Three years ago, Thomas Jacob launched a streetwear line, Project Pietà, manufactured in a trio of jails in Lima, Peru. “I had the opportunity to visit a jail here in Lima, with a French friend who was teaching French classes in the jail, and I met a lot of wonderful people…[that were] very far from the image you may have of prison inmates,” Jacob told Refinery29. He spent a year developing samples and prototypes before production actually kicked off — “we had to work a lot to reach a high level of quality, and I didn’t want to make a common brand making average-quality product,” Jacob says. “I wanted to show the world that with all our ardour, efforts, and capacity, we could make high-quality work, like any other high-fashion studio.”

Utilising production machinery already on the jail’s premises, Project Pietà came to life, producing items made from organic pima cotton, ecological Andean highland wool, leather, and baby alpaca. “These people came from underprivileged upbringings, and were now idling in prison with nothing to make of their days,” Jacob says; the inmates partake in workshops on cutting, embroidering, sewing, leatherwork, serigraphy, and knitting to hone their skills. The vast majority of Project Pietà's customer base is beyond Peru (90%, to be exact).

As for the biggest misconceptions Jacob has to contend with, given the brand's unusual labor force: "People think we are exploiting the inmates, but that's not true at all. Pietà has been created by the inmates," Jacob says. "Inmates earn a nice salary, and feel very engaged and responsible to do the work. They feel free!"