#blue patch

It's always good to approach a competition with a positive mindset, and that's what we've done with our shortlisting for the Blue Patch Business Award.

Of course, there are many businesses out there that deserve to win as they work just as hard as we do, but we'd love to be successful with this one!

We've been shortlisted for being part of a sustainable marketplace for UK design, ethical fashion, eco-furniture, green gifts, organic & fair trade food. Verdicts will be delivered by the judges in early September, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

If you're unfamiliar with what the Blue Patch Awards are, and want to see who we're up against, you can find out here.  As it's a public vote you can also get involved in helping us to be successful, (if you feel inclined of course. We would love that and be ever so grateful!) All you need to do is just head on over to the voting page.

We'll let you know, once we hear more, but for now please do head on over to our Facebook Page or Twitter  and we also love a bit of Instagram, where you can see what else we're up to. We have lots of exciting things in the pipeline and you'll hear it first there!

A pop-up department store selling top quality ethical products is coming to Dulwich Village in October

By Katie Allen

Photo (c) Lima Charlie

Jane Langley wants to change the way you shop.

The Dulwich-based artist and teacher turned retail entrepreneur founded and runs Blue Patch, the online marketplace for British-made top quality and sustainable products. It is hosting its first ever pop-up department store on October 1.

“I wanted to do something local,” Jane tells me when we meet. “It’s really important to remind people that you can buy from independent businesses. October is a great time to start Christmas shopping too.”

The department store will pop up from 10am-6pm at St Barnabas Parish Hall in Dulwich Village. There will be 100 stalls to browse and all 250 members of the Blue Patch retailers’ collective will be showcased.

The carefully curated range of businesses will be selling everything from handmade rugs and organic beauty products to artisan chocolates, alpaca jumpers and Beepalace’s stylish homes for bees.

Everything Blue Patch endorses is the very best from British designers and manufacturers. Exclusives will include the launch of local tailor Mr Dulwich’s first range of womenswear, and new furniture from Katie Walker, who made Prince George’s high chair.

Other stalls will sell couture upcycled bags from Camberwell’s Kamera Obscura, handwoven “pear pod” hanging seats by  Ellen Mulcrone and Kreisdesign’s contemporary pegboards made from sustainable birch plywood.

The day will also feature a cookery demonstration from restaurateur Tim Sheehan of Lordship Lane restaurant Franklins, with a kitchen display unit created by local cabinetmaker and design studio Ian Dunn.

Beauty fans will be able to indulge in a little TLC with British-made products; while those interested in planet-friendly power will have the chance to chat to eco-energy companies and witness a cutting-edge Tesla renewable power wall brought along by Joju Solar.

The event will also focus on indie business. Blue Patch recently announced the winners of their first ever Blue Patch New Business Awards, and the winners will be showcased at the store.

First prize went to East London-based social enterprise The Soap Co, which makes ethical luxury products for the bathroom and employs people who are blind, disabled or disadvantaged.  

In the afternoon, local MP Helen Hayes will host a discussion about the state of the British high street, and there will be a business hub for people who want to set up a business or are already running one.

Visitors will have the chance to sit back with experts over coffee and cake (or glass of English wine) to discuss the pros and cons of running an independent business. “It’s stuff you would never see in a department store in town,” enthuses Jane.

“Everything’s unique, a great price and straight from the people who made it. These are people who really care about the supply chain, who are proud of what they do, and want you as a customer to have something you really value.”

Jane has strong roots in south-east London. “Something like 12 generations of my family have lived around here, in Peckham, Camberwell, Brixton. My grandfather was a postman on Walworth Road.”

She studied at Camberwell College of Arts and the Royal College of Art and then began “teaching, exhibiting and curating”, putting on her own shows and forming artists’ collective The Pattern Lab to break down the barriers between fine art and craft.

It was all experience that would prove invaluable for starting Blue Patch. “I learned about being an event manager, promotions, deadlines, diplomacy, pitching – it was a good learning curve.”

The seeds of the business were sown in 2009 when she attended a talk about the threat of climate change. “I had always been really interested in nature and very concerned about it – the pollution and corruption,” she says.

“By the time I came to the end of that lecture I knew I had to use my creative thinking to do something radical. Our economy is locked into what’s happening to destroy the environment. I wanted to change the business model.”

She laughs that she is “the last person to do anything like this”, but Blue Patch, which launched in 2014, is the result of years of careful research and planning with economists, environmentalists and shoppers.

“We have looked at every aspect of why people aren’t turned on by climate change,” Jane says. “People aren’t engaging, they don’t understand it. But what people do like is shopping.”

The result was Blue Patch, which she named after the moment of hope sparked by looking out the window on a grey summer’s morning and seeing a patch of blue in the sky. “It felt so deeply happy amid all the gloom, it symbolised hope. I bought the URL straight away.”

Blue Patch works as a “colourful catalogue” of British-made products and services dedicated to sustainability. The website showcases products ranging from willow garden furniture to silk underwear, directing shoppers to the businesses’ websites.

Run as a collective, it’s also a hub for member businesses to connect, share resources and collaborate. It is funded by modest annual members’ fees and profits are directed back to Blue Patch members and invested in community projects and renewable energy companies.

