Barbara found herself behind bars in her late 50s and promised to make a change for the ‘forgotten women’ she met inside by launching a lingerie brand with a difference.

She created a lingerie brand for serving and former women prisoners, namely BehindBras. The brand reaches out to people with a sense of responsibility, who have concerns for the problems and injustices of society and brings people together, connecting them publicly and emotionally.

Using her ambition and experience as a role model to provide employment and self-employment opportunities for women who, for whatever reason, have been to prison.

BehindBras has two common goals; to design for people who understand her love for lingerie – creating beautiful lingerie; whilst supporting her vision to provide support, new skills and meaningful employment for former women prisoners, in the fashion, retail and creative industries.

The brand empowers women to become part of her dream of producing the finest lingerie for true lingerie enthusiasts, connecting those who appreciate the finest lingerie with women in prison by providing a unique training programme. This enables these former prisoners to be financially sustainable in their chosen careers or businesswomen supporting themselves and their families, whilst allowing our customers to continue looking and feeling fabulous!

As a self-starter with clear priorities, Barbara contributes to her cause by forming partnerships with organisations connected with the criminal justice system, and fashion and retail industries forming collaborative projects to help the beneficiaries of this new venture.

As a purpose-driven entrepreneur specialising in lingerie, she trained at the London School of Fashion for lingerie designing to understand the intimate apparel industry. With the love of all things associated with fashion, Barbara now uses this passion to reduce reoffending by up-skilling former women prisoners - this is what makes her tick!