Meet The Makers: The Sheffield womenswear designer with fashion in her blood

Yorkshire Post

Our choice of clothes helps to define how we think of ourselves and how we think of others. An outfit can suggest social status, political beliefs, a certain taste in music and even our mood on any given day - there’s always story behind the clothes we wear. It’s one of the reasons Harriet Eccleston, whose clothing brand goes by the same name, felt compelled to continue in a family tradition of tailors, drapers and milliners stretching back generations. “It’s quite a personal thing,” she said. “The garments that you wear are one of the first things that people see about you and I guess (they) interpret your characteristics or your personality through your choice of clothing and that has always interested me - the emotion, the personality that clothes can bring out.” Working out of her one room workshop in the Albyn Works, a former factory building in Sheffield’s Kelham Island, Harriet creates womenswear with sustainability and heritage at its core. From ideation and fabric cutting all the way through to hand stitching buttons and packaging items, Harriet’s head, heart and hands are behind it all. The finest British cottons and wools are taken and combined with a soft colour palette to create elegant garments with a classic versatility. Yet the reason Harriet’s creations stand out is beyond their aesthetic. Examine them more closely and you find storytelling and tradition woven into every piece. The influence of Harriet’s ancestry is evident throughout her business. “Fashion is in my blood, their stories are in my heart,” reads her website. Scattered amid the fabric swatches and sketches on the work surfaces and pin boards of her workshop are black and white photos of a moustachioed man immaculately turned out regardless of the scene he appears in. The man’s name is E.D. Soulsby and he’s Harriet’s great great Grandfather.  In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Soulsby, owned and ran a menswear shop in the industrial heartlands of Northumbria. “It was in the family for generations - everybody mucked in and was part of it. “My granny spent a lot of time there until she was married and she told me a lot of stories.  “They specialised in quality menswear clothing and the idea was they were pieces that would last.”

Transcript

00:00 It's quite a personal thing. The garments that you wear is one of the first things that

00:10 people see about you and I guess interpret your characteristics or your personality through

00:15 your choice of clothing. And that has always interested me, the emotion, the personality

00:21 that clothes can bring out.

00:24 Well, as long as I can remember, I've been surrounded by creativity, by art. My grandparents,

00:32 my maternal and paternal grandmothers taught me to sew and to knit from a very small age.

00:39 And I always loved that garment construction and the making things with a piece of fabric,

00:44 making things to wear. And I just absolutely fell in love with the idea of fashion.

00:49 But during my time in industry, it always felt like it wasn't quite me. It was almost

00:55 that something was missing. And I think that it was the more emotional side. It was the

01:02 more questioning side. Going out on my own was a chance to be truthful to my own beliefs

01:07 instead of sort of just going along with what is expected.

01:14 We are living in a world where consumerism is just rammed down our throat. Nothing that

01:19 you have is good enough. You always want the next thing. And it's wrong. It's so wrong.

01:25 It's not healthy for us. It's not good for the environment. It's not good for the people

01:29 who are producing these products. If you buy, if you choose quality garments, they should

01:34 last you a lifetime. You shouldn't wear them twice and throw them out for the next sort

01:38 of micro season.

01:42 Harriet Eccleston is meaningful, timeless, inclusive garments to be worn and treasured.

01:50 I use predominantly cottons and wools produced in the UK. So it's a completely transparent

01:57 process. Quality fabrics, they age so beautifully that they almost get better with time as well.

02:08 Sheffield has always been a place that we'd come to, you know, growing up as a kid to

02:15 go to the galleries and experience a bit more art and culture. Callum Island's brilliant.

02:23 You can be talking to somebody or you need something and there's a printer down the road

02:27 or a metal worker or a sound engineer. And I love the heritage and the craftsmanship

02:36 that is so deep rooted. I guess the process I would say officially starts when you put

02:41 pencil to paper in that sketching process. And I enjoy having just like lots of doodles

02:46 or photographs or fabrics, watches or anything just out in front of me and start just sketching,

02:51 sketching, sketching. I love a bit of a deeper, grittier design process than just going, I

03:01 need to create a shirt and what's on trend. I mean, for example, like my shirts, they're

03:06 all buttoned up the traditional menswear way. That dates back to men wearing swords and

03:12 not having them catch on their lapels and things like that. Women's shirts are buttoned

03:16 up the opposite way to men's so that they were dressed. Small details like that can

03:22 hold quite powerful messages as well, a sign of independence and showing the world what

03:27 you want to put out. I feel extremely fortunate that every day I get to do what I love, to

03:36 have that creative freedom to pursue what I believe in and the way that I hope one day

03:42 the fashion industry will work. It's really special and the fact that other people get

03:47 joy from it as well is, yeah, it's incredible.

03:51 [music]

03:58 [music]

03:59 [music]

04:00 [music]

04:01 [music]

04:02 [music]

04:03 [music]

04:04 [music]

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended