Indie Oxford Interview: Y.O.U Underwear
In this interview, Sarah Jordan, Owner of Y.O.U Underwear, shares her story from her inspiration behind starting the business, the impact they have on the local economy, to the rigorous process for both the initial phase and the recertification of their B Corp certification. Sarah and I also discussed the glamorous image that the fashion industry has and how they work to tackle greenwashing.
In case you didn’t know, Y.O.U Underwear is the highest-scoring B Corp in the UK (& highest fashion brand globally), and they’ve recertified with an even higher score of 168.8.
Why don’t we kick off with an introduction to Y.O.U Underwear? Tell us the story behind how it all began
I was inspired to start the business after a trip to Uganda, where I was shocked to discover how many girls were missing school simply because they didn’t have access to their own underwear. This was causing problems and shame for women and girls in the community, especially around their period, when not having underwear also made it difficult to obtain or use period products.
When I got back, I knew that I wanted to do something to support these communities and help break down barriers to education. When I also discovered some of the issues inherent in the fashion industry, I started an underwear company with a buy one give one policy – meaning we donate one pair of underwear for every pair that we sell – and where we produce responsibly using only Fairtrade and organic cotton. Since we launched, we have now donated over 60,000 pairs of underwear!
What inspired you to open a physical shop in Oxford’s iconic and historic Covered Market?
As an Oxford-based company with an Oxford-born and raised Founder, it was always a dream to open a shop and be able to connect with our community in person. We started with a pop-up opportunity in the Covered Market with two brilliant months before Christmas and two not so brilliant months after! But we loved the experience, and it was so beneficial to the company and the brand story to be able to interact with people face to face. It also provided invaluable feedback on the products and what customers are looking for. When a more permanent space became available, we knew we had to go for it!
How do you see Y.O.U Underwear contributing to the local indie business ecosystem in Oxford? (Focus on the indie brands stocked at the shop)
The shop is a special place for us and our community because we not only stock our own organic cotton underwear but also a range of other local, sustainable, and small businesses, providing Oxford with an ethical marketplace store. We strive to support and spotlight local brands and makers, providing them with a means to connect to the local customer base. We’ve built up great relationships with brands like Neve’s Bees who produce natural, water-free skincare from their Oxfordshire base, and Reversible Robin, who creates beautiful and unique jewellery and cards. In this way, we hope to strengthen Oxford’s thriving indie business community and bring thoughtfully made products to local customers.
Do the brands stocked in store need to hold specific values that align with yours?
Yes, it’s really important that the brands we partner with have similar values and ways of working, particularly with certifications like B Corp or Fairtrade to support that. We want to support other small businesses that are working to reduce their impact on the planet and giving back to their community. We know our customers are keen to see brands that are making a difference, and people are increasingly interested in the story behind the products they love. Since we opened the shop, we’ve loved getting to know more and more local and sustainable brands and finding out about their reasons for starting a business.
Tell us a bit more about your journey to becoming a B Corp organisation, especially having one of the highest certification scores in the UK fashion sector.
The B Corp certification is really rigorous, which is one of its strengths, but does also mean that the whole process can take over a year, as it did with us. There is lots of business information and data that you have to provide to support all the statements you’ve made regarding your environmental and social impact and how you work with your suppliers, team and customers, for example, so there’s lots of work involved in making sure it’s all there. We were really proud to first certify in 2021 and over the moon to be the highest scoring fashion B Corp globally at the time! Since then, we’ve recertified, which was no easier the second time around! If anything, we had more work to do as the business has expanded since then with more elements to consider. In spite of this, we still managed to increase our score!
How has it influenced the business, both online and in-store?
From a business perspective, it definitely felt like the certification helped to validate all of the hard work we do to minimise our impact on the planet while maximising the positive impact on people. Going through the certification process was really valuable to help us look at every facet of our business and the impact it has, also giving us an opportunity to push the positive impact further or look more deeply into ways of reducing waste or pollution. Part of the certification is about being transparent with your customers so it also helped us push our storytelling across our site and other communications channels.
We’ve also been able to join the Oxford B Local community which has been invaluable for sharing knowledge and offering support in a like-minded group of business owners. It’s great to be able to connect with other B Corps and work together to find ways to encourage responsible business practices locally and on a more national scale. Plus, they’re all lovely people!
What role does customer education play in your shop experience, particularly when introducing people to ethical fashion and B Corp principles? What’s it been like over the years seeing people become more conscious about their shopping habits?
For customers who know about the certification, it makes a difference to the way they choose to shop and people come in just because of our certification or to ask questions about it. We’ve also found that more people are starting to learn, recognise, and trust the certification across lots of different businesses. With so much greenwashing around, it can be helpful for a certification like B Corp to signpost to customers the businesses trying to do better.
From our side, we enjoy connecting with our community through education and we aim to make information around ethical and sustainability issues accessible and easier to understand and to support people in making impactful choices. We also have plenty of customers who find us while on the hunt for comfy underwear and stay for our wider values!
What does being part of the Independent Oxford community mean to you and your team?
Oxford is blessed with so many amazing independent businesses and it is this community that makes Oxford such a unique and special city so it’s great to be part of that. Running an independent business is a lot of fun but it can also be really difficult and lonely at times so having a local community sharing their experiences and advice is super helpful. As a small team with a never ending to do list, being able to reach out to other local businesses with varied connections helps to make our life easier and enables us to learn from each other. The Indie Oxford team have always been so supportive as well and we love the Indie events page for all the best things going on in the city throughout the week!
Looking ahead, what’s in store for Y.O.U Underwear for 2026 and beyond? Anything special you would like to highlight?
We recently had a team planning day where we looked forward together to 2026 and all the exciting things we have coming up. While we can’t share everything with you just yet, we have a few projects in the works this year that we’re really looking forward to so keep an eye out for more information soon!
More recently, we launched new products, expanding our organic cotton range with blue Mara print pyjamas, super soft vest tops in five new colours, and some highly requested men’s briefs! We’ve also welcomed three new members of our team, so we’re looking forward to the work we can do together this year and sharing new ideas.
Finally, March is B Corp month, which is always a super busy time for us with events going on and lots of fun to be had, so we’ve been getting ready for that and planning for the spring!
I honestly felt so inspired after I chatted with Sarah. Hearing about how it all started and the real impact the business has was incredible. I look forward to seeing what 2026 has in store for them and will be visiting their store in the Covered Market very soon.
Follow them on Instagram and check out their website to explore their full range of ethical products.
