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  • New Zealand Listener

    ‘There’s no finish line’

    Dec 15, 2019 7 minutes
    photograph by KEN DOWNIE

    Until recently, Jodie Woods ran her fashion brand, Tonic & Cloth, from a caravan parked beside her home in Palmerston North. She now has a bricks-and-mortar store with a studio in the back, but still does most of the work herself, from serving customers to designing garments and dealing with suppliers.

    Her label was launched at New Zealand Fashion Week in September 2018 and, from the outset, social responsibility has been a driving force. Woods says ensuring everything she uses is ethically and sustainably produced has been more difficult than she ever imagined. “There’s no guidebook. I don’t think people realise how challenging it is.”

    A breakthrough was connecting with Ana Wilkinson-Gee, a New Zealander living in rural India, where she runs ethical women’s clothing manufacturer Holi Boli, which trains and employs local women under fair conditions.

    Woods hired Holi Boli to manufacture her designs using organic cotton sourced in India, reducing the environmental footprint of her garments. However, it also meant she had to abandon her original plan to launch the label with a collection of comfortable, flattering trousers.

    “At that point, Holi Boli weren’t up to making trousers,” says Woods. “They had only been doing

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