Newbury-based streetwear brand Blind Maggot supporting Newbury Soup Kitchen with new ‘good soup’ clothing range
A Newbury-based streetwear brand has released a limited range of eye-catching products that will directly help local people in need this winter.
Blind Maggot has launched its ‘good soup’ range which consists of colourful T-shirts and bomber jacket-style cardigans that all feature the same striking screen-printed design.
The design features an anthropomorphic bowl of smiling noodle soup and Blind Maggot has promised that with every good soup product sold, £5 will be donated to Newbury Soup Kitchen.
Blind Maggot co-founder Chessie Rosier-Parker said: “The whole impetus of the good soup T-shirts is because there is this silent chunk of society that is struggling.
“They’re not necessarily homeless on the street, but a lot of people have lost their jobs, lost their businesses, and they might be living with relatives but you don’t really see it.
“The uptake of the use of a soup kitchen in a relatively affluent area like Newbury is astonishing, and it is growing.
“When it’s on your doorstep, it’s something you can’t really ignore.”
Blind Maggot originally started as a stall at the monthly Newbury Artisan Market on Northbrook Street, but the brand now has its own shop at 112 Bartholomew Street which opened five months ago.
The brand’s aim is to sell limited edition runs of high-quality clothing that are screen printed right here in Newbury and are made with ethically-sourced materials.
All the products Blind Maggot sell were printed at the Squeegee & Ink workshop in Hambridge Lane.
Mrs Rossier-Parker and her wife Emily run both businesses, and decided to launch Blind Maggot after gaining years of experience as professional screen printers.
She added: “We couldn’t get it any more local if we tried. We’re literally dropping shirts in when they’re still warm in the box.
“We did start off a little bit more in the tattoo culture-side of streetwear, and now we are just using more and more local stories as the implements for the designs.”
As well as the good soup range, Blind Maggot has also collaborated with Thatcham-based micro-brewery Delphic Brewing Company on some tasty T-shirts, as well as incorporating Newbury’s famous swans into some of its most popular products.
Local tattoo artists and illustrators are employed to come up with some of the independent brand’s fresh and exciting designs.
“There’s no need to look outside of Newbury,” Mrs Rossier-Parker added. “You just use all the artists and creative people here because it’s bursting.”
To view and purchase from the good soup range, visit the Blind Maggot website at https://www.blindmaggot.co.uk/
The good soup T-shirts are unisex sizing, come in three different colours and are priced at £25 each. Blind Maggot runs a two for £40 offer on all its T-shirt designs.
The bomber jacket-style cardigans come in either navy or grey and they cost £55 each.