Community

SMART WORKS

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We were honoured to partner with the national charity, Smart Works to host a fundraising event on 12th September 2019, with a target of £2000 to support unemployed women get back into employment through interview clothes and coaching all donated. Through incredible support, we ended up raising over £4,000 for the charity, this included our donation of our ‘Careaux Capsule’ consisting of two tops and two skirts from our collection in a Smart Work’s Royal Blue, using fabric from 'end-of-the roll' pieces to ensure we minimise any fabric waste and made by our seamstresses and pattern cutters right here in Manchester.

Smart Works have already helped across Greater Manchester 1800 women, 53% of those have been unemployed for more than 1 year, 23% have applied for more than 50 jobs, 47% are single mums and 19% have disabilities but after visiting Smart Works 70% of them get the job. 

THE PANKHURST CENTRE 

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2018 marked the 100 year anniversary since 'some' women gained the right to vote.

As part of Careaux's ongoing commitment and passion for gender equality, our co-founder Rachel volunteered as a Pankhurst Centre Centenary City Ambassador. This involved volunteering her time to the charity in order to curate the 'Centenary City' exhibition to document and celebrate 100 years since 'some' women gained the right to vote. We also donated a Careaux dress to the exhibition. This involved designing and making their 'Northern Power Dress'.

The dress combined two of our bespoke pieces for two phenomenal women; Simone Roche MBE and Marnie Millard OBE created for their investitures. The dress reimagined the garments of the Suffragettes combining the timeless styles with buttons down the back with the Careaux concept.

The dress was made using leftover fabric by our incredible local seamstresses and pattern cutters.

SCIENCE MUSEUM

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Rachel has been a STEM ambassador for nearly two years. Therefore for the Science and Industry Museum’s Recycled Runway workshop during the Easter holidays we designed, created and donated two bespoke Careaux dresses to the workshop. Rachel also wrote a blog for the museum as well to promote the workshop and talk about the lack of diversity, sustainability and equality in the fashion industry.

One dress was made from organic cotton printed with a print made by local primary schools promoting what STEM meant to them and the other was made from fabric saved from landfill. This raised awareness for responsible production but also women in STEM.

The dress was made by our incredible local seamstresses and pattern cutters.

The 'Recycled Runway' workshop involved creating clothing from used plastic and paper to promote ethical fashion and also how Maths and fashion are linked.

THE PRINCE’S TRUST/ WOOD STREET MISSION/ DOGS 4 RESCUE

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For our Christmas Campaign 2019, we launched our first ever gift cards. Through every gift card sold, we donated 10% of our profits to the Prince’s Trust, donated a children’s gift/ book for Christmas to the Wood Street Mission’s Christmas Appeal, an amazing 150 year old local charity helping children and families affected by poverty in Manchester & Salford and we contributed to the funding of much needed supplies this Christmas for local rescue dog charity, Dogs 4 Rescue.

CYSTIC FIBROSIS TRUST

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Laura has Cystic Fibrosis and is currently waiting for a double lung transplant. We are both extremely passionate about raising awareness for disabilities, disabled entrepreneurs and equality for all.

For the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Trust, Laura volunteered and donated her time to be a judge for their 'CF Creates' competition. The competition involved creating something new from packaging used from their CF medication, therefore promoting recycling, the issue of plastic and also raising awareness for the amount of medication people with CF have to take.

We also donated prizes to the competition winners, this included books on ethical fashion and also a bespoke Careaux sketch of their choice.

In order to promote engagement in the competition, we created two bespoke Careaux dresses for the CF Trust to demonstrate what you could make for the competition. One dress was made out of recycled plastic bottles and the other was made from ethically sourced fabric. They both included sequins made out of recycled plastic and we had plastic medicine bottles laser cut into sequin shapes too and we added them to the dress.

The dress was made using leftover fabric and by our incredible local seamstresses and pattern cutters. The sequins were sourced from a UK based female founded company as well as the lining which was from an all female founded company.

CHILD RESCUE COALITION

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In our commitment to charity, gender equality and partnerships, to support National Child Abuse Prevention Month we designed and created a limited edition Careaux dress 'The Alessia' dress. This meant 100% of the profits from the dress were donated to the Child Rescue Coalition, an all-female founded charity by two sisters, Carly and Desiree Asher using tech for good to provide free technology to organisations to protect the innocence of children all over the world. The fabric was saved from landfill from our ethical supplier and the dresses were made by our local seamstresses and pattern cutters.

PREVENT BREAST CANCER

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We have partnered with the charity, Prevent Breast Cancer, a UK- based breast cancer charity researching how to predict, prevent and protect future generations from developing breast cancer. We designed and donated a bespoke Careaux dress for their fundraiser in October 2019 to be worn by survivors of breast cancer to raise awareness of the charity. The dress was made using fabric saved from landfill and by our local all-female team.

We have also volunteered creating look-books and styling for the ambassadors of the charity.