Business... as unusual

This week I had the chance to travel over to Inverness to meet the folks behind Surfers Attic – a recently opened surf shop in Inverness.  The purpose was to discuss the possibility of a new range of surf products that could be manufactured by Rag Tag n Textile (I was also secretly motivated by the chance to browse the shop’s products and talk about swells, waves and west coast surf spots).

The Attic, tucked above a skate shop off the union canal, is a pocket of upstairs delight. Upon climbing the stairs you will be greeted by the wonderfully ambled interior built using wood from the local Community Woodland Trust, the first of many subtle indicators that this business is attempting to do things differently.

Colin at Surfers Attic spoke of the difficulty of finding home grown manufactured surf products at a scale befitting grassroots business.  Many surf brands (while generally ethical) are still a product of a globalized mass produced supply chain, involving a complex series of dealers, sellers and minimum orders.  In contrast Surfers Attic has attempted to source many of its products from Scottish businesses and some have been produced by social enterprises.  You can buy Surf Attic Soap produced by Ness Soap (a social enterprise in Inverness) or colourful woolly hats from Zaini (a company based in Aviemore). 

Why was I so enamoured with Surfers Attic? 

I think it is because there is an underlying narrative to what they do.  Yes, it is a retail outlet for surf products, but it is also a business with priorities beyond making money, seeking products from Scottish businesses and socially intentional companies.  A family run business that was started around relationship, people and a love for surfing.

Let me digress into the world of paper in an attempt to give a parallel example of my enamour.  There is a traditional rural paper factory in Nepal.  The paper is made in an outdoor area the size of a living room with a production process that is simple, labor-intensive and cheap. Pieces of cloth stretched on wooden frames are dipped into and raised up through the slurry so they are coated with a thin layer of fiber, then they are propped to dry in the sun. In contrast, modern western paper factories are gigantic operations costing upward of a billion dollars. A big paper mill uses energy at the same rate as a small city as the logs are chipped and boiled in gigantic kettles of acid. Paper mills turn entire forests  (a seventy-five acre clear cut per mill per day) into paper.

I think the western paper mill fails to appeal to the human need for narrative, and unlike all good stories contains no element of romance (you may ask what is romantic about paper, but I assure you my wallet has been previously wooed by Nepalese hand made paper).

Surfers Attic appeals to me in the way a white space retail outlet in a mall never will.  Rag Tag products appeal to me in a way crafts sourced from Alibaba never will.  Nepalese hand made paper appeals to me in a way the western paper mill never will.  They are not businesses defined by efficiency, output, profit and loss but independent, bottom up companies challenging this standard definition through creativity.  They are outside of our normal experience of business and growth capitalism, confronting the presumed incompatibility of ‘social’ business.

I would argue they have a superior narrative; a story worth buying into; a little pocket of romance in a world dominated by multinational companies.

So keep your eyes on the horizon for a possible collaboration between Rag Tag n Textile and Surfers Attic. And if you‘re in Inverness and in need of a little romance why not head over to the Surfers Attic. (Unit 1, 7 Canal Road, Inverness) 

Rag Tag n Textile is a registered charity and social enterprise.  The articles published on this blog reflect the opinions of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the organisation and its members.

Walk in my Shoes

   The makers and the models at last year's fashion show

Apologies to all those who've just clicked on our link, ready to read Reuben's regular blog.  Sadly, (for us!) our intrepid, cycling blogger has gone on holiday for a week. In his absence you're stuck with me, Cindie. I'm afraid I don't claim to be in the same league when it comes to eloquence and picturesque turn of phrase, as Reuben is, however, I will do what I can.

So, for anyone still reading, I'm going to write a little bit about our upcoming fashion showcases and why we're doing them.


Regular followers of the doings of we Rag Tag folk will know that we've had two fashion shows in the past, both of them in partnership with the excellent Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival.  As SMHAFF, say on their website. 'Now in its sixth year, the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival is has grown to become one of Scotland's most valued and diverse cultural events, covering everything from music, film and visual art to theatre, dance, and literature. The annual festival takes place in venues across Scotland throughout October, aiming to support the arts and challenge preconceived ideas about mental health.' check out their website here


The festival is a great way of showcasing the sheer amount of talent and creativity of people who have experienced mental problems and is growing in success, raising the profile of those with mental health issues, asking the difficult questions, offering support.  This year, the theme is 'Walk in My Shoes', which has got us thinking about just what that means to us and how we can portray it with fabric and stitches and, of course, shoes.

There's a song with a very similar title by Joe South, which was performed by The King himself,  Elvis Presley - in case you were in any doubt.  There are several versions on You Tube, though I've linked to one above to save you a few minutes on Google.  As we all know, Elvis had a hard time or two in his life, but so did Joe South.  Joe was born to a very poor family in Georgia, he struggled with drug problems, lost his brother to suicide and is apparently well known as a 'prickly character', who struggled with drug and alcohol issues for much of his life.

