Hi Erica and James, it’s so nice to be catching up ahead of the launch of the Freddie Jean, which we were proud to manufacture with Outland Denim’s sister garment manufacturing arm, Maeka. Let’s go back to the beginning though! Why denim? What was your background before Outland, and what led you to set about creating Australia’s first B. Corp certified denim brand?

Thank you for having us! Neither of us had experience in fashion or denim prior to establishing the brand - it was more about alignment with the cause, or the purpose behind it, and the denim followed. James had a background in metal fabrication and had founded an Extreme Sports tour group promoting healthy lifestyle choices to youth. And I had a background in journalism and women’s media (I was the deputy editor at Girlfriend magazine) with a desire to create a tangible good for women and girls globally. It took a while for the stars to align but we both had a strong desire to change the world for good. What started as a small sewing operation providing employment to five women in Cambodia became the Outland we know today, and its sister garment manufacturing arm "Maeka", which is where we created your Freddie Jean!

The universalism of denim appealed to James first and foremost - he didn’t want to do tees (these would come later) but instead create a quality product beyond your typical "charity tee" that would create a bond between the customer and our mission, and carry the stories of our makers far and wide. Today, each piece we create is imbued with this sense of its future heritage - the life that’s created with the wearer and then the life of the garment when it’s passed on. Quite literally, each garment comes with a piece of the “story” of one of its makers sewn into it, in the form of a thank-you note.

The B Corp. certification was a process we began shortly after taking the brand to market in 2016, after five years of laying foundations in Cambodia and Australia. We achieved certification in April 2018. It was important to be able to signal to consumers that we were actively trying to do social and environmental good, and our B Corp. certification aided us in this endeavour.

Could you explain the traditional process of denim manufacturing and where you saw an opportunity to do things more sustainably and mindfully? For example, the wash house facilities you built in order to have greater autonomy over things like water and energy expenditure.

The denim manufacturing industry uses high amounts of water, energy and chemicals in the industrial process we know as “jean making”. We knew there had to be a better way! We couldn’t on the one hand be helping poor people in developing countries through our impact business and on the other hand contribute to the ongoing destruction of their lands and waterways. So we created our own manufacturing and “wash house” facilities to afford us a higher degree of environmental stewardship than we would have if we were to have outsourced these parts of the jean production process. Our wash house features leading water and energy-saving technology developed by Spanish firm Jeanologia, which gives our operation an overall tick on eco-efficiency. Their technology incorporates laser, ozone and "e-flow" nanobubble treatments that drastically reduce reliance on energy, water and chemicals when compared to traditional techniques.

On a product level, we eliminated artificial indigo pigment from our blue jeans and went with natural indigo dyes derived from the indigofera plant. This means that workers aren't exposed to toxic chemicals and the likelihood or severity of water pollution is reduced, leading to an overall more sustainable product. When we can’t supplement with vegetable dyes, we make sure the dyes are certified organic or have been tested by the Oeko-Tex Standard. We also work with organic cotton traced back to the farms. Organic cotton uses no chemicals, fertilizers or pesticides to produce, protecting local habitats and the farmers who grow it. It also uses less water, preserves soil quality, and limits soil erosion.

The latest statistics from Walk Free suggest that 49.6 million people are enslaved today, many of whom work to make the clothes we wear - with fashion being one of the top five exploitative industries in the world. Those statistics are both harrowing and devastating. Can you share a little bit about Outland’s mission to provide work for victims of human trafficking? Why was this social justice cause so important to you?

We had learned about the issue of human trafficking way back in 2008 when we saw a film about it with some friends, and then connected with an NGO invested in the issue at a music festival, of all places! From there, we decided that James would go on a field trip with the NGO to Thailand and Cambodia to see the work being done to solve the issue on the ground. That's when he saw a little girl for sale on the street and was convicted to do something to help eradicate slavery and the sexual exploitation of women and girls. One in 130 women and girls globally are trapped in modern slavery.

Conceptually, Outland started to take shape in 2011 with our first small sewing house and five seamstresses who had graduated the NGO restoration program after their experiences of exploitation. I joined James in Cambodia in 2012 to do further research behind the issue and to spend time with the girls and the frontline workers helping them. I'd already been exposed to the myriad of issues for women and girls in the developing world through a book called Half the Sky: How to Change the World and in my work as an advocate to end the exploitation of women and girls in the media. I then fell pregnant with our first child, a girl, Isabel, and honestly the idea of doing life without trying to change things for the better was just not within our worldview.

As you said, Outland Denim’s business model is designed to support people out of modern slavery and vulnerability, and one of the things you talk about is the “Freedom Dividend” that exists in your employment model. Could you explain what a “Freedom Dividend” is, how it was established, and what this means for the communities to which your staff belong?

Our model of opportunity, employment, living wages and education is designed to uplift the people under our wing without creating dependency. This reduces vulnerability to human trafficking and modern slavery, ultimately (but not always) producing a “freedom dividend”. We partnered with Professor Kevin Bales, an expert in modern slavery at The University of Nottingham, to conduct a study on our business model. The study found measurable positive change in education, health, housing, socio-economic standing, feelings of ambition, hope and empowerment, and detailed plans for the future. It can be transformational. It creates independence, a sense of dignity and purpose, and self-belief.

It is very important that this freedom is owned by the employee: We just provide the framework and the tools. Each product purchased by our customers (or products made for other brands like Maggie Marilyn) then activates and continues this cycle of freedom, which has ripple effects in families and communities. We know that empowered women are heavily invested in their families; that women typically invest a higher proportion of their earnings in their families and communities than men; and that investment in women's education and health, and employment opportunities, pay big dividends in terms of economic development. Women can be powerful instruments of social change. But we also know that Covid-19 has put us back on achieving gains for women and girls, and also the most impoverished people in the world. And climate change is only exacerbating these issues.

And lastly, you’ve been in business for over 10 years now. What positive changes have you seen in the fashion industry over the past decade, specifically in denim manufacturing, that make you hopeful for the future?

When we first got started, there were some brands doing good things - a heritage of companies like TOMS, Bono and Ali Hewson's EDUN, Vivienne Westwood, Safia Minney, Stella McCartney, Maxine Bedat's Zady and also some locally grown Aussie frontrunners in sustainability, like Bassike - but the vast majority were not. Conversations around sustainability or creating sustainable work for people in poorer communities were incredibly limited, and most brands weren't acknolwedging the exploitation of people in the fashion industry. Then Rana Plaza happened in April 2013, which was devastating, and films like "The True Cost" and "River Blue" came out which shone a spotlight on issues of worker conditions and abuse in the garment industry, and the environmental cost of fashion.

Since these watershed moments, major progress has been made and the denim industry is slowly but surely reforming itself. Retailers and other stakeholders in the industry are now actively looking for sustainable alternatives. But at the same time, fast fashion is getting faster, and most workers are still not receiving living wages. So it's important that we continue to work together with NGOs, worker groups, government, consumers and media to get the message out that fashion can be made in a way that uplifts both people and the planet. Our partnership with Maggie Marilyn gives us hope that things are working together for good.

You can learn more about Outland Denim by visiting their website or following them on Instagram.

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Maggie's File

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