&Daughter is the UK-based brand beloved by editors and is quietly gathering business momentum, year on year, whilst ensuring it delivers a positive message in terms of its values and ways of working. Their knitwear is created from 100 per cent natural yarns, sourced locally from expert spinners and makers in the UK and Ireland. Garments arrive in a potato sack (why ever not?).
Thankfully for writers like myself endeavouring to extol the virtues of wool, there is finally emerging a growing awareness and respect for its versatility (less washing, more airing, more eco friendly for starters). The raw material is being given a new lease of very stylish life and the knitwear market is no longer governed by brands hounding the customer with “100 per cent cashmere”. When everyone is selling cashmere, customers soon look for new kids (or sheep) on the block. Brands like Herd, Navygrey, Bamford, Sheep Inc and & Daughter are showing that wool is worthy of a renaissance. I am pleased to say that it is no longer the scratchy, ugly sister.
It’s been a pleasure to write this column and this feels like a good moment to thank you for all the emails, and the feedback I receive. Thank you for my village shop’s updates on how many Telegraphs have been bought each Sunday. And to my friend’s father, thank you for stopping me on the train to proudly show me that you were wearing Allbirds trainers after reading about them in this column. (He was off to a board meeting. I went on my way thinking “I hope I’m commuting in the coolest shoe on the market when I’m his age!”).
But mostly, I would like to thank the brands who continue to pitch new ideas. Fashion is more than clothes. It’s the design talent, the merchandising teams, the technical whizzes who make (online) shopping a pleasure, rather than a chore, the research departments who are concocting better fabrics, that use impressive production techniques and pay greater respect to the supply chain. These past two years have certainly proven we can live with less, but my goodness hasn’t it also shown how much joy we can take from dressing?
I look forward to starting a new chapter at the Telegraph Magazine in the coming weeks. Until then, thank you very much for reading.