This is the chorus of his song:

Walk a mile in my shoes

just walk a mile in my shoes

 Before you abuse, criticize and accuse

Then walk a mile in my shoes

The tune is upbeat and almost cheerfiul, but it resonates, it's about racial hatred, something Joe South knew a bit about, growing up in the South, but reading his story it's not hard to see that he understands mental illness too.  We think it's a pretty good choice for the theme of the festival, a good choice for encouraging others to see things as we see them, of thinking twice before they judge.

So, we've been taking photos of shoes for the brochure, and the pics that Reuben has taken are funny and challenging and beautiful, I can't share them tonight, they're under wraps, like so many of the things that we're making.  We'll keep you posted about what we're up to and the festival will be full of wonderful, moving inspirational stories and images, just as it's been for the last few years. We'll keep you posted about that too. 

But back to shoes. We've been playing around with footware and adapting it and thinking about what shoes mean to a person, what they say about the wearer; are they practical, do we need them to portray an image, protect us, what do our shoes say about us?  We judge eachother all the time, each and every day - she's 'grumpy', he's 'smug', she's 'slow', he's 'mental': labels that mean nothing really, that are superficial, that don't reflect the person we're talking about.  Judging someone says far more about you than it ever will about the person you're judging, but that doesn't take away the hurt, and when the person that you've labelled is fragile or in pain, judging someone can be the thing that distroys them.

Being mentally ill really, really hurts.  It takes over your whole life, affects your sleep and your waking life, takes away your happy memories and distorts them though a dark glass, it takes away your hope for the future and your joy in the present.  When you're ill there seems as if there is no escape.  But there is.  There are friends to be found, there are people that understand.  Organisations like ours, like SMHAFF and HUG and SAMH and many others are there and we're doing what we can.  Many of our members have been ill too and have, with the support of eachother, become more well.  They've learned to cope with the long, dark sleepless nights and the anxiety, the insecurity and the pain.

The last thing that anyone who's been ill needs is to be judged. Try understanding us instead, she's sad, he's shy, she's depressed, he's ill?

Why not walk in my shoes.

 If you need help there are lots of places out there where you can go, please, please don't be alone, contact one of the organisations listed below.  If you know someone who's ill, why not give them these contact details, and offer your help.  Don't judge, try to understand, because one of these days that person who's ill and worried and frightened about what others think of them, that person might just be you.

Samaritans
HUG   
SMHAFF
Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH)
Mind   (England and Wales)
Scottish Recovery Network               

We are a Social Enterprise based in Skye and Kyle of Lochalsh... ...YES

I’m currently traveling to Edinburgh on the train, entertaining the seemingly incompatible; watching deer in the most intimate of environments while typing about the experience on my laptop (in the safety of the carriage) and simultaneously uploading it to the Internet through my smartphone.

If traveling on two wheels is one of the most rewarding ways to traverse the west coast, the train certainly rivals it.  On the bicycle you have to work for every yard, feeling as though you may be consumed by the landscape at any point for daring to come before her exposed.  In sharp contrast the train cuts through the landscape in stealth; piercing its heart; leaving it to pour out; in flashes, intimate moments of nature. I seldom see deer on my bike, yet I know the furtive nature of the train will often reveal them.  In this scenario it is the landscape that is exposed.

This is the longest stint I have been away from Edinburgh since moving to the Isle of Skye, and while I am excited to be going to see friends and family I am a little nervous.  The west coast has permeated my skin and its way of life has invaded my way of life.  Only this week I caught myself commenting on the roads getting very busy with all the tourists.  I heard my six-month mirrored self staring in disbelief.  Busy?  Really?  You have lived here six months and more than three cars pass you on your bike and suddenly it’s busy?

Yes choc a block thank you very much, they are disturbing my peaceful cycle to work, in fact I can’t hear myself think.  What’s more I no longer go into the Co-op at peak times as there is simply to many people in the que. Tourists eh!

What has happened to me?

I have forgotten the traffic lights, junctions and traffic jams of the city.  The thick traffic and bullying busses are a distant memory.  I have forgotten what busy is.

And this is why I’m nervous about going back to Edinburgh.  I fear I have forgotten what busy is. I am assured by the pace of life here, captivated by the open space and infinite horizon, I’ve become attuned with going to sleep while it’s still light, waking up to the noise of the Cuckoo, and cycling through the sea salt breeze.  In Edinburgh I will be going to sleep to streetlights, the Cuckoo will be replaced with car horns and sea salt will give way for asphalt.

