Bethany Williams’s work is one big virtuous circle. She puts the dignity of marginalized families and workers at its center, while acting as a solution creator for dealing with the waste along the supply chains of much bigger companies. The happiness that radiates from her latest look book, All Our Stories, with a film made by Olivia Lifungula, weaves in yet another affirmative circle: the passing on of children’s tales from one generation to the next.
Williams continues to work with the Magpie Project in London, whose purpose is to support families who have no legal right to U.K. government funds, to try to make sure that living in such precarious situations doesn’t result in permanent damage to children.The spoken-word poet Eno Mfon, who also narrates the voice-over piece, worked with mothers and children to create storytelling workshops, which in turn became inspiration for Melissa Kitty Jarram’s cheerful primary color prints.
Whatever culture that women and children come from, said Williams, “the moral always comes back to kindness and respect for one another. And we were thinking about how the meaning of those stories kind of transcends into our adult lives.” Her dedication to human values and forging connections for good is phenomenal. “This is the first collection we’ve done which is fully socially produced, from the woven pieces and the knits, all the way through to how they’re stitched,” she said. “Right down to the buttons.”
Williams’s supply chain stretches from the Making for Change production unit in London, which trains and employs formerly incarcerated women, to social projects in Italy. Some of the fabrics were donated by the Zegna Foundation. She partnered with another, Sezia, which produces organic yarns in Italy, but was still finding itself with a waste problem. “They kind of make lots of sample swatches for all of their clients, which get incinerated,” she said. “So we’ve been working with them, doing this sorting of the swatches into colors and into fiber, and then we’ve been patching that together for the knitwear.”
Closer to home, Williams has continued making the line of patchwork blanket coats that proved so popular last season: “We’re sourcing blankets from vintage markets across the U.K.” Twenty percent of the proceeds of wholesaling of the collection will be returned to the Magpie Trust foundation, which Williams has cofounded.
Her reaching out to change things extends yet further. “You know, now that we’ve done it, we’re hoping that other designers will be able to do it too,” she said. “So we’re trying to work out research ways, you know, to try and help other designers also, because we have the knowledge. I’m also sending out this information to everyone on the mentoring program that we’ve been running.” Williams is a tirelessly persuasive change-making storyteller; it’s hard to think of another designer of her age who is making such an impact on so many.
