Village Raw - ISSUE 1

VILLAGE RAW
RAW MATERIAL
CRAFTING
THE FUTURE
In a quiet corner of
north London, three
talented craft makers
are fighting the tide
of mass-produced items,
to create things that
people will cherish
and love for years
Words by Carla Parks.
Photos by David Reeve.
Not many people would happily flaunt
their cheapness and yet our buying habits
have never been cheaper. From throwaway
clothes to the home goods we use
to furnish our homes, there’s very little
produced in a responsible and sustainable
way. While our eating habits have undergone
a revolution spurred in part by a
trend for local, organically produced food,
the appetite for fast fashion appears to
be unabated.
Seamstress Caroline Stansfield champions
clothing as an investment, and
she lives by this ethic: ‘I know when I buy
something I’ve saved for and it has cost
more money, I treasure it more,” she says.
“When you buy something that’s cheap it
reinforces the idea that you can just throw
it away. Instead, we should be looking to
own a few carefully chosen things that are
really beautiful.”
Working from her flat in Crouch End,
Caroline specialises in reimagining vintage
childrenswear. When her son Drake
was born three and a half years ago,
she began making him traditional sailor
suits reminiscent of 1920s-era fashion.
It wasn’t long before mothers started
asking where she bought his clothes and
the idea for a shop grew from there. She’s
recently had 25 orders via her website,
which she admits is “a bit frightening but
also exciting.”
The seamstress sources beautiful
fabrics and is inspired by British heritage,
Liberty prints and vintage photography.
A dress will take her about four hours to
make, but that doesn’t include finding fabrics
and pinning down the design. The prices
start at about £34 for baby dungarees.
“My time is valuable,” Caroline says.
“And I want to make something that will
wash well and wear well and something
that will last and can be passed on to
somebody else. We have too much waste
as a society.”
Cecilia Child, who fell in love with
weaving while doing an art foundation
course, agrees. Her business, run from her
home in Hornsey, is based on the idea of
making beautiful things that people will
love and cherish. Weaving is a complicated
process. Just vertically stretching one set
of yarns on a loom, known as a warp, can
take her a week. Another thread, known as
a weft, is then woven between the warp
threads, creating a pattern.
Having once worked with Chinese factories
when she was employed by a high
street accessories outlet, Cecilia argues
“...I want to make
something that will
wash well and wear well
and something that will
last and can be passed
on to somebody else.
We have too much waste
as a society.”
Opposite page: Caroline
Stansfield pinning a
vintage paper dress
pattern to the fabric.
This page from left to
right: Cecilia Child
creating a textile
pattern on her loom.
Katherine Bree creating
one of her unique
designs – everything
handmade.
for overhauling the supply chain: “It’s based
on producing more and more, for people to
buy more and more. It’s unsustainable.”
Her company, By Cecil, launched in
January 2018 with a collection of cushions
and scarves inspired by the British
seaside and visits to festivals. The price
point reflects the time and care that
goes into every product and it’s part of
Cecilia’s philosophy to make things that
will last a lifetime. “I don’t want to add
more to consumerism,” she says. “I would
prefer to work in a much smaller way and
create something that people are going
to love, keep and not throw out with the
next house renovation.”
Using stories to inspire her work is jewellery
designer Katherine Bree, who has
lived in Muswell Hill since she was three.
Her latest collection was inspired by the
Wes Anderson film The Grand Budapest
Hotel, and the Bohemian arts and crafts
movement. Katherine uses mood boards
to come up with ideas and colour palettes
and then goes through an editing process
to come up with the finished pieces.
Working only with semi-precious stones,
Katherine says her jewellery designs are
informed by their organic nature and irregularity.
“I have tried using other materials
and the feeling is just not the same,” she
says. “The precious quality is important to
me, as is the uniqueness of each stone.”
It does mean the designer is limited
by what stones she can source and it can
be difficult designing a whole collection,
she says, as “not many people do what I
do because it’s not very commercial.”
But Katherine has had some commercial
success with her pieces selling in
Liberty, Selfridges and the V&A. She now
supplies some jewellery to the British
Museum and to independent shops. For
her next collection she is thinking of taking
inspiration from Frida Kahlo, who will
be the subject of a new exhibition at the
V&A starting in June.
“Interestingly, in the 1930s, she used
to wear ancient beaded necklaces and
pre-Colombian beads, so it wasn’t the
bright and vibrant colours that she’s
known for,” says Katherine. “I’m interested
in doing something a bit different,
not so much the kitsch, but more earthy,
meaningful work.”•
Find out more at:
www.thelittleclothshop.co.uk
www.bycecil.com
www.katherinebree.com
www.muswellhillcreatives.com
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