Glasgow's homeless are being helped to draw a wage thanks to a fashion label putting their ideas on their clothes shelves.

Streetwear brand The Blankfaces are taking inspiration from stories of living on the streets to create on-trend sweaters and t-shirts.

For the past year social enterprise brand The Blankfaces has taken personal experiences of living on the streets, moulding them into images printed across their streetwear collections.

At the heart of the company’s ethos is the commitment to share profit from the sale of every garment with the people who inspire the creations.

The idea was born at the city’s Lodging Mission House, opposite the Barrowland Ballroom, when The Blankfaces founder Gerard McKenzie-Govan dropped in to chat with locals who accessed the services there.

He said: “We started out by listening to the stories of homeless people who accessed the mission. I’m quite creative and I thought well there’s something in this. From there, we started creating images through the stories.”

A small grant got Gerard’s idea rolling, along with the sale of 100 t-shirts bearing the first design logo, People Make Mistakes. The spin on Glasgow’s famous marketing tag went viral across the city marking The Blankfaces officially open for business. Those first profits were handed to other small grassroots enterprises, in turn helping to get them on their feet.

A follow up design was inspired by Davie, who Gerard also met at the mission. He added: “Davie told us that in his experience people viewed the homeless as a bleeding heart with their hands out begging, but all he wanted was to be treated as a human being.

“From there an image was traced out as a big dirty heart by our creative designer, as opposed to a ‘happy’ love heart. Since, when we tell people Davie’s story it resonates with them.”

With a new design launching soon and a collaboration with a big Glasgow retailer in the pipeline, The Blankfaces streetwear is currently available online and across city centre retail outlets; including a stand alone shop in Colab within the Savoy Centre on Sauchiehall Street.

Despite the fast growth, that ethos The Blankfaces started with remains untouched.

“We’re trying to change the perceptions of homelessness instead of just throwing money at it,” says Gerard.

“We’ve seen governments do that for years, but it’s not worked. When Davie saw that first t-shirt printed with the image he inspired on it, you could see the pride. You’ve got to love that.”

Another community sharing in the success of the label’s model is the city’s fashion students, who collaborate in the creative stages of the designs.

One student is Hayley Watson, 22, having partnered with The Blankfaces in the earliest days of the enterprise. Graduating from Glasgow School of Art’s Fashion Design course this June, Hayley is passionate about the ethical side of her chosen industry.

“We try to strike a balance at The Blankfaces between products that people want to buy and the good purpose behind doing that, other than just making money,” says Hayley.