Knitted Together: Jigsaw discover diversity is in the very fabric of who they are

Back in October 2017, we collaborated with British fashion brand, Jigsaw on the launch of their Autumn/Winter 17 campaign, ‘♥immigration’. The campaign celebrated the inherent cultural diversity that is at the heart of the Jigsaw brand, and aimed to challenge the traditional notion of ‘British’ style.

But diversity isn’t just stitched into the fabric of Jigsaw’s Autumn/Winter collection. AncestryDNA tests found that diversity is at the very heart of the Jigsaw team – it’s in their DNA.

AncestryDNA spokesperson, Russell James, met with each designer to reveal their AncestryDNA results*, where there were more than a few surprises in store for the members of the team.

Jigsaw’s head of design, Sally was surprised to find she had 5% Iberian Peninsula in her results, while senior designer, Charlotte discovered more connections to Ireland and Western Europe than she was initially expecting.

This mix of both genetic realities and reinforcements left the team both grateful and inspired. They set to work creating a new fashion piece that represented their combined results, and referenced the diversity of both their DNA, and the Jigsaw brand.

Styled on one of Jigsaw’s bestselling easy crew neck blocks, the team created a striped jumper where each stripe represents the proportion of the countries or regions that make up the design team’s DNA. The clash of colours and different distributions were also a creative decision, aiming to convey the different characteristics of the team’s combined origins.

“At the moment it’s very easy to put your message on a T-shirt but we wanted to do something a bit more Jigsaw,” says head of knitwear, Lucia.

And it’s a ‘bit Jigsaw’ in more ways than one. Wearers can also revel in the fact that 10% of proceeds from sales will go to Help Refugees, a charity hailed by The Guardian’s Patrick Kingsley as “one of the unsung heroes of the European refugee crisis.”

Are you curious about the ethnic regions that have woven their way through your history and into the fabric of your DNA? Find out your own unique ethnic mix and the places and people from your past with AncestryDNA.

*AncestryDNA results accurate at time of content creation