Leeds designers creating a fashion stir
Published Date:
28 July 2008
THEIR fashion label orders buyers to "Love Our Stuff" and that's exactly the response a pair of up-and-coming Leeds designers have been getting.
Jill Atkins and Clare Robertson have been making their trendy threads for six years but have now taken a stylish stride forward with a hat-trick of deals which could see their garments picked up by celebrities like Victoria Beckham and worn by online shoppers around the globe.
The glamorous fashionista previously known as Posh is just one of the famous faces who shop at the Laden Showroom Boutique – the biggest London store for independent designers – which now stocks the Love Our Stuff range.
And the hard-working duo, who teamed up six years ago, are also celebrating winning a coveted contract with internet fashion giants Asos, which turned over around £80million last year.
The talented twosome seem well on the way to having their future neatly stitched up, after their appearance on BBC2 TV show Mary Queen of Shops when their creations were picked above those of several other young designers to be stocked in York boutique Selkie.
Jill, 33, said: "The Asos thing has been absolutely amazing.
"The Laden Showroom – we get the most street-cred for that, especially down south.
"If you're in there you're a force to be reckoned with."
She added: "Just this past year things have really started to change.
"Everyone's going on about the credit crunch and it seem to be going the other way for us."
She said shops wanting to stock their clothes and shoppers wanting to know where they could buy them had immediately contacted them after their TV appearance.
But it's not been overnight success for the duo.
They set up Bow Wow Wow in the Corn Exchange, selling their own creations, but moved out in 2006 because they didn't like the changes taking place.
The Corn Exchange is currently being transformed into an upmarket food emporium –a controversial move as most of the longstanding independent traders were moved out to make way for the new venture.
Jill and Clare then moved into their Holbeck workshop, where they focused on making their own ranges after deciding they wanted to supply wholesale to other retailers rather than working in retail themselves.
Jill said: "We do everything ourselves – which is hideous.
"We never stop. We get in at 7am and don't leave until about 7pm."
They supply to around 15 shops across the north west, including Aqua Couture in the Victoria Quarter, another business which has made a successful move out of the Corn Exchange.
And later this year their garments are set for another TV screening.
Jill said her cousin Michelle Leeming, from Manchester, would be kitted out in a brand new wardrobe of Love Our Stuff clothing when she appears on the X-Factor's Boot Camp.
As if they've not got their hands full enough, the twosome are also hard at work making Jill's wedding dress and Claire's bridesmaid's dress, along with another five bridesmaid dresses for her wedding to fiance Nick Cay in Spain in September.
The full article contains 519 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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Last Updated:
28 July 2008 2:30 PM
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Source:
n/a
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Location:
Leeds