Get clear timelines and milestones outlined with anyone you work with. Make sure they’re written down so you can refer back to them easily if people become relaxed with timings.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Corrine Amos.
Corrine Amos is someone who approaches things with a cheerful positivity that anything is possible but has the drive and determination to see things through. She is more than diplomatic — kind and tolerant to a fault. Corrine is the definition of going the extra mile.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I’ve always been Coco, since a very early age when a friend of mine Billy couldn’t pronounce my name. I’m probably the least likely person to have ended up with a career in fashion. As anyone who knows me will tell you, clothes have often been functional and grasped in haste before rushing out of the door. I think this company has more so stemmed from a hatred of injustice. I had quite a rocky childhood, and I didn’t often feel that I had the power to change anything. You don’t have a say in what situation you are born into. Due to investing a lot of time and determination into my work, working as many hours as it takes, I now have access to change my future, and I believe this to be a privilege.
This company is about trying to give a leg up to people all over the world, so that they too can find the self belief and momentum to change their own futures. The dungarees are just a vehicle for the chance to help people make small changes in their own lives like where they make purchases, that will then have a positive impact in a whole chain of people’s lives across the world.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
It was probably how we first stumbled across one of the communities in South India that we are now helping.
It started with craving a lakeside swim, we’d bought some delicious looking biscuits as a post swim snackeroonie, chose a temple on a map that was close to a remote stretch of lake and hopped into a rickshaw — much to the drivers surprise at the address.
After a journey of much off-roading and being dropped off in a clearing of tropical plants and dirt tracks, we stumbled across villagers in a circle. At first they were quite sceptical of us, I think but the biscuits soon broke the ice.
Rekha shared them around the group and then took us to the side of the lake. We spoke in hand gestures and laughed along at the probable loss in translations. After the swim she invited us for chai. Her house was under construction so we sat on chairs outside and gradually the whole village assembled. The language was a barrier at first, but then there was lots of pointing. I gestured a thumbs up to a girl’s plaits and the next minute we were having our hair plaited.
This soon escalated into us showing them the Macerena dance [I should add now that my dancing is very English Uncle at a Wedding] they join in, and pick it up instantly before showing us a famous song from the South of India. It was obviously a hit, as they asked us to come back the next day. Resulting in us all swimming in the lake this time, followed by karaoke- I won’t go down that rabbit role but yes the Sugarbabes were an Anthem to the evening.
If anyone has any Spotify playlist recommendations, do send them across! So it was founded on a friendship. The next time we visited, we helped with school supplies through Onam festival games prizes which were well received. They told us they wanted to learn English, which is spoken widely across India, so that is the next chapter.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Mistakes are definitely the greatest lessons! With this being a totally self funded and 100% not for profit project, our mistakes have usually been a bit painful on our pockets! This has been a big hurdle. We’ve worked all the hours under the sun to make this project possible but one thing I can say that I’ve learnt though is, to over clarify everything! Even when you feel you’ve got a good rapport — get things written down.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
It is 100% not for profit, the makers get paid fairly and our team has met every person who is part of our making process. We choose projects all over the world to receive the profits, be that social projects in small villages or entrepreneurs starting there own business’. We like to put focus on education for the majority of our profit sharing.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
I think our video tells the story best
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
-Taxes on these kind of companies and costs for VAT returns
I think the people who can probably make the most difference in this situation is us the buyers, the phrase ‘vote with your feet’ has been banded around a lot, but I think we are the people that can put pressure on brands to care about the people in their supply chain or get cancelled.
Buying more consciously is another way to solve the issue.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example? Leadership to me is steering the ship and being the right person to do that, often at times the right people feel under qualified to lead and the wrong people throw themselves in with both feet.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1 . Trust your gut- ask less opinions, if you do ask for an opinion make sure that it’s from someone that understands the industry.
2 . Choose your own fabric, we did one fabric run with a friend of a friend at the helm and it wasn’t thick enough for dungarees. So we will have to repurpose it into something else- not the end of the world but an expensive error on a self funded project like ours.
3 . Get clear timelines and milestones outlined with anyone you work with. Make sure they’re written down so you can refer back to them easily if people become relaxed with timings.
4 . Make sure if you are setting up a business, that you really love it! It’s going to take a lot more time than you’ve probably anticipated and there will be serious ups and downs. You’ll need to live and breathe it, for it to be successful. Someone once told me that “success happens just moments after a failure on something”. To me, this means when everything was pointing towards giving up, but you didn’t — and no truer words have been spoken. It’s in every great success story.
5 . “If you always do what you’ve always done you’ll always get what you’ve always got” — Henry Ford, I first heard this on Secret Leaders — Karen Jones the Founder of Cafe Rouge episode. It’s so true, if something isn’t working, you haven’t failed if you switch things up. Secret Leaders podcast is a great one if you are looking for a new podcast.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
The most amount of good to the most amount of people, well if I wasn’t recommending people buying our dungarees so we can help projects around the world on your behalf. Then I’d probably say:
– If everyone could be more aware of what you consume, and who you buy from to avoid people being taken advantage of. Meaning people start to only buy from companies who pay their workers fairly. Forcing bigger companies to treat people fairly or get cancelled. If websites like ‘Good on you’ were more known, and if we had ratings more central to customers buying power, like food hygiene ratings.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I think there are two quotes in life that have stuck with me more than any other, and they are “It will all be ok in the end if it’s not ok it’s not the end” because sometimes life can be super overwhelming, and in those moments it’s very easy to want to take the easy option, or an out, but more often than not it soon after turns around.
The second quote is “Adapt, grow and achieve” this is something a friend of mine Rob said and continued onto say that you’ve got to come out of lockdown better than you went into it. I love that approach, see the opportunity in the hard ship and make it into something.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, I love the way that she comes up with quirky ideas and just runs with them. I think she would throw in some interest perspectives and approaches. I just know by the end of the meal I’d be enthused by something I’d never even considered. She would also rock a pair of our adults dungarees.
If I could choose two the second would be Fearne Cotton, I’ve listened to her on the radio since I was young. I love how raw her podcasts are, she’s unapologetically vulnerable. I’ve listened to her podcast during my bumpy journeys across India on buses, and whilst Rowing across the Atlantic in a four person rowing boat. I’d love to hear her thoughts on what we are doing, and what she would do next if she was in our position.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can find us at www.cocoandkiki.co.uk
Adults dungarees launching in the next few months!
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Corrine Amos of CoCo & KiKi Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.