

SS19’s knitwear has been created in collaboration with Wool and Gang’s Heal the Wool yarn – which comes from 100% recycled Peruvian wool fibre, in addition 30% of the yarn price is donated to Friends of the Earth. Taking recycled wool from Kent for use in hand embroidery. All sampling is hand knitted by Bethany’s mother on the Isle of Man where she grew up. Raw materials are sourced from Chris Carney Collections, a recycling and sorting facility where it goes on to be washed, unravelled before the hand knitting process. The denim elements within the collection are sourced alongside this and unpicked before being reconstituted and hand printed on to create new garments.  

Hachette UK kindly donated books to the mobile library, and have also donated the use of their logo and book covers on printed textiles seen throughout No Address Needed to Join, inspired by Hachette UK’s book cover artwork. 

Show Credits

Creative Direction: Bethany Williams
Art Direction: Aaron Skipper 
Syling: Lee Trigg 
Photography: Amber Grace Dixon 
Hair & Make-up: Charli Avery 
TIH Models: Hakim Dable, Dominic Smith, Alexander Morton, Kristopher McAllister, Sophie Vautour, Elliot Campbell, Abdiwale Jama, Saffiyah Khan at Elite Models and Francisco Zhan. 

Special thanks to – Hachette UK, Wool and the Gang, The Quaker Mobile Library, San  Patrignano, Making For Change, Clays, Molly Evans, Victor Pao, Lautaro Amadeo Tambutto, Karen Kewley and Chia-Yung Hu

Our AW18 collection Women of Change focused on women’s rehabilitation, working closely with female prisoners from the Making for Change programme, and the women of San Patrignano’s drug and alcohol dependency programme. In an interesting twist on the ongoing discourse around gender, when a man buys a piece from the Women of Change collection, the proceeds go to supporting some of society's most vulnerable women.

Bethany worked with female offenders in prison on the jersey pieces from this season’s collection, as part of the Making for Change programme. Making for Change is a social enterprise set up jointly by London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London and the Ministry of Justice – providing skill development and meaningful employment for serving and recently released offenders to help reintegrate them into society. 

Working closely with the programme, Bethany shared her knowledge on textile development, the design process, and insight for the women, into their role within the wider supply chain. The programme teaches technical manufacturing techniques in order to prepare the women, as they take on manufacturing for retail. Our Women of Change collection was produced by the women from Making for Change.  As with every Bethany Williams collection, proceeds from the collection will go to the charity/organisation it was made in collaboration with. For the Women of Change collection, 10% of profits were donated to the Making for Change programme, to fund further machinery. 

Our signature approach to knitwear features – in which recycled wool and denim from Kent is hand knitted by the cottage industry on the Isle of Man where Bethany grew up. All raw materials were sourced from Chris Carney Collections, a recycling and sorting facility where it goes on to be washed, cut and unravelled before the hand knitting process. The denim featured in the collection is sourced alongside this and unpicked before being reconstituted into new garments. 

 All materials used throughout the collection are sourced and created from organic or recycled materials, down to the buttons. Our buttons are handmade in the Lake District by Jean Wildish, who plants her own trees for the production of wooden buttons. The entire Women of Change collection is handmade in the UK and Italy.