Hoydens

The
Challenge

Annie was a painter and decorator working on busy sites every day, and was tired of battling with work trousers that were clearly never designed with real women in mind. Nothing fit properly. Nothing moved with her. And absolutely nothing stopped that dreaded #NoMoreCheekySmile moment when you crouch down on the job.

She came to us wanting to build a new kind of workwear brand: practical, durable, genuinely comfortable trousers created for women with physically demanding, hands-on careers. Not pink-it-and-shrink-it. Not an afterthought. Real workwear engineered for real women.

Our job? Turn her lived experience into a product that works as hard as she does.

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The
Solution

This project may date back to 2017, but it remains one of our all-time favourites. Annie was introduced to us through our long-time collaborator, Pattern Cutter Liz, who developed the initial patterns and early concepts for us to take forward into full production.

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With the final RRP needing to stay accessible for the workwear market, we recommended manufacturing in Portugal......a reliable route that offers strong quality at a realistic price point. From there, we worked closely with Annie, her husband, Liz, and our internal design and technical teams for almost a year, moving from early concept to fully refined product.

Sourcing a technical, hardwearing fabric in small minimum quantities was no easy task, but of course we got there in the end. Once the fabric was secured, we began a series of prototypes: multiple samples to perfect the silhouette, intensive wearer trials on real job sites, and countless refinements to ensure the trousers truly fit the female form while standing up to physical, all-day use.

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By the time we reached sign-off, the product was exactly what Annie had envisioned......functional, flattering, durable and genuinely comfortable.

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Production ran smoothly (shocker!) once development was complete, and Annie proudly launched her new workwear brand in November 2017.

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The result was a pair of women’s workwear trousers that finally ticked every box: durable enough for demanding trade environments, engineered for all-day comfort, and shaped to genuinely fit women’s bodies....no gaping, no slipping, and absolutely #NoMoreCheekySmile.

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Although the first collection was warmly received by women across the trades, many of whom had been waiting far too long for workwear that actually worked for them ......Annie faced some personal circumstances that meant she wasn’t able to continue developing the brand beyond its initial launch. The trousers still earned a reputation for their fit, comfort and reliability, proving that purpose-built design can genuinely make a difference to women working in physically demanding roles.

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For us, it marked another proud moment in what we love doing most: taking someone’s frustration, insight and lived experience, and turning it into a product that solves a real problem.

Thank g*d for Fazane Fox

"Feedback on the quality has been really good, I can’t tell you how happy I am! Although I am sad not to be able to continue I really had fun last year with you and Liz!"