T-shirt designer has novel idea

A MAN who founded a sustainable clothing brand during the coronavirus pandemic has collaborated with an author for a limited-edition T-shirt to celebrate Pride.

Ralph Burrows, 19, from Henley, founded Eco Kaila, a carbon neutral, genderless clothing company from his bedroom during the covid lockdown.

He contacted author Alice Oseman after he read her LGBTQ+ romance comic Heartstopper, which has recently made into a Netflix series, to see if they could work together.

Mr Burrows said: “I first contacted Alice’s team in March and it took only about 10 email exchanges and we had sorted everything. The T-shirts feature the three protagonists from her novel Loveless, which is a story about identity.”

The pair agreed the they would use the T-shirt to raise money for Not A Phase, a trans-led grassroots charity dedicated to awareness campaigning. Ms Oseman has also promoted the T-shirt on social media. She said: “Eco Kaila is committed to sustainability and ethical clothing which is why I wanted to work with them.”

Mr Burrows said the shirts were popular. He said: “Once I put the shirt on the website I thought it would take months to sell 1,000 but we sold out in around an hour. We then restocked 4,000 more, of which half sold within only a few hours.

“When we sell out again, this would raise around £31,250 for charity. Alice has such a loyal fan base which made the project really unique, I’m not sure we would ever have this level of impact again.”

Mr Burrows, a retained firefighter at Henley station, moved to Wargrave from Ipswich eight years ago to row for Shiplake College and attended The Henley College to study creative media production before leaving to pursue his business venture.

He said: “It was a bit of a bedroom idea to begin with. I started it in lockdown when I was 17. With the pandemic I suddenly found that I had a lot of spare time.

“I think the hardest aspect was finding a supplier, it was something I didn’t really have experience of doing but all the things I wanted, like making sure it was carbon neutral, responsibly sourced and partnered with charities, was possible.

“The collaboration with Alice has been really positive and led to people donating more on top of just buying a T-shirt, which will make such a difference.”