Bethany Williams AW20 - 06 - Dapper Tapper

Jun, 2020 | Fashion, Fashion Week, London

Bethany Williams – Autumn 2020

by Juan De la Concha

Bethany Williams is a clothing brand with a difference. Through collaboration with communities and charities, she strives to create collections embedded with real stories and hope to have a positive impact on the social space we engage with. Each garment is made from recycled and organic materials and made in the UK, working along with social projects and local manufacturers on the production.

Bethany Williams provides an alternative system for fashion production, as we believe fashions reflection upon the world can create positive change. In 2019 Bethany was awarded with The Queen Elizabeth the Second Award, was selected as Emerging Menswear Designer at the Fashion Awards, and was a finalist for the LVMH award.

For her AW20 collection titles ‘NRPF’ standing for No Recourse to Public Funds, she worked alongside East London based charity called The Magpie Project. ‘NRPF’ is a condition imposed due to a person’s immigration status, and prohibits seeking public funds such as welfare benefits and housing provided via the local authority, which is subject to the discretion and a case-by-case basis of “intentional homelessness.”

The Magpie Project charity, founded in 2017, is a coal-face, crisis-to-crisis, grassroots organization created to make sure that a spell in temporary accommodation does not cause permanent damage to children who experience it. They have supported over 400 mothers and 500 children in the past two years.

The print story for this collection was in collaboration with Melissa Kitty Jarram, a South East London based illustrator and artist. During the creating process, Bethany and Melissa visited the Magpie Project to hear the otherwise untold truths of moms and their small children forced to live in temporary and unfit accommodation, unable to work, or study, or move, because they have been deemed to have “no recourse to public funds”. The artwork collaboration for this season has been created from a visit to Magpies ‘Rhyme and Song’ session where Melissa illustrated the bond between mother and child.

To accompany the NRPF collection Mellissa and Bethany worked alongside Eno Mfon, a London based poet to create a film titled ‘HEAVY’. Eno was introduced to the work of the Magpie Project and through hearing the stories told by the Magpie mothers wrote her response and interpretation in the form of a poem, ready by Eno, over the hand-painted animation created by Melissa.