A few months ago, we received a telephone call from Nadia Alexander at Alexander Manufacturing in Scotland, quite out of the blue. But it was anything other than a routine call. For Alexander Manufacturing had been selected to make the team uniforms for Team GB at the Paris Olympics and they needed buttons – a lot of buttons to tie everything up.

After sending samples, prototype uniforms were presented to the GB Olympic Committee who gave the go-ahead. In what became a team relay sprint (time is always short on these sorts of jobs), we had to turn, dye and finish thousands of buttons for the hundreds of uniforms which were being made (made-to-measure, as it turned out) for every member of Team GB. It was a sprint, relay and marathon all in one, but we got to the finish line well in time for the uniforms to be ready for the big event.

It is amazing to think that some of our great Olympians (think Tom Pidcock, Tom Daley, Keely Hodgkinson, Adam Peaty, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Dina Asher-Smith, Andy Murray and so many other amazing athletes) have come into contact with buttons made by us. It is really quite overwhelming.

And while we may not have been present at the games themselves, we really struck gold in being a part of the most prestigious sporting event in the world. We cannot thank Nadia, her team and all involved enough for putting their trust in us as suppliers. It has been a great accolade for us and our team in Bourton.

We were delighted (and not a little bit surprised) to receive an invitation for an event at No 10 Downing Street a few weeks ago. It was being organised by the Board of Trade and Anja Hindmarch, the head of the eponymous British handbag maker and was hosted by Akshata Murty, the PM’s wife, who is herself a fashion designer, having started her own brand called Akshata Designs back in 2009.

The event, held on the 17^th April, was billed as a ‘matchmaking’ opportunity to promote British makers and introduce them to a plethora of British brands whose knowledge and contact base of local British manufacturers needed a little ‘refresh’ and to encourage them to support local makers.

We were among an amazing number and variety of suppliers and garment makers from all over the country which collectively presented a really impressive cross section of many highly gifted, professional individuals and companies who are all too often overlooked in favour of their peers dotted around the globe.

Of course, local manufacturing and sourcing is not only good for the UK economy, it is also an astute alternative approach in a world in which conflict, climate change and pandemic have decimated global supply chains. Local production may be more expensive (this is not always or automatically so when seen in the broadest sense), but it does massively improve reliability, flexibility, consistency while maintaining or even improving quality. Coming as it does at a time when economies are struggling and excessive waste in the fashion industry is being penalised, there is now no better time for British brands to support British manufacturers.

Along with so many other firms here in the UK, we are ready to rise to the challenge and become a go-to and reliable ‘manufacturing partner’ to British brands for many years to come. The benefits are many and clear to see. Thanks go out to all those at the Board of Trade, No 10 and Anja Hindmarch for their invaluable support.

In the autumn of 2023, we were introduced by Diane Richardson, founder of and inspiration behind Sseams, to Adam Robertson, who together with Nina Falk, created the Kalopsia Collective in Dunfermline as a textile artist collective back in 2012. Its mission was to collaborate with others who shared their own values and mission adding new insights and skills as they went.

The response was highly supportive which led them to expand the work they did to manufacturing for third parties, launching the KC Manufacturing service in 2016. Its remit was to improve their clients’ material efficiency and product sustainability efforts with an emphasis on stock and material re-purposing.

Operating as a registered social enterprise, Kalopsia supplies a range of clients from start-ups to luxury brands with high-quality, ethical and sustainable accessories and apparel from their standardised product collection.

Keen to help them expand even further we looked at ways to support them in their enterprise and identified the absence of a button-holing machine as a key obstacle to widening their product portfolio. Naturally, as the leading maker of natural material buttons in the UK, we were sympathetic to their plight. So, we were invited to join the collective by supplying just such a machine. Keen to help the UK manufacturing sector succeed, it was an offer we couldn’t refuse.

So, just before Easter 2024, we arranged for a fully reconditioned button-hole machine to be sent to Dunfermline, ready and primed for the tasks at hand. We are all delighted with the result and are really looking forward to following their new-found success in the months and years to go.

We would love for you to get in touch with Adam at KC who would be super-keen to support your sustainable manufacturing needs. He can be contacted via email at info@kalopsia.co.uk