Prickly Thistle

Clothes Made for Womxn by Womxn
Clothes Made to Make Sh#t Happen
The UK's 1st & Only B Corp™ Textiles Mill
 
Prickly Thistle exist to make the most ethical and style defining clothes for womxn in the world.
 
The business was founded by Clare in her garden shed in October 2015 with the determination to make a positive difference by reinventing in a traditional industry she knew very little about. Armed with a sewing machine she started the Prickly Thistle journey.

After four years of failed then successful crowdfunding, a growing list of global supportive customers and in the face of those who said it couldn’t be done, the company is trail blazing with it’s disruptive and relentlessly purpose-led approach.  Having achieved B Corp status and built a team of fifteen working from the only textile mill and manufacturing hub in the Highland region of Scotland, Clare and Prickly Thistle have proved there is a market for what they are producing and how they are doing it.

Prickly Thistle exists simply to design and make some of the worlds’ most eco and ethically minded fabric and clothes for womxn delivered in a sustainable, circular way.  The company is meeting the need to go beyond caring words, slogans and misleading references and deliver a transparent and honest clothing experience.  Womxn want authentic, quality, stylish clothing that will last – the antithesis of the fast fashion, disposable culture that has emerged – and Prickly Thistle is a brand that is being recognised for not only meeting these needs and associated values but help accelerate change across the whole industry.

As the FIRST and ONLY B Corp certified textile mill that is also a clothing manufacturer in Scotland, indeed the only one in the UK, they have set themselves apart with transparency and integrity at the heart of everything they do. All textiles are woven from 100% natural fibre fabrics made in a slow way, while the company is committed to creating high quality jobs locally in Scotland reintroducing weaving skills and to changing the rules on clothing design. 

·   25% of all fabrics in fashion are wasted in a cutting room for ‘standard’ sizes that do not exist; 

·   1% of textiles globally are recycled; and 

·   >60% of fabrics are made from oil, petrochemical synthetics.  
 
Prickly Thistle has a solution for all of this plus more. They make clothing with zero fabric waste, they make to order, they make clothing with minimal hardware for maximum size adjustability and styling, minimum hardware also makes for simple recycling when beyond reuse and repair. The circular safeguard to all of this has been put in place also by Prickly Thistle. They know that when clothing leaves the mill, and they are not recycled for whatever reason, all clothes are made with fibres that have a natural biodegradable quality.  This ensures a smooth non-toxic return to nature, it’s like a life policy for the planet.

Prickly Thistle is proving that we can make bad-ass, high quality, locally designed and manufactured, styled clothes for womxn that put responsibility for the planet and people first and still have a viable and growing business. To see how they are doing that, check out www.pricklythistle.shop