A new Liverpool fashion brand is joining the ‘slow fashion’ movement promising ‘ethically-sourced organic fabrics’. Tony McDonough reports
Stylist Rachel Evans and experienced fashion consultant Joanne Watkinson have joined forces to launch a new ‘ethical’ fashion brand.
By Elleven is joining the so-called ‘slow fashion’ movement. Slow fashion has evolved as an antidote to the fast-fashion, wear-once, throwaway culture fuelled by outlets such as Primark and ASOS.
Rachel and Joanne, who met working on a shoot for an online designer retailer, are focusing on “ethically-sourced organic fabrics”. They have opted for repeat-wear garments, prioritising quality over quantity. They are choosing fabrics and packaging that put less pressure on the environment.
Speaking with one voice, the pair said: “We believe now more than ever people think before they make a purchase, do they need it? How often will they wear it? Being wasteful is out of fashion. We have created a collection that is really easy to wear, and we show you how to style it to personalise your look.
“As stylists, we understand that the clothes you buy should work as hard as you do. Our collection is full of wardrobe essentials, whether you’re in the office, working from home or meeting friends for lunch we have your life uniform covered.
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“The By Elleven customer can be any age, great style doesn’t have an upper age limit, but we felt as though the younger market was well catered for. With fast fashion brands saturating the market and designer brands prices spiralling out of reach, we wanted to create a collection with the 30-60 demographic in mind.”
Rachel and Joanne talked about their idea long before putting it into action. Both working in the fashion industry, they knew there was a gap in the market, not only for a brand that women would want to wear, but a website that women enjoyed shopping on that was “informative and honest”.
It was the challenges of working at the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020 that finally gave the duo the impetus to turn their idea into reality. They agreed it needed to be a collection they both wanted to wear, one they would be happy to sell to a friend and one they could evolve as time goes on.
“We both agreed in the beginning that integrity was important to us, we didn’t want to sell anything we wouldn’t wear ourselves,” they said. “This isn’t a short-term project, we want to develop By Elleven into a brand women trust and come back to year after year.”
By Elleven’s collection includes hoodies, sweatshirts, and T-shirts, inspired by the ‘uniform’ of lockdown, styled back with pieces from Vintage Reimagined By Elleven, a curated collection of trench coats and other pre-loved items picked to complement the main collection.
Its most recent collaboration, which launched mid-March, is with a young female illustrator @Intangibleobjects. It says it aims to continue to work with other creatives to make art wearable. The Collection is also available on Sustainable platforms Wolf & Badger and Generous APE.
They added: “Part of our Slow-Fashion ethos is understanding that our customers won’t buy as frequently, but we stay connected with them through our free content which is emailed to them weekly. We interview inspirational people from the world of music, fashion, beauty and business who we think our customers will find engaging.”