Two Totnes mums who teamed up to launch an ethical breastfeeding clothing brand four years ago have won a £25,000 grant to expand their business.

Philippa Doyle and Lisa Lessware met at baby yoga and like many new mums, felt nervous about the idea of of breastfeeding in front of other people.

With four young boys between them, the pair decided to set up a social enterprise breastfeeding clothing brand in 2017 to help new mothers to breastfeed confidently in public, while also addressing clothing waste.

They launched the ‘Bshirt’ in a bid to help improve the UK’s breastfeeding rates after finding out the country has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world.

Their breastfeeding top is designed to be worn as a layer under a normal shirt, jumper or dress.

Now, to expand and grow the business, the Bshirt has been awarded £25,000 from the Government-led IUK Research and Innovation funding agency to add sustainable maternity and baby clothes to its portfolio.

The innovative new collection of maternity clothes are made with recycled fabrics and are designed to adapt regular clothes for pregnancy.

Philippa and Lisa also plan to launch a pre-loved collection.

Lisa says “We are thrilled to have won the award and will be putting the funds into product development.

“We have big plans and even bigger ambitions for expanding our brand.

“We lead the way in our approach to product development and are ahead of our competitors in these kinds of ambitions to reduce clothing waste.”

She added: “We are so excited about the launch of our pre-loved collection, which sources garments through our Bshirt ‘buy back’ programme and then enables us to sell our award winning garments at an affordable price, reaching even more women who may feel ethical fashion is too expensive.”

Philippa explained: “Our environmental impact is in stark contrast with fast fashion retailers.

“We use 100 per cent organic cotton in our products, which uses 80 per cent less water than standard cotton.

“Recycled cotton has the potential to further reduce water and energy consumption in the fashion industry.

“Recycled polyamide diverts waste from landfill and its production uses much fewer resources than virgin nylon, including water, energy, and fossil fuel.”