Prisoner designs enter fashion world

Posted on April 27, 2008 
Filed Under fashion gossip, fashion news, gossip, haeftling, news

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A new company in Germany is trying to break into the fashion business selling stylish clothes designed and produced by prison inmates.

The company Haeftling, which in English means inmate, has just opened its first store in Berlin. “We want to have basic, durable, timeless, beautiful clothes,” said Stephan Bohle, one of the company founders.

Many of the clothes, cooking aprons and even stainless steel food trays offered in the Berlin store were either designed or manufactured in jails, but not just German ones.

One design shows a female comic figure that was drawn by a man sitting on death row in Texas.

Bohle said part of the proceeds from sales go to organizations that support prisoners’ rights and better conditions for inmates, like Amnesty International.

But in some cases, money goes directly to the inmates that designed certain pieces. “In the case of the female cartoon figure, this man was almost granted a stay from execution because of the design he did for us but in the end unfortunately the appeals court ruled against him,” Bohle said

The clothes offered at the Haeftling shop also tell the story of the inmates that designed individual pieces. A small text inside the item lays out the prisoners story, including the name, where he is in jail and how long the term will be.

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