One year of trade!

 

We have hit our first milestone- Our first birthday! 

I'm a little taken back as the who concept of The Giver & Co was born out of few key ingredients: boredom, desire to do more with my life / time, too much time spent watching Foxtel and a stubbornness to make a little change in the world.

Since our small beginnings in my mother's sewing room, this little label has gone from concept store phase to nervous wees then to orders and dispatch! To date we sewn and sent almost 50 orders to ladies to countries in the Middle East, Europe and Australia all through the power of social media and a smart phone. We also made some practical change through the profits made by your purchases. We helped people get their sight back and also cancer patients to receive life saving treatment.. Not bad for a little store! 

The future sees The Giver & Co enter a new phase. The last year has taught us resilience, the power of passion and selfies, and also that the only hindrance to our success is our inability to dream a little crazier and bigger.

We foresee our second year of alive-ness to hold some more adventures, more market stalls, fun times & pics, but most important, clothes! As we gain staff and more expertise, we will take our hand to creating whole collections that fit into your closet as staples and old faithfulls. 

We hope you continue with us on our journey, love our product and share our heart for change! 

Many thanks for all of your love and support 

xx

Sammie

Founder / Chief Giver

May 20, 2016 — Samantha Bradbury

Size guide and refund policy

April 01, 2016 — Samantha Bradbury

New look Giver & CO

Welcome to the new look Giver & Co,

As a small social business and aspiring label, we are endeavouring to explore new grounds in design, fashion and philanthropy.

This last year has been such a journey for this little label. We began as an idea or concept for a self-sustaining philanthropy model that empowered both producer and consumer whilst adding value to the greater world. We spent late sleepless nights sewing new dresses and shipping orders to amazing people that believed in our vision and drive.

Unfortunately, the pressure and fear of starting a little venture like this one weighed our founder down and a period of rest was needed. However, after a few months of rest and refocusing, we were back on track.

As a founder, I am realizing that drive and passion are like a pot plant. The growth of the plant is directly inverse to the amount of care, nourishment and environmental graces allotted to it. This little plant , The Giver & Co, has been a hearty little critter and has survived months of drought and mistreatment. For this very fact, I would like to express my gratitude to our followers for their unending support and digital love. 

Therefore, as founder, I am aspiring to turn a corner and turn this little social experiment into more than a hobby or desire for more.

This is our mandate: 

 

The Giver & Co is a social enterprise ( a business with heart) that seeks to produce lifestyle and travel clothing that is environmental sustainable and social ethical. 

If you have followed us from the start, you are privileged to has seen the conception and growth of an idea that aspires to become a reality. From here, we will produce more quality and diverse products for the simple fact that we love fashion, environmental sustainability and understand social responsibility .

I hope you can see and appreciate the journey this idea has taken and partner with us to make a change to this crazy world.

Much love and climb aboard,

Sammie

Founder - Head Giver & Seamstress

 

March 01, 2016 — Samantha Bradbury

Practice shots for upcoming photography greatness!

Hi there internet world!

In an attempt to better my photography skills and save some dough on stuff I can try and do myself, I am working on developing my fashion eye through photography. This is great news for The Giver & Co community because it means that you have the opportunity to watch our style and skills develop and change into whatever the heck it wants to. 

So in the spirit of communal digital sharing, please follow us on Facebook (The Giver and Co and Instagram (sammie_thegiverandco) and enjoy our photographic advances on your retinas.

 

August 11, 2015 — Samantha Bradbury

BLACK & WHITE X THE GIVER & CO

 

 

July 27, 2015 — Samantha Bradbury

Happy first week of trade!

Yipee!

How exiting, we have just completed the first week of trade and have gotten a total of 5 orders ( believe me that is a great result because I'm the employee of the month in my little sewing sweatshop)!

I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone that has made a purchase, liked, shared and supported the vision of The Giver & Co, you are all bloody legends! Without you guys, the hopes and dreams that we have to make the world a better place wouldn't be possible. So thank you and big love from the bottom of our heart!

 For my second blog post I wanted to inspire you all with the inspiration behind the design and styling of my wrap dresses.

A few months ago I finished my university degree and had a bit of down time to read and recoup after an exhausting three years of full-time study and almost full time work. After a few days of mindless Foxtel bingeing, I happened upon a reality show that stared the American designer Diane Von Furstenberg. I was captivated by her confidence, life story and sense of style. Her mantra in her designs and life was that, ‘she knew from a young age the woman she wanted to be’ so she created it. She wanted to be confident in her femininity, financially independent, carefree and mesmerising. I was inspired by this as I too have those same feelings of wanting to inspire beauty in others, express my femininity confidently and be financially independent and mentally strong. So like Diane, I set out to change the way I saw myself and my movements in life and I challenged myself to be confident in my ability.

            (Diane circa 1971)           

Diane Von Furstenberg and I have entirely different upbringings. She had married European royalty young and worked in the fashion industry for the entirety of her career. I on the other hand, grew up in my older brother’s hand-me-down basketball t-shirts and pants and worked in hospitality roles that were never glamorous. I highly doubt that any of Diane Von Furstenberg’s (DVF) first jobs ever involved cleaning up post-digested cheese burgers off of a McDonald’s playground as mine did. However, I felt drawn to the commonality and personal aspirations that we both share: confidence, financial independence and beauty. These are the things that really matter.

