Welcome the the second part of our series introducing our designers. This time round I would like to introduce Lottie, from one of our newest designers, Catching a Fish in Norway, also known as CAFIN.

Lottie, thanks for agreeing to answer some questions from me, firstly I know that your company is fairly young, can you give us a quick insight into your journey so far?

CAFIN was founded in 2014 by Paul Donati; in June 2015 I (Lottie Michael) joined as partner. It has been an incredibly insightful and challenging journey but we have had the support of several business mentors while setting up as well as the support of other organisations including the University of East Anglia. It has been great being able to realise something that we are both passionate about, and see it grow and develop into something substantial.

Great, now for the question a number of people will have been asking, where did your name come from?

The idea for CAFIN came when Paul’s friend, a highly talented illustrator graduated from an arts degree and struggled to find work. With a lack of practical skills for employment he soon found he was unable to live as an artist, as so many 1000s of others do.
This inspired Paul to create a brand promoting and supporting artists continuously, with the aim of boosting their careers – catching small, talented fish (young and up-and-coming artists) and helping them grow.
The brand is named after Pat Macdonald’s final project at university, a screen-printed magazine on the beauty of Norway. CAFIN’s branding revolves around the pristine environment and simple, caring lifestyle many of us associate with Scandinavian countries.

I knew there would be a story there. Would you say that there is a specific ethical niche that you fit into?

Our niche is “ethical and sustainable streetwear” – most ethical clothing brands are aimed at middle-aged, middle-class members of society, or ‘hippies’. There is a huge desire for change in the streetwear market (18-30 year olds) and for a change in fast fashion – this is our niche.

An area which needs to be address, well done. As that is your audience, how would you describe your clothing in a single tweet?

Ethically sourced streetwear, made in England, doing good from the bottom up.

As CAFIN started with an ethical business model from the beginning it could be said that it is easier to be ethical as you’re not trying to change your company in any way. What do you think is the easiest change most companies could make to be more ethical?

Companies need to start thinking more responsibly the same way consumers are – both go hand in hand – the more efforts companies make to change their practices and to educate their consumers, the more power consumers will have to choose more responsibly and educate others.

Very true! What is the next step for CAFIN?

Paul is currently studying on ERASMUS in Strasbourg and I am dong the same in Sweden. We plan to scale-up CAFIN on our return this summer – releasing full collections including our work-in-progress, a fully recycled line (made from plastic bottles and recycled cotton). We’re in the process of sourcing investment, and new stockists – slowly growing while educating those around us on the impacts of fast-fashion.

I hope that we can help you with this, we have some other designers creating recycled lines and would love to add to them in that area. Finally though, a really important question: Would you rather be a seal or an beaver?

Beaver spend hours on end building and re-building their dams, teaching their young how to build them and so on. We’re building our dam right now – against the endless, cold current (the fast-fashion industry) and teaching other beaver (the world) how to follow in our footsteps, and buy responsibly. So for that, beavers!

Brilliant, thank you so much and good luck beavering away!