This week some of the volunteers and staff went through to a fashion workshop in Inverness as part of the Go North programme. It is an event put on from a predominately fashion perspective, so it was interesting to contrast on the unprecedented pace and ephemeral nature of an often-fickle industry.  At Rag Tag we make clothes, love creativity and fashion for that matter, but we also would appear to have conflicting values.  We strive for sustainability, make items to last and our underlying purpose is to aid in a recovery process, which doesn’t meet deadlines.

The one thing I learned from the event, which sticks out most in my mind, is this differentiation is not only ok, but an asset. It is paramount to be yourself and reflect who you are in what you do and make. 

I’m sure many of you will have seen the film Local Hero by the Scottish Director Bill Forsyth.  It’s a fantastic film, one that depicts west coast communities with both affection and accuracy. Forsythe seems to understand (even imply) the stereotype, but he also takes us beyond this to a richer and more intricate portrait of these remote communities, revealing the unique beauty of both people and place. 

We are not a London based fashion house or Edinburgh Boutique, but a social enterprise based in a remote west coast community.

People often look to the London for inspiration, searching for the next up and coming thing or the season’s trends.  However creativity not only exists beyond the London, but also before it.  We live in a place with a deep, dark and wonderful past.  We have a rich heritage full of crofting and craft (our very shop is a converted steading) not to mention being situated in the most epic of landscapes sculpted by an ancient geological phenomenon.

Rag Tag n Textile is unique, our location is unique, our heritage is unique and I assure you the people are most definitely unique. Our products can’t help but (and should) reflect this; who we truly are; our location; our ethos and most importantly our recovery.

If you can’t measure it, does it still exist?

I love research.  It is probably my 2^nd most favourite thing in the whole wide world, and so I have made it my mission in life to promote research as one of the most fun, entertaining and inspiring uses of one’s time. (So here it goes). 

I don’t know if you have ever seen the diagram about knowledge It goes like this: there are the things you know you know, the things you know you don’t know, the things you don’t know you know and finally the things you don’t know you don’t know.

The most important box is in the bottom right.  In this box is a whole world of interesting and exciting things (and you have no idea what they are). Research is all about getting lost in this box.¹

The best way to get lost in this box is to talk to people (especially strangers).  This is why research is so interesting because fundamentally it is about telling people’s stories, and people know and do the most unimaginable things.  Mark Twain famously remarked “truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction is bound by rules”; the narratives of human life are so unbelievable that they often defy imagination.  People are a portal into the box of unknown unknowns.

There is a reason I have chosen to divulge in a moment of topical preference.  A core part of my job this year at Rag Tag n Textile is to complete a research project.  More specifically I must complete a Social Impact Report; this basically involves attempting to analyse the activities of Rag Tag n Textile, proving the impact and subsequent value this has on the communities and individuals involved.

Rag Tag 'n' Textile is a social firm working with people who have mental health issues, teaching traditional textile skills in a therapeutic environment.

However (my line of enquiry goes) do the activities and environment at Rag Tag, improve your mood, your feelings about life and the world you live in?

I know this does – for me – and many other people, but how can I be sure?

There exists a collection of stories and narratives that reveal the secrets of Rag Tags value and impact.  In my short time here I have had the privilege to hear numerous moving stories of people who have been impacted by the activities of Rag Tag, experiencing an improved sense of wellbeing through actively partaking in their recovery journey here.  But how do you measure this?

I may know this; have seen and experienced the effects of this; but this is different to measurable, objective value.  How do you measure a story?

Life is messy and so are people.  Work at Rag Tag is embedded in both people and life.  It doesn’t follow a linear path that can be lined up against a yardstick; measured; quantified; and valued.

We have stories, and if stories are data with a soul, we will listen to the stories, measure the data and share our soul.

So we can show the powers that be, objectively something most people already know.

Rag Tag works.

1.     1. If I jog my memories back to secondary school science class, I appreciate the purpose of experiments was to prove a hypothesis i.e. something you think you already know. However I would argue that the most interesting research in science occurs when the results don’t fit into the hypothesis and you are forced to confront the unexpected i.e. something you do not know

To find out more bout the work of Rag Tag n Textile pleas visit our website www.ragtagntextile.org.uk

It may be hand made but it’s never ever average

Step 3 Making Everything

We have become acutely aware during the continued aftermath of the financial crisis; the power and effect our expenditure as consumers has on the economy.  I have to confess only ignorance and confusion with regards to the intricacy of our economy, however I have come to appreciate that it is burgeoned by consumerism.  These events and our recent history illustrate the power and heights the activity of consuming has obtained (and therefore the consumer).  However Far from being debilitating this is an empowering thought, we are all consumers and collectively have the ability to force tremendous change (and have often exercised this power), however I do not wish to pontificate on the choices one makes as consumers, as followers of Rag Tag n Textile I imagine you are well versed in the arts of responsible consumption and the services we offer in this vein.

