Fashion chain Jigsaw has waded into the political debate by launching a campaign which praises immigration with the slogan, ‘British style is not 100% British’.
The store, which has always prided itself for being ‘beautifully British’, used a new campaign to say ‘people should be allowed to move around’ and that ‘openness’ was needed to ‘take us forward’.
Alongside the models will be labels pointing out that Jigsaw clothes are made by people from 45 different countries with products from 16 nations across the world.
The ‘Jigsaw Loves Immigration’ campaign, which comes alongside advertising for its autumn and winter range, features models from various ethnic backgrounds. Posters like this one, pictured, have gone up in London tube stations
Jigsaw, whose trademark is ‘Beautiful British style since 1970’, says it wants to fight a perceived rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric since the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election.
Most people welcomed the Jigsaw Loves Immigration campaign on social media, although one person wrote: ‘I wonder how many customers you have just lost with this propaganda?’
The chain famously employed Kate Middleton as an assistant accessories buyer from 2006 to 2007.
Its chief executive, Peter Ruis, said: ‘Fashion doesn’t operate in a bubble; it plays on a broader psyche.
‘We could just talk about clothes, but with what is going on around us it seems hypocritical and superficial to not accept the debt we owe to immigration in its broadest sense.
‘Be it people, cloth, the stone floors in our shops, the film to shoot our campaigns.
‘We are all part of a vibrant, tolerant, global Britain. These are things we believe in as a brand.’
As part of the campaign, Jigsaw has teamed up with Ancestry.co.uk to give its staff genealogy tests to show the fashion industry’s diversity.
In its 150-word mission plan, Jigsaw said ‘British style is not 100% British. In fact, there’s no such thing as 100% British’
The desire to know more about ourselves – who we are, where we come – has become ‘a thing’, said Ancestry’s Russell James.
‘People living in Britain today are such a genetically diverse group that finding anyone with 100% British DNA would be statistically improbable and very surprising,’ he said.
‘On average, people in Britain are 37% British. Being “British” means a lot of different things to different people – this statistic reflects Anglo Saxon DNA.’
Jigsaw said in its manifesto: ‘You see, British style is not 100% British. In fact, there’s no such thing as “100% British”.
‘Or 100% Dutch, French, American, Asian. At some point in your ancestry someone moved in and unsettled the neighbours.’
In July, staff at the chain were handed a £493,000 windfall under a new share scheme as profits jumped.
The majority of staff now hold at least one share, each of which paid out a £400 tax free dividend.
Group sales rose 8 per cent to £95 million. Profit at the UK division, which excludes exceptional items relating to the acquisition of its Australian division, increased 11 per cent to £6.2 million.