Story and photos by Tad Richards
The Bequia Threadworks showroom is bright, airy, cheerful, and filled with racks of clothing that echo their surroundings in a range of styles and sizes, telling the story of the island paradise they represent.
But the showroom is only the surface of the story, as I find out during a visit with Jessica Jaja. She’s lovely and stylish enough to be a model for the product she represents, smart and well-organized enough to serve as general manager for the nonprofit she helped found, with a commitment to ethical handmade fashion — ethical meaning a five-day work week, fair, well-above-minimum-wage compensation (employees start at 148 percent of minimum wage), clean and healthy working environment, personal and professional development opportunities, opportunities for growth within the organization, as well as a commitment to sustainable, low-impact fabrics.
I thought about this as I toured the production facilities, met the staff, and learned more about what is done there — not just boutique fashions, but upholstery, alterations, repairs, home goods, and uniforms. Bequia Threadworks is both a business and a nonprofit, and that means that as important as the products and services are, they are not the main focus of the organization, nor its main mission.
The main mission is the people — to make a difference in the life of the island. That means creating a full service business that will provide year-round employment. To further that, Bequia Threadworks’ newest project, begun last fall, is a website to market its boutique fashions beyond the shores of the island, and beyond the time constraints of the tourist season (https://noyobequia.com). Perhaps the nonprofit’s proudest success story is the more than 180 Bequian women who have been trained through beginner, intermediate and advanced sewing courses, and the several paid apprentices, some of whom have continued on to becoming permanent staff.
Here are some of the people I met in my tour of the showroom and production center:
