Our Founder Isobel Ridley Speaks at Swinton Park
Our founder Isobel Ridley spoke at Swinton Park Hotel for Cundall Manor School's ladies lunch. This is a written account of what she talked about, from why she started Lavender Hill to the lessons of the last few years.
Why Lavender Hill began
After leaving Durham University, Isobel was offered a job at Burberry in London, where she spent a few years learning the trade. All the while she was looking for flattering T-shirts she could wear with patterned skirts and trousers, or smart enough to wear under a suit jacket.
Researching the market, she found a gap for quality T-shirts: flattering, smart, not see-through, and that washed well. In 2013 she handed in her notice and told her boss she was going to France to learn French. That lasted three weeks. After a walk with her dad, who asked whether she had a business plan, she went home, wrote one, filed the incorporation documents at Companies House, and Lavender Hill began.
She was 24, had few connections and no prospect of outside investment, but she had savings from working as a cook in her university holidays and a love for the product.
From seven T-shirts to a wider range
Lavender Hill began with seven styles of T-shirt in black and white, in different necklines, sleeve lengths and fits. The range now includes nightwear, loungewear, socks and cashmere accessories, and still plenty of T-shirts, sold directly to customers around the world.
Fabrics
When researching fabrics, Isobel found newer ones she had not heard of, including TENCEL™ Modal, which is made from beech wood and is used in our core T-shirt range under a licence with the fibre producer. Since then we have also used TENCEL™ Lyocell, which is made from eucalyptus wood, for nightwear and base layers. She brought wood chips and fibres to the talk so guests could see the process, and handled the fabrics alongside our brochure.
Where we make
For several years most of our production was in the UK. When Covid closed nearly all UK factories while demand was rising, Isobel made a commercial decision to move more production to Portugal. Today most T-shirts and the nightwear are made in Portugal, while socks and cashmere are made in the UK.
Reusable face masks in 2020
In the first weeks of the first lockdown, there were shortages of hospital gowns and PPE. Isobel asked her suppliers whether they could help, but was told there was no spare PPE fabric. That led to the idea of comfortable reusable masks for everyday use.
She asked the Portuguese manufacturers to develop cotton masks in several styles. When the first batch arrived, her two-year-old nephew burst into tears at the sight of one, so they were made as fun and friendly as possible, in many patterns. In mid-April she put a first run of 300 masks through to test demand, and for every pack bought, Lavender Hill donated three masks to charities in Wandsworth. The first batch sold before it was delivered, and over 20,000 masks were donated by the end of the summer.
The campaign led to press and radio interviews, which Isobel had never done before. She recalled hearing she would be live on the radio with an audience of 100,000 and no idea what she would be asked. Sales grew quickly, and the business expanded its team.
Thrift+ and the charity heart socks
That autumn we began including a Thrift+ bag in every parcel. Thrift+ is a platform that brings charity shops online and encourages people to pass on clothes they no longer wear. Guests were offered a bag to take home.
Isobel also talked about the launch of our charity heart socks, a pack of three with small hearts embroidered on the ankle, made in Portugal. They supported Breast Cancer UK and were sold with information from the charity.
Back to T-shirts
Isobel finished where she began: Lavender Hill is a place to find your perfect T-shirt, whether you are going to work, having a dinner party or taking the dog for a walk. Thank you to Cundall Manor School for the invitation.