Comfort Zones

What happens when you ask women writers to abandon the themes and forms that feel safe to them...? In my role as editor-in-chief at Jigsaw, I turned the fashion brand into publisher with the launch of Comfort Zones, a collection of essays and stories exploring what it means to tackle unfamiliar ground by 28 writers including Pandora Sykes, Elizabeth Day, Farrah Storr, Emma Gannon, Funmi Fetto and Anna Jones.

You’ll find a meditation on motherhood from a food writer, a short story on quantum physics by a novelist and a heartfelt letter of friendship from an international news editor. With a new strategic positioning, Comfort Zones gave the fashion brand a different way to speak to its customers: through stories rather than clothes. It also allowed Jigsaw to connect with a younger generation, whose passion for reading is often shared digitally - the authors’ combined social media following of more than 750k generated discussions among their fashion and literature following.

Our objective was to raise £25k for Women for Women International - we smashed that target in six months. Jigsaw took the same uncompromising approach to publishing as it does to fashion, committing 100% of proceeds from books purchased on its website to the charity. We secured additional distribution with Waterstones, Tate Modern, John Sandoe, Libreria, Pages and Amazon.

Comfort Zones was featured in Stylist, ELLE, Red, The Independent, Evening Standard, Sheerluxe, The High Low, Suitcase, Riposte, and many more. And we made the most of Jigsaw’s beautiful stores, attracting customers to readings with the authors, including as part of the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

It is undoubtedly one of my proudest projects to date. Some people loved it for the original writing, others for the £25k it raised for a worthy cause, and some because it helped to sell clothes. I loved it for all three. And because I got to write my first piece of fiction: a short story called The List.