In 2001 while doing a Fashion and Business Studies degree at Brighton University she became interested in sustainable design.
Nin found a kindred spirit in fellow student Phoebe Emerson, and they planned to design and make fashion garments with a difference.
They made a deal with a local charity shop who let them go through all the bags of textiles being sent to the rag factory, and they paid the charity L1 a bag. The two friends moved into an old car showroom in Brighton.
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Nin Caste and Phoebe Emerson started Goodone to design and produce high quality, unique clothing, made exclusively from locally sourced, recycled fabrics. In 2006 they had local boutiques as their first customers.
When the business had been going for six months they went on a three-day course for start-ups run by the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) and the RSA. Inspired by what they'd learnt on the course they moved to London to be in the fashion hub, and found a studio in Hackney. Soon afterwards Goodone were awarded a L15,000 prize by the NCGE.
In January 2008 Phoebe, who had managed the business side, left Goodone to work in other areas of social enterprise. Running the business as well as the design has been a steep learning curve for Nin, but she's expanded its scope. A project designing clothes for a charity in Cape Town has led to the workers manufacturing her fashion range.
She's working with six charities, including Shelter and WWF, using old campaign t-shirts for new designs, and advises commercial companies on recycling faulty stock which usually gets burnt. All this is alongside producing a small rolling collection of clothes selling in boutiques in London and Manchester.
