Business Leaders

PROFILE

Minna is a luxury fashion brand, offering a women’s and children’s collection made from the finest Scottish lace, antique, organic and fair trade fabrics. All Minna designs are handmade in the UK by skilled seamstresses who are valued and respected team members.

The Minna brand evolved in the beautiful Dorset countryside where Finnish designer Minna Hepburn started collecting lace, brooches, buttons and other beautiful finds from strolling around local antique markets and started making tops and dresses from Scottish lace and embellishing them with her beloved findings. Her tops and dresses with their intricate detailing soon found their way into a few prestigious shops. Encouraged by this she decided to design a small collection.

Minna ensures that no material gets wasted in the production process since all remnant fabrics are recycled to create jewellery, clothes for the children’s range and products for the home range. All fabrics used are hand dyed with reactive dyes, free from heavy metals or any AZO.

ETHICAL POLICY

1. Ethical Focus, Certification and Standards

Minna is committed to:

• Preserving British heritage and maintaining traditional and local skills.
• Sourcing and manufacturing all collections in the UK.
• Only sourcing sustainable textiles, including 100% organic cotton, British wool and fine cotton lace made in Scotland.
• Designing and manufacturing extremely high quality garments that will last and maintain their value.

2. Business Structure and Practices

Minna is committed to:

• Building and maintaining excellent relationships with employees and suppliers, involving them in decision-making processes and sharing success with them.
• Creating accessories range entirely from vintage and recycled/remnant materials.
• Applying a zero-waste policy, consequently re-using all remnant fabrics for embellishments, accessories and the children’s collection.
• Using only sustainable packaging for items purchased from the brands online shop.
• Implementing recycling and low energy use within the office and studio.

3. Sourcing and Supply Chain Policies

Minna is committed to:

• Sourcing materials of extremely high quality, longevity and sustainability.
• Using existing materials rather than manufacturing new fabrics. These currently include, British wool, organic cotton, Scottish lace and end of roll materials peace silk.
• When using leather for accessories or embellishment, only incorporating recycled leather scraps.
• Only sourcing organic cotton that is either SKAL or Soil Association certified.
• Only using AZO free dyes.

4. Factories

Minna is committed to:

• Establishing and maintaining lasting healthy partnerships with freelance seamstresses who work from home (UK)
• Working with small unit production studios in London to support local trade.
• Creating and maintaining unique and important relationships with UK textiles mills (lace & wool)

5. Culture and Skills

Minna is committed to:

• Supporting British wool and lace manufacturers.
• Encouraging relationships and regular business for highly skilled independent freelance seamstresses within the UK.

6. Key Targets

• To collaborate with other brands on buying sustainable textiles
• To research and convey sustainability and ethical issues (cotton etc) to supply chain partners.
• To increase textile offering and incorporate more sustainable and fairtrade fabrics.
• To research certified organic laces and encourage suppliers to develop certified organic laces.
• To identify key public profile ambassadors to promote brand identity and ethos.
• To grow the business, both wholesale and online.
• To develop opportunities for collaboration with local charities and youth centres to increase social impact.
• To research if wool factories have policies in place for water conservation, if not encouraging them to do so.