E.F.C Hand Dyed Slogan Tote Bag

E&F

Elsie and Fred is independently owned by 3 sibling, Natalie, Leanne and Ryan Haynes, from Coventry, England. we want to spread the message of positivity and realness throughout the world. We talk to young hearted humans about everything from sex, to relationships and drugs to self care. Life isn't about shying away from topics that affect our young people, it's about creating safe spaces where we don't judge one another. An earth when we all strive to do better and leave it better than when you found it. We're not perfect as a company nor as individuals, but we are constantly striving to learn and grow and we want to help all of our community do the same. It's our responsibility to help the Elsie and Fred community feel more empowered, more free, more confident and more themselves. 

We are pro black, pro gay, pro liberal, pro human, pro be what the hell you want to be as long as you're being nice. If you're not vibing the message, we're not the company for you. We will never stay silent on things are matter to us and will continue to support the ones who are marginalised on this earth.

Where

The company now lives in London with a based studio. Everything is done in house; with the design, content, PR, marketing, photography and videography being done from the studio. 

We currently fulfill from our brand new fulfillment centre back in Coventry where we will put every bit of love into the parcels that we can! 

Natalie: Head of Design, Manufacturing and Finance

Leanne: Head of Design and Creative Director

Ryan: Head of Visuals, Graphic Design & Brand

Manufacturing

E&F predominantly work with a factory in Guangzhou, China. Our factory is owned by a lady called Ashley and her husband Simon. After we've designed the pieces in our heads we will fly out to Guangzhou to choose fabrics and meet with Ashley who we will tell about our collection idea. We talk what didn't go so well last collection and what went great. After a cup of coffee and a chat Ashley will take us around the fabric markets in search of newness. We're super lucky that we get to work with a really forward thinking factory as she always wants to show us the new production methods and is up to speed on greener efforts to be more sustainable across the world. We're working to being alot more sustainble this year and have made actions to work with recyclable material where possible and long may this continue. The factory we work with is really important to us and Ashley's factory is Sedex certified, which stands for Supplier Ethical Data Exchange. We've got a lot of work to do to improve E&F's footprint but we will continue to improve wherever possible. We've ensured that everything is fuly vegan and we're striving to try and eridicate any single use plastic.

The SMETA Sedex audit content comprises of 14 codes:

Management systems and code implementation
Forced labour
Freedom of association
Health and safety
Child labour and young workers
Wages and benefits
Working hours
Discrimination
Regular employment
Sub-contracting and homeworkers
Disciplinary
Entitlement to work, migrant and agency worker
Environment – 2 pillar/4pillar audit
Business practices – 4 pillar audit

This is Dai Zhao Yun (One of Ashley's Sample Makers) Fun Fact: Zhao Yun is also a hero in Chinese History x

Sustainability 

We are working on reducing plastic across the company as much as possible, this has started with re-usable mailing bags and will be moving into using compostable mailing bags in 2021.

We are also trying to work with recycled fabrics as much as possible to heavily reduce our footprint. All of our clothing and dye's used in our clothing are vegan and we're super personally passionate about the future of the sustainability of our company. We're far from perfect at the moment but we are always working on it and will be sure to keep you updated here. 

Interning

We haven't taken on any interns in 2020 fo obvious reason however it is something we love to do, so if you are looking to get into working in fashion, marketing or content creation and are PASSIONATE! please pop us over an email on 

Manufacturing/Fashion Design/Wholesale: Natalie@elsieandfred.com

Fashion Design/PR/Marketing/Wholesale: Leanne@elsieandfred.com

Content Creation/Graphic Design/Digital Marketing/Videography: Ryan@elsieandfred.com 

Processes

We do most things in house. What that means is from design processes to photography and marketing to social and graphic design it's all done by us in the studio. The manufacturing itself is China and the distribution WIgan, but all the other bits you can find us beavering away in South East London.