Two fabulous
Jac + Jack’s collaboration with the one-for-one social enterprise Two Good will warm your heart, writes Vogue sustainability editor-at-large Clare Press.
It is easy to imagine that domestic violence and homelessness happen to ‘other people’, but for many that’s not true. According to an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report released in February this year, one in six Australian women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a partner, and fleeing domestic violence is the leading cause of homelessness for women with children.
While that’s not been Lisa Dempsey’s personal experience, the co-founder of Australian label Jac + Jack understands how it can happen. “I myself have been in a vulnerable position before. I left home at a very young age, way too young,” she says. “I’ve also had friends who were successful in their careers then found themselves in situations when they were either homeless or almost there. It can happen to anyone. That’s the point.”
When faced with a big, thorny social issue like this, many of us feel overwhelmed. What can we do? Enter Two Good, a social enterprise that works with women’s refuges in Sydney and Melbourne to provide nourishing food, employment opportunities and now, for the first time, something comforting and beautiful for women fleeing domestic violence to wear.
“I don’t think we should underestimate that gesture that someone cares,” says Dempsey who, with business partner Jacqueline Hunt, has designed dark-navy relaxed drawstring pants and a sueded cotton sweat top for the program. For every Jac + Jack set sold through the Two Good website, one is given to a woman in a refuge. “We put a lot of thought into how these pieces feel as well as look,” says Hunt. “The idea was to make them feel welcoming.”
Two Good’s main focus is food. Co-founder Rob Caslick started a soup kitchen in Sydney’s Kings Cross 10 years ago before launching Two Good as a lunch delivery business with partner Cathal Flaherty in 2015. “Our idea was to create a business with purpose that serves the same highquality, healthy food to our paying customers as those we donate to,” says Caslick.
Their delicious dishes-to-go, with a focus on organic ingredients, have been designed by some of Australia’s leading chefs, including Kylie Kwong, Peter Gilmore and Neil Perry, and are lunchtime favourites in the Vogue offices. For every order, Two Good donates another, of the same quality, to a women’s refuge or soup kitchen. They are delivered in recyclable glass jars and Deliveroo drops them off at no cost for orders of 10 or more.
Giving back is good business, as well as good karma. Numerous polls show that millennials are drawn to companies that give back, whether through one-for-one models like Two Good’s – popularised by the American shoe brand Toms – or profit-donation projects. We’re increasingly looking for brands to espouse values we relate to, but it has to be authentic.
Hunt, too, believes genuine and meaningful wins the race. “Our business model is about working with suppliers that have integrity right the way through our supply chain,” she says. “We have a successful business, so how does that help other people? How can we all prosper by doing things the right way and bring everyone along for the ride? That’s how Lisa and I think in business and in life.”
Dempsey agrees: “As humans, we need to look after one another,” she says. “Of course, there are many ways to do that, but for us this project really resonates. If we can produce something beautiful that allows us to give back and make a small difference to a vulnerable woman’s experience, why wouldn’t we?”
“AS HUMANS, WE NEED TO LOOK AFTER ONE ANOTHER … THIS PROJECT RESONATES”