As I read the story of Diane’s life, I read of how she used her skills and connections to create the stretch-jersey wrap dress. In the 70’s these dresses were dynamite, they were simple, versatile, functional and low maintenance. These dresses were the saviour to the modern woman’s plight to be glamorous and beautiful effortlessly. As I did more research into how I could buy my own DVF wrap dress and as I searched I found that their price was more than I could reason (these dresses retail for $350>$500 AUD). This was enough rocket fuel-inspiration for me to consider the wild thought of being my own little sweatshop and recreate the wrap-dress into a more modern and playful dress that my generation can affordable enjoy. So I hit the fabric shops and library in effort to teach myself the principles of pattern making, grading and sewing to compliment my childhood knowledge of sewing and pattern making. When I was confident, I started to make myself some wrap dresses. I was so surprised and happy with the finished product and the response that they got from my friends.  

This is where the science happens kids. I used my skills of sewing to make a product that I genuinely believe in, coupled it with my desire to be more than just a Sam-benefiting operation and created The Giver & Co.

Here are some fun facts: 

- One dress takes two meters of material to make

- I make the entire product by hand 

- It takes 4.5 hours of continuous work to make a dress

- My foreman is our family cat, and he has no opposable thumbs to help me sew

My heart and aim for The Giver & Co is to empower the buyer of my dresses to feel and know that they are truly beautiful, cherished and unique not just because they are wearing my product, but because they really are. I want the woman (or man who are trying to get brownie points, go son!) that purchase my product to know that their body shape and personality are uniquely rare and are worth maintaining and developing.

The focus of the social enterprise side of the business is to make the world a better place for someone. As a child I grew up with utopian notions of changing the world or saving it from the crazy that’s out there. I’ve realised that I can’t save the world, but maybe I can make it a bit better for someone else. I don’t think that this a noble goal, I feel that it’s my responsibility as I was given so much opportunity in life to be all that I wanted to be. So this is my way of giving back.

So I encourage you to partner with our vision and heart for sustainable change. I encourage you to buy one of my dresses for yourself, sister or mother so that they can be part of the change we are trying to achieve.

The Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 – 1948) said, ‘You must be the change you want to see in the world.’ Put very simply, we are trying to be a positive change and influence in a world that knows grief, war, loss and lovelessness. We are The Giver & Co and our aim is to see people’s lives full of love, confidence and empowerment.

Much love,

Sammie

April 09, 2015 — Samantha Bradbury

Welcome to the Giver & Co!

Hi there and welcome to the Give & Co blog and store!

The purpose for this website is to celebrate culture, entrepreneurship, confidence and all things home/hand made.I thought it would be fitting for me to give you a quick look into why I do what I do and the inspiration for creating the Giver & Co.

Growing up in an all-boy family, from the age of 3, I aspired to drive trucks like my father, ride motorbikes with my brothers and climb trees all day. As I got older, I was surrounded by multicultural influences and travelling missionaries form exotic countries. These people shared vibrant stories of culture, language and artisan-ship, I was hooked on exploring and finding adventure heard in the stories I had listened to for years. So at the age of 15 I began to travel overseas in a quest for purposeful adventure. I wanted to go with a bigger purpose, so I helped small community development projects.  I travelled around the world to countries like India, Greece, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore in small teams that focused on meeting needs like rebuilding small churches that were demolished by flooding and building gardens at dilapidated retirement homes. These early experiences taught me purpose and the value of giving without reward or recognition. I never realized that this type of thought  process was entrepreneurship.

During my tom-boy years, I shunned all things womanhood, femininity and dresses. But when I was about 17 I changed into a lover of sewing and home-made treasures. This change was produced by the gentle coaxing of my mother. My mother is my greatest asset, friend, teacher and sewing buddy. When I was young, I never understood how important and knowledgeable she was. I kind of just wrote her off as a fuddy duddy or crazy lady and I knew better. But now that I’ve lived a little, I know that the thing I value the most in life is my mother. She defines me, put up with my shopping centre tantrums, embarrassing questions and fanatic teenage rants about how I thought the world was. It’s safe to say that she is a unsung champion of my life and I owe her my life because she taught me life.

As I was studying at university, I studied international relations, foreign policy and entrepreneurship. This course of study taught me the value of how interconnected the world really was and the value of a business that operated with a community focus instead of a purely a commercial focus. I learnt a new style of business model, the social enterprise or social entrepreneurship. This type of business is one that I aspire to and is the heart of The Giver & Co.

The Giver & Co is a manifestation of my love for making handmade dresses that give confidence, enhance natural beauty and stand out from the fashion world's code of conformity. I love prints and fabrics that are easy to maintain and wear because there are so many things I want to do and achieve in life, so these little dress need to keep up with me! For myself, The Giver & Co is a way for me to pursue my love for travel, culture and philanthropy as I will set aside 10% of each sale for community projects. The most exciting thing about this is that you can make suggestions of non-for-profits or causes that you think would benefit from our support. After some suggestions are made, I will then do some research and hatch a plan to make it happen!  Keep in mind that these causes can be international or domestic :)

Please enjoy my site and my blog. I encourage you to spread the word about The Giver and Co with your friends and families and connect with us on our social media.

 Facebook:  the Giver & Co

Instagram:  SAMMIE_THEGIVERANDCO 

If you have or are planning to purchase one of my dress, I thank you for your support and ask you to wear it with pride and confidence that you are beautiful regardless the garment and treasured, but also, you care about humanity and the way garments are made. I know that I cant change the world, but maybe we can just make it a little bit better for someone. It's that simple! 

Thank you again for your support!

Much love,

Sammie

 

 

 

March 28, 2015 — Samantha Bradbury