Hi! It’s nice to meet you, my name is Madeline & I am the founder of Walking Protest. I thought it would be nice to introduce myself, as excitingly there’s many new ‘faces’ on our website joining our WP movement...
Here are some of the most common questions I get asked when it comes to WP, that I’d love to share with our newsletter community.
Why did you decide to call your business Walking Protest?
I wanted to create something which could ‘protest’ the systems of fashion, through fashion - making garments which carried this vision so that when wearing them - you are quite literally ‘walking’ in clothes which serve as a ‘protest.’ The name also symbolises to me movement and union - walking towards the same shared goal & uniting inner passions towards our environment in the same step.
How did you find your manufacturers?
This is a question I get asked a lot! After many years of research I found Solid Crafts / Solid International through a platform called Common Objective. This is a platform I recommend to anyone wanting to begin a textile based brand who holds sustainability and ethics as a core value. We set up some meetings and now I have been working with them coming onto 2 years!
Why did you decide to design knit & crochet pieces?
I absolutely love the craftsmanship, look and feel of garments which have been hand knitted & hand crocheted - hand anything really!! Utilising knitting and crochet has been a wonderful way to limit our waste during production and sampling also, as there’s no remnants caused from cutting and sewing. Pieces made this way are also way more bespoke depending on the hand which made them, alongside them moulding to fit your body quite effortlessly compared to cut & sew. I could go on for days, designing garments made with these techniques is so exciting for me & you’ll be seeing a lot more in future collections.
What led you to start Walking Protest?
Iv’e always held a deep concern for the health of our planet. This is something which has been very innate. When I was really young, I used to call my Grandma very distressed about the state of our world and how we as humans treated it. Moving onto school and growing older, I always knew I was going to do something for the environment - at one stage is was building eco homes ( something which I’d still love to explore!) Then a love for fashion emerged and I quickly realised the correlation between what we wear & the climate crisis. This led me to study fashion design & work in the industry all the while developing a ‘movement’ which could combine my love for expressing myself through clothing whilst inspiring consumers and brands to change an industry causing so much damage. And here we are today, just the start of something with wide wings, ready to continue growing.
Thank you for being here, and for walking with us towards a better tomorrow.