De:fy:h8’s Fresh Take on Fashion as Social Impact

In the heart of our community lies a unique organisation, a place that touches lives and shapes futures. Fuelled by compassion, ingenuity, and resilience, de:fy:h8 intertwines social impact with the vibrant colours of fashion. What’s unfolding is a wonderful story of creativity, dedication, and empowerment.

From a Mailing House That Helps the Local Community…

For over a decade, we’ve run a printing and mailing house in Southampton, but it’s one with a difference: Trojan Mailing Ltd (TML) is a social enterprise that offers work-based placements for people with learning difficulties and/or mental health problems.

At TML, we create a safe, nurturing and empowering space where our people develop a sense of community and purpose. Our work placements are a catalyst for personal growth. We witness first-hand how people develop confidence, increase their self-esteem and learn new skills.

It’s important to note that our work placements at TML are voluntary. Our volunteers choose TML because they get a rich experience that they don’t find anywhere else: self-confidence, camaraderie and the joy of being part of something meaningful.

We also have employees to manage the work load, run machines when needed and who generally take care of the “business” side of things.

But we KNOW that we change lives for the better. Often, the ones who move on will pop by to say hello to us – usually bearing gifts of biscuits and cakes (good job we do XL t-shirts! More on that in a minute).

When it comes to social impact, our goal has always been this: for people to believe in themselves and in other people too. A two-way street that helps to build trust and create safer environments.

And we’re not just telling you what you want to hear. It’s not a fluffy virtue signal – we see people flourish with us. We’ve had people who didn’t talk much become outgoing and comfortable, people with poor fine-motor skills become more dextrous, people who were unhappy become happy. I wish you could all have seen this with your own eyes. We know this sort of environment enriches the people who spend time here. 

…to a Fashion Brand with a Difference

By now, you must be asking, “What Does All That Have to Do with Fashion?”

Sadly, with the craziness that’s been happening lately (Covid, cost of living, energy crisis, inflation…), TML is struggling to survive, so we’re trying our hand at a new venture in the hope it helps support our old venture! TML has the perfect set up to print, market, package and supply de:fy:h8 products.

Our de:fy:h8 journey started with an engraving that we made on a drink’s coaster, “It doesn’t matter how we identify. It matters how we fit together”. From there, the creative juices of some of our team went wild, and to cut to the chase, we realised that there’s a fantastic opportunity for us to bring to the world the lessons that we learned from TML, and a fashion brand is the perfect vehicle for this.

de:fy:h8’s imagery represents our collective resilience and the power of social acceptance.

Join de:fy:h8 in Creating a Social Impact Through Fashion

We want you to be a part of de:fy:h8’s transformative journey. With every purchase you make, every story you share, every supportive gesture, you make a difference. Wear the emblem of social acceptance together.

Want to spread the word? Check out our collection.