"It means everything to me that my business was set up in Glasgow and that it operates from there. This is my home city and everything I do will always carry a little bit of its soul.
"My studio space is a converted factory in the east end. It feels very appropriate. Glasgow is always re-inventing itself. It’s a restless city that’s never happy to settle for the way it’s always been. In lots of ways, it’s a metaphor representing sustainability and being prepared to adapt to changing times.
"I’m an experienced tailor and garment-maker and I started my circular fashion brand, ReJean in 2017.
"I make clothes such as jackets, skirts, dungarees, hats and scrunchies from reclaimed denim. We even make covid masks. We upcycle second-hand jeans to create ‘new’ garments. All our items are handpicked and crafted individually for each customer. My aim is to ensure that everything we make is utterly unique.
"I studied textiles at Cardonald College before studying design at Manchester University. Then I worked in London for five years, including a job at Levi’s. It was this that first got me thinking about starting my own fashion label.
"But it was only when I decided to return to Glasgow that I first began to get passionate about sustainable clothing and the environment. Working in Levi’s taught me about the longevity and durability of denim, but I was also troubled at just how much of it people discarded.
"There’s so much waste in the fashion industry and so much human exploitation. We all need to think more about what we’re buying and where it’s been made. I use second-hand textiles because it benefits the planet. If I use cloth that other people have used and discarded, then it’s lessening the impact on the environment.
"We need to produce less, and we need to produce better. The gap between rich and poor is massive, and it should be much smaller. And if it was, the planet would be in a healthier state. This is what leads to over-consumption. It’s not that there are too many people in the planet. If the richest societies and companies and people stopped consuming more and started accepting less, we wouldn’t have this problem.
"The fashion industry uses poison such as pesticides in growing crops to make fabrics it uses, and they don’t pay the workers anything like a proper wage.
"Glasgow has always been a politically active city. It’s always been on the front line when it comes to standing up for justice and equality. We were the first city in the world to honour Nelson Mandela while he was still in jail. And this was why he visited us after he was released.
"And Glasgow was prominent in combating unfair rents and paying women properly more than a century ago. And we sent a brigade to fight Franco’s fascists in the Spanish civil war.
"I really don’t think I could have established my label anywhere else. And there’s a brilliant creative vibe in Glasgow. It supports small creatives like me because rent’s cheaper and there’s plenty of studio space available. After that you just go for it. And Glasgow always goes for it. That’s why I love it so much."
