Ramadan

Ramadan is an important time of year for our team. All of the sewing team are Muslim and in Islam, it's considered to be a holy month. Based on the lunar calendar, the timing of Ramadan moves backwards through our calendar by a few weeks each year.

This year Ramadan starts on the 17 or 18th of June. And during daylight hours in Ramadan, Muslims fast. For our team, this means no food or liquid from sun up to sun down.

We work with needles, machinery and knives. Any of you who sew will know it's easy enough to jab yourself with a pin when you're fully alert and awake so imagine how it might be if you're fasting all day - in June and July. We Brits tend to hope for heat then but our team that makes it harder.

In the past we've closed completely through Ramadan, and we've worked half days. In the very early days we did try whole days but it was very clear very fast that this was Not Ok.

We discussed this between us and have decided that this year we will work throguh Ramadan - but for half days only. So the factory team will be in in the cool of the mornings, from 9 - 12.30 on their usual days. The office will be open throughout, 9-5 Monday to Friday. Last year we got food deliveries from team members who weren't eating lunch with us (how lovely was THAT) but we expect this will mean slightly less exciting lunches for us (and instagram) for a while.