“We’re up against big platforms like Not On The High Street and Etsy,” Jane admits. “And we recognise that there is no way we can compete [on that level] – but the heart and soul and emotion of the consumer will win in the end. We are in a very strong position.”

Talking to her members is what inspired her to try the pop-up department store idea. “Through all our research, we know that what our shoppers want is to see, touch and feel our products. Plus we’re always talking to our members and really want to meet them.”

Jane has big dreams for the pop-up department store, and if the event is a success she would love to expand it next year so members can stay over in local homes and turn it into a weekend event.

As for Blue Patch, she wants to scale up members to 3,000 and to “go out on the road and meet businesses in their home towns”. She would also love to host a “department store of the British Isles” themed by country.

“If we can scale Blue Patch and make it big, the profit will go towards community projects and helping people,” she says. “We want to prove that you can make a business that is resilient, looking after your community and the environment.”

The Confessions of a Non-Shopaholic

It’s high time I confessed to something. I dislike shopping. Phew. I dislike trying things on, the mirrors and the lighting, oh the lighting. I really don’t like having to buy to make a choice from the million and one variations of the same thing and inevitably, a month later, the awful sales rack that looks like my eighteen year-old daughter’s bedroom floor. How do I dislike shopping? Let me count the ways. I can’t possibly be the only one…

Having made crystal clear my feelings towards the thought of shopping, what might surprise you more is that I am the founder of Blue Patch, an online marketplace showcasing outstanding British products made by the crème de la crème of independent businesses. In fact, the question you might be asking is simply this: why on earth would a woman who dislikes shopping run an online marketplace?

The answer really is simple.

Change.

One of the topics that I am increasingly passionate about is sustainability, particularly when it comes to minimising the carbon footprint of activities in my own life. By ‘carbon footprint’ I mean simply this – the full impact of any single action, large or small, on climate change. Names like Lucy Siegle, George Monbiot, David Attenborough, Charles Darwin and Franny Armstrong have influenced my own views on sustainability and sustainable living through the years and while I am no expert, I constant devour books and articles on the subject. A particularly favourite activity of mine is listening to podcasts while running frantically on the treadmill at my local gym.

I strongly believe that sustainable living is crucial because human activities are so thoroughly stitched together. Our production capabilities are constantly improving and thanks to the power of the Internet, one can now purchase goods made on the other side of the globe with a supply chain the length of an arm. All this, however, comes at a cost, specifically that of rapidly using up the natural resources of this planet.

You might think to yourself some variant of “All this aside, Jane, how does shopping change anything?” Allow me to tell you.

According to statistics by Biz.gov, in the past two years – which the approximate lifespan of Blue Patch to date – 20% of the new businesses created in the UK at the same time would have failed. The reasons are many.

There is a choice that I, as a consumer, make with every purchase. It is simply this: “Whom do I purchase from?” When I buy from a local business, the money spent is often used to make purchases from other local businesses or to employ other locals, thus remaining in and benefitting the local economy. It helps a local business survive. The closer to home I shop, the less transportation my new purchases require, which means it contributes less to climate change than something made in China. Often it will last much longer as well, reducing both the time between replacement purchases and the price paid by the planet for each individual item.

As a creator, there are choices too. For example, you might have to consider where the manufacturing of your product takes place or where the materials are sourced. Are they sourced fairly? Is the supply chain transparent? Are the items mass-produced? The questions are endless.

I believe that it is important to celebrate success. Each business on Blue Patch, by embracing sustainability is attempting to break the norm of mass production and mitigate the issues brought on by low costs of sourcing unsustainable materials and manufacturing outside the UK. We celebrate our businesses that choose to keep it local. In keeping with this spirit, we plan to host Britain’s first Sustainable Department Store on October 1st at St. Barnabas Parish Hall in Dulwich Village, London. Attendees will have the opportunity to browse a fine selection of sustainable and quality creations and meet some of Britain’s best designers and creators. We’re very excited.

While I may dislike shopping, I have the utmost appreciation for beauty. Beautifully designed and well-crafted objects easily turn my head. My pleasure in them is that much more if I know that they have been bought sustainably.

 Jane Langley, is the founder of Blue Patch, a social enterprise based in South East London running a sustainable online marketplace featuring beautiful British products with a great story. Founded in September 2013, Blue Patch now consists of over 200 members from all over Britain.

Blue Patch is a curated online marketplace for sustainable British businesses.

We’re inviting new businesses with beautiful products and services to join us and customers to support the local economy and community by buying from local British businesses.

bluepatch.org is a social enterprise based in Dulwich. It was launched by artist and environmentalist Jane Langley (and team mascot Mole) in response to the challenges faced by Britain’s small and sustainable businesses competing for visibility on a national level.

The concept is simple - Jane and the dedicated team of curators select and promote inspirational companies, uniting them under the Blue Patch banner of excellence.

With over 170 members, with many of them based in South East London we’re hugely excited and optimistic about the future. Blue Patch represents a completely new way of doing business. We’re not driven by money, but by a need a make a difference. The money it raises enables us to compete and become a valuable and sustainable way for everyone in the UK to buy ethically.