Happy Yorkshire Day! Seriously, we haven’t made it up, there’s a Wikipedia entry about it and everything. We’re turning towards the north for the duration of this feature because there’s more to the white rose shire than whippets, flat caps and really good tea.
Some of our favourite Yorkshire fashion exports sell in shops down here and those that don’t have websites; hurrah for modern technology, eh.
The most unique Yorkshire designer is Isobel Davies at Izzy Lane. She rescues sheep from slaughter at her farm in Richmond, North Yorkshire and employs nannies to knit clothes with the wool, Shreddies advert-style. She also helped Lily Cole set up the North Circular.
Chunky knits were all over the catwalks for AW12 (yes, even more so than other Autumn Winters) so we’ll be supporting the sheep and the grans on our next online shop.
Similarly ethical are the lovely seamstresses and knitters at Antiform, led by designer Lizzie Harrison. They’re all about using ethical materials and upcycling old stuff to make awesome pieces at a cool studio-come-shop in Leeds’ student quarter.
Over in the centre of Leeds Aqua won’t be a new name to London folk but it started there and now sells its edgy wares to men and women all over the place. It’s worth noting they have a ridiculously good sale on at the moment and they often have sample sales in Leeds locations if you’re ever in the area.
For swing skirts and wiggle dresses, 20th Century Foxy has affordable golden era goodies, selling online from their base in Huddersfield and for sheer dramatics we can’t leave out jewellery designer Rebecca Pearson of Belles Bejewelled.
We display one of her massive collar necklaces as wall art (mainly because we’re too chicken to wear it outside).
Go forth and shop online, dear readers. Yorkshire’s best designers are closer – and a fair bit cheaper, actually – than you might think.