I wish to instead postulate on someone who could exercise even more power than ourselves; as the objective consumer, and that is you and me; would be creators.  To be able to extract yourself from the accepted role of consumer, to the active role of creator is a powerful thing, a defiant act of confrontation.

As Ghandi so wonderfully illustrated, making your own clothes is a political and often totalitarian government toppling activity, his understanding of the cotton supply chain allowed him to undermine the most powerful people of the time.  Can we echo these thoughts 60 years later, can a modern understanding of the supply chain of your underwear, and a little education in how to make some, have the same undermining effect?

One of my favorite projects over the last couple of years is by a man named Thomas Thwaites entitled ‘The Toaster Project’.  In the Toaster Project Thwaites set himself a somewhat unique challenge to build a toaster from scratch (scratch being defined not simply as assembling a toaster from other existing components, but extracting and processing the parts completely by himself). 

Through his journey of Opus Dei DIY, Thwaite’s project reveals much about the modern world.  At the first stage he is defeated by the task of smelting metals something first practiced 8000 years ago! The secrets have been hidden in contemporary specialization.  The scale and convoluted nature of modern production have veiled the origins of our products construction; modern culture no longer has a need or knowledge of how to make things.

And why should it?

Why put yourself through the time consuming process of learning to make your own underwear, what could possibly persuade you to devote endless hours of learning, in order to produce a pair of pants, when you can purchase a pair for a pound.

Why on earth attempt to make your own toaster from scratch?

For maybe (I think) we are bored consumers:

Frustrated bit part producers, bullied advertising viewers

and most importantly would be creators.

So let us rise against the mass production lines of mutual pastiche, the Ikea coffee table, and the Argos toaster, not to mention the Primark Pants

Let us move from passive consumers to active creators (and topple the totalitarian powers of our time).

I wish to finish with a photo of Thomas Thwaites toaster.  It’s a complete failure.  It’s a completely wonderful, beautifully inspiring failure; full of charm and narrative; a defiant failure; a mocking failure, against the mass-produced machine.

It may be hand made, but it is most certainly not average.

(Thank you to Will Stopha for the tittle of this blog and general inspiration and Thomas Thwaites likewise)


This Post was updated on the 4th June following inaccurate and impertinent information, anyone who had the unfortunate chance to read this please receive our sincerest apologies.

Saving the world one pair of underpants, socks, trousers, shirt, vest, jumper…

Part 2

Homemade Underwear

Being born a child of romantic and ideological tendencies, I have learned as an adult, to develop a great distrust for romance and ideology, educating myself away from this into a corner of developed cynicism.

So despite my previous hyperbolic statement: “saving the world one pair of underpants at a time”.  I am deeply suspicious of such a preposterous claim. 

I don’t really believe one can change the world by making pants?

Well…

There was a man called Mohandas Karamchand.

He made a lasting change in the world, and central to this change was a spinning wheel and DIY underwear.  He used to go to political meetings with his spinning wheel and sit there spinning his own cotton.  He was laughed at to begin with, and then people thought he might be onto something, and then it turned out he was.

This man is more commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi.

He realized if Indians were to spin their own cotton, there would be no need to export it back to England, the British cotton industry (which exploited Indians) would wither and the reason for Britain being in India would cease to exist, so by lots of Indians spinning there own cotton this would result in the end of oppressive British empirical rule in India (peacefully).

[Thanks to J P Flintoff for some enlightening information on this subject]

Extending this (previously proven) logic, if all of Scotland were to begin making their own underwear, there would no longer be any need for the environmentally damaging, child labor pants drugged up on air miles.

So while I am not quite naive enough to think that I can change the world simply by making my own underwear, I think if Scotland joined me, we might be onto something, at the very least this action would foster an element of intentional positive change, and how else can we change the world other than; mass meta collective attempts at intentional positive change.

And if I’m drastically off peak (which is a distinct possibility), it’s really fun.  Making your own clothes is useful, purposeful creative fun.  

This is one of the reasons at Rag Tag n Textile; we use creative textile skills as a pivotal part of our attempt to foster an environment of recovery for people with mental health problems.  It just so happens that the produce of these skills (subsequently what we sell) has an embedded poetic orbit, including environmental responsibility and homage to the heritage of the area.  Somehow things are often connected like that.

Making your own clothes is fun.  It just so happens it might also change the world, save your soul and the polar bears.  Somehow things are often connected like that.

If you are interested in making your own clothes we run various sewing and craft classes regularly at Rag Tag n Textile workshops.  Have a look here on our website for more information.