The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted every aspect of the way we live. We stayed home, our kids didn’t go to school, most of us didn’t physically go to work, we didn’t see our friends or families. Some of us were completely alone. We continue to live with restrictions that most think will be with us well into next year. Not being able to see the end of Covid's tail has left many of us with anxiety and mental health issues.
Most of us have complained about being at home, about being bored, about the strain of trying to keep the plates spinning. But what if being at home wasn’t just stressful and monotonous. What if it was unsafe? Abusive? Violent? Consider the situation when the only opportunity to gain support or to confide in someone and seek assistance outside the home from friends, co-workers or family is removed.
In the six months since lockdown began in the United Kingdom on 23 March, 2020, Hestia, a charity helping prevent domestic violence and assist victims of domestic abuse saw a 52% increase (when compared to the same period last year) in installs of Bright Sky, their app providing support and information around domestic violence. In the same period it saw a 70% increase in within app calls to 999, domestic abuse services or helplines and a 38% increase in people trying to access their services.
We have produced a range of cotton pyjamas, made entirely from luxury Italian cotton shirting over-ordered by other designers and manufacturers. We’ve rescued this fabric that often ends up disposed of in landfill to create a collection of pyjamas in five beautiful, hopeful colours (as well as white PJs with two different contrasting piping colours) and will donate £10 from the sale of each pair to Hestia to help them continue in their vital work, providing support to victims and their children in refuges across a number of London boroughs as well as through a range of community based schemes. We’ve also a produced a range of face masks from cotton off cuts from some of our past collections. 100% of the profits from these masks will go direct to Hestia.
The pandemic has challenged everyone, but for adults and children living with the trauma and existing crisis of domestic abuse, it has magnified fears and made recovery more difficult. The need for the services of charities like Hestia is now acute.
On a sunny Autumn Tuesday we gathered five Hestia workers - from front line refuge staff to outreach team leaders and took them to The Laslett Hotel in Notting Hill where we shot a series of beautiful portraits of them in their Hesper Fox PJs with Susheel Schroeder, a London-based portrait photographer.
We think all the staying in we are doing merits new PJs and masks have become part of our every day but if you would like to donate separately, please visit www.hestia.org
