SHE KNOWS MERINOS
The story epitomises the philosophies that Ensor’s family have bought to Standard Issue since buying it in 2019. The brand, which began in the 1980’s, by a then 19-year-old Nigel Richards, set up shop in Tāmaki Makaurau’s Kitchener St in 1990, and belonged to the halcyon days of Kiwi fashion when other industry stalwarts such as Zambesi and Workshop were spreading their roots too. It was a time when Aotearoa was more isolated from the rest of the world and so it meant that the incubation of ideas burgeoning here, created a distinctly homegrown feel alongside the influence of overseas trends. With everything from the garments to the thread being manufactured here, it was exactly what those foraging for fashion were drawn to. “You know, when I talk to people that remember Standard Issue in the early days,” says Ensor “They say, ‘That was the brand I was saving up my pennies for, when I was at Uni, to get a piece.’”
Now as the third custodian of the label, Ensor’s vision has been to take the essence of the brand, honouring the beauty of utility that it has cultivated for close to forty years with its hard-wearing, durable knitwear, and overlaying it with her family’s values of caring for the land and nurturing the source of where the knitwear comes from. This is where Ensor’s Care for Life Initiative comes in, which she has put into place over the two short years since she has come to the label’s helm. Firstly, Standard Issue have made the change to ZQ merino, a merino that her family farms too, one that is fully traceable, committed to ethical wool production and socially and environmentally responsible. Secondly, the brand have made their production plant completely zero waste; “The fantastic thing is, that we use our knitting technology to knit whole garments,” Ensor says, as producing minimal waste if at all, is something that knitwear does better than cut and sew garments. But when this isn’t possible for the label and offcuts are produced, these are then sent to an Aotearoa based textile recycling company, that repurposes the raw materials into household and commercial textile products such as insulation, a perfect fit for the 100% natural nature of Standard Issue garments. “It’s great knowing that we’re re-purposing everything in the production line” says Ensor.
The next stage in the initiative is Standard Issue’s responsibility to ensure that when a garment leaves their premises that it never ends up in landfill. This is a promise that for Ensor is an important one to make, knowing intimately how precious land is, having grown up watching her family labour at its soil to make it flourish. Her background working in Fast Moving Consumer Goods solidified this intent too, “Having worked in FMCG, what really frustrated me was the no-care or responsibility people had once the product left their hands. You’ve made it, but you’re not holding any responsibility for it. That’s really where Care for Life was born, our promise to care for life, for everything that we make.” For the brand, this means that any Standard Issue garment a customer has that needs a bit of love, they’ll mend, and when there’s a garment that is no longer loved, they’ll re-gift it, if it’s still fit to be. If neither of these are an option, then the garment is fed back into the recycling programme to be re-purposed. “It’s also about enjoying something for its faults over time,” says Ensor, “And I think knitwear has that emotional connection. Sometimes that worn jumper is actually the most comforting jumper of all.”
Having one-on-one conversations with customers about The Care for Life programme, and having a hub where Standard Issue garments can be dropped off to be mended, as well as a place to showcase the brand’s values in order to create community, was a driving force for Ensor opening Standard Issue’s first boutique in April 2021, since its Kitchener St store. Located in Tāmaki Makaurau’s Osborne St, the minimalist interior decorated with re-purposed furniture, not only harks back to Richards’ original store, but with one of the label’s knitting machines as the boutique’s centrepiece, it also focuses on the brand’s heritage as a long-time manufacturer in Aotearoa.
By having the knitting machine front and centre, it also helps to put the skilled craftspeople that make Standard Issue’s garments into the spotlight, another one of Ensor’s core values she’s moving the label towards. “For us it’s really about celebrating our makers, because when we talk about the beautiful utility of the brand, they’re an important part of that. They’re just as important as where we source the yarn from and our community.” One way in which the brand showcases it’s diverse team of talented knitters, who make all the Standard Issue garments onsite in their Tāmaki Makaurau workroom , is by eschewing a traditional model of always making a maximum number of clothes to sell. “We do take pause and we will look to showcase our makers and their skill more and more, which might mean a one-off jumper that is in collaboration with an artist” says Ensor. Already the brand’s garment collaborations with local creatives have shown just how ingenious the knitters are. Their first collaboration was with multi-disciplinary creative Harry Were, whose passion for knitting, Aotearoa made, and her coveted aesthetic saw her pieces with Standard Issue soon sell out. The second, current collaboration with fashion, botanical and beauty illustrator Kelly Thompson, is also completely different to what the team have been used to producing. “Kelly had a really clear vision of what she wanted, and it’s amazing that I can take her brief to the team and while it’s something completely different, it’s really showcasing their skills because they can just bring that vision to life.”
The third value of creating community that Ensor is intent on encouraging, has also been strengthened with another idea she has put into place, The Jumper for Jumper Initiative. Before moving to Auckland to manage this side of her family’s business, Ensor had spent 17 years in Sydney. “I hadn’t really been keeping up or heard about the poverty report here in Aotearoa. One day I was driving home, and the report was on the news and it just stopped me in my tracks to hear there were people right in my backyard that were finding it tough. I know it seems pretty silly not to think about it, but putting a number around it made me deep dive into thinking, ‘What can I do?’”
Since Standard Issue knits jumpers, her solution was simple. Standard Issue could knit jumpers for children of Tāmiki Makaurau’s most vulnerable communities. A fortuitous call from a business associate put her in touch with the Middlemore Charity, and now for every jumper sold online or in their Newmarket store, Standard Issue will knit a jumper for one of the 1 in 9 kiwi kids who do not have access to warm clothing. “This winter is the second year we’re doing it, and we managed to knit over double of what we did last year. So now we intend to keep on doubling down how many we make.”
It’s an initiative that has been so successful that customers are spreading the word for the brand themselves. “I was in our store one day, and I was serving a customer. Another lady came in, and the customer I was serving began telling our story. She said, ‘See that knitting machine, that knitting machine is making jumpers, so you’re going to buy a jumper and they’re going to make a jumper’ and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh you’re hired.’ She was just so inspired and excited about it, that she was telling our customers our story.” It seems that unlike the farm she grew up on, and the brand she is helping to grow, the Standard Issue story that Ensor has created, is no longer in her custody.