Women join force all over the world to test our new workwear trousers
Written by: Jess Morris, Dirty Rigger
It’s great to see that the number of women working within the arts and entertainment industry is growing significantly. However, during many conversations it became clear that there was a common theme and women were voicing their frustration when it came to workwear trousers for women. They told me that the workwear available on the market were either insulting, and not designed to fit in the right/BEST places, uncomfortable, useless for the job, or just non-existent.
This ignited a spark, I knew I could bring something – never seen before – into the Dirty Rigger range, but first, I had to speak to our audience face to face to get a real sense of what they were looking for. As we exhibit all over the world, I took to the road and spoke to dozens of women who work in our industry. I listened to their views and suggestions. I learnt from, and harvested, everything they proposed and suggested. By the end of my road trip I was itching to get working on the design.
We could have something here!
We knew we had the ability and tools to design and produce a trouser which women would not only feel comfortable in, but would be flexible enough to high kick an annoying colleague (we really don’t condone this, but it was a suggestion) and would be practical for day to day use and applications so… grab me that pencil and paper and fill me with coffee. I did just that and the development of our women’s workwear trousers began.
Making something for every woman (or as many as we could)
Now, It wasn’t easy to please everybody and it would have been impossible to incorporate every idea given… So, bearing in mind we all have different clothing preferences, and after our market research, the concept of a fitted, high waisted, flexible trouser with multiple pockets was desired by the majority. This kind of design wasn’t something I’d seen on the market, so as you can imagine, it required extensive and rigorous testing to see if there was a reason why this wasn’t currently on offer anywhere or, if we had just created something equally fabulous as the first anorak…
Our Female Field Testers
I worked alongside our female industry specialists who tested the initial prototypes. It took a whopping six versions to finally get them to the stage where we could start our wider scoped beta programme. Here they would be put through their paces and thrown onto various legs, hips, bums and tums to get some well-needed, in-depth testing. We had a terrific response to our shout-out, and we received hundreds of applications. It was a difficult task, but to enable us to get a varied result we selected users from various parts of the world, women working in diverse roles to test the trousers and put them through their paces.
The beta programme lasted several months, and we were regularly updated with feedback and suggestions. The comments we were getting were overwhelmingly good and any criticisms were used to generate solutions to improve the design, thereby making these trousers truly the best they could possibly be.
Please feel free to flick through some of the pictures and feedback we have compiled from some of our lovely beta testers (left and below).
And they’re ready!
We are absolutely thrilled to announce that our women’s workwear trousers are in stock and are available for purchase. A lot of time, sweat, and thread went into the design and development of these, but through it all our passion never withered, and we hope you are as happy with the result as we are! It’s been a lot of fun getting to this point and a delight to provide something which is needed and desired in the industry, and now, we can look forward to the future and expanding our range of products.
