Our Story
Our story
Give Your Best was born when our founder Sol and Ilda* connected on Instagram during COVID19.
Ilda was seeking asylum** surviving on an allowance of £5.60 a day, unable to afford basics like clothes living in accommodation with another 8 women in her situation, and Sol had been volunteering supporting refugees for several years.
Sol put a call out for donations on social media and the response was overwhelming. Messages of support for the women poured in along with tens of offers of clothing, and Sol soon realised she needed to come up with a system.
That's how she had the idea to create a catalogue of donations so women would be empowered to choose the items they wanted to receive. Sol then shared this idea on social media asking for help to bring it to life and a few wonderful women reached out immediately wanting to support.
That’s how, on a Friday night during the 2020 pandemic, three strangers had a Zoom call over one-too-many glasses of wine and Give Your Best was born. Those 3 strangers are now close friends and have been working together since.
Now Give Your Best has supported thousands of people access tens of thousands free clothing, has a community of hundreds of volunteers, has won several awards and continues to grow.
Give Your Best was selected by the British Fashion Council as one their Future of Fashion innovations of 2023 and by Ebay as one of the winners of their Circular Fashion Fund in 2024. GYB has received funding from Innovate UK, Dr. Marten Foundation, National Lottery amongst others, and has hosted a parliamentary roundtable in the House of Lords, and has been featured in The Guardian, Vogue Channel 4. Give Your Best have received several awards such as Drapers Ones To Watch, Social Enterprise Startup of The Year and Digital Innovation of the Year amongst others.
We can’t wait to see what’s next and we hope you join us in our mission to tackle clothing poverty and fashion waste.
*not her real name
** Ilda has now received her refugee status after a 3 year wait.
