Hannah Wood

UUNITY is a consumer-led, politically influenced, luxury womenswear-tailoring brand inspired by the 1984 miners’ strike in Yorkshire. The brand’s founder’s motivation is enthused by their personal family heritage. The founder’s grandfather was a miner himself in the founder’s home county, Yorkshire. The miners’ strike is often told from the perspective of men, but the women also played a prominent role. Support from the women took many forms, from joining the picket lines, providing food in the soup kitchens, raising funds, and organising protest marches. The women supported each other in their joint cause, often travelling to other pits and communities when required, enforcing the unity that the strike created. Women who had previously been expected to undertake the domestic chores, care for their children, and remain at home, unable to fulfil their own ambitions and potential, now had a voice of their own and were inspired to strive for greater equality. The collection’s silhouettes and colour palette take reference from the uniform worn by the miners’ and their wives. Political slogans are used in the collection, taken from “Miners’ Wives”, a poem by Joe Corrie and the Coal magazine. The collection 1984 is a celebration of these women in the form of a timeless collection.