The Knitting Grannies
Discover more from It's Not Sustainable with Tiffanie Darke
The Knitting Grannies
This one's a tear jerker
The social sustainability project that will make you cry, plus lights out in France and your ultimate sneakers. (And if you make it to the bottom, there’s a very special shopping discount.)
Dear Granny
Clara Francis was one of the reasons why my primary school gate thrived. Always full of gossip, always brandishing Haribos, always dressed like an extra from the American prairie circa 1852. An actress who had foregone big roles to look after her kids (while her husband collected the BAFTAs), she made jewellery in school hours which we all bought off her as fast as she could make it.
But a chance meeting with a seamstress changed everything. The seamstress wanted to learn to make jewellery and Clara wanted to sew, so they did a skills swap. “I taught her beading, she taught me pattern cutting. I had all these vintage dresses I'd collected over the years, all of which were a bit wrong - either the fabric was too sheer, or bits were worn out. With those as inspiration, we made my perfect dress.” Clara wore it every day, and we all wanted one. It became The Clara Dress, and it is now a bestseller.
You’ve probably guessed where this is going. With her partner Tania Hindmarch, (who had also left work to look after children) the two started their company O Pioneers. “We put 3 grand in each and that was for everything - from website to materials.” They sourced dead stock fabric from Liberty, then found a small factory in Dagenham. Making limited runs, their dress brand was born and soon other Camden mums like Thandie Newton, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Jenna Colman were wearing it. Then Net a Porter knocked, and they were off.
Sustainability in fashion is often about buying less, feeling guilty, second hand or renting. But sometimes buying the right things from the right people is all it takes: supporting disenfranchised communities to help spread wealth and labour. At Agora, our shop in Ibiza, we have shawls from a rural women’s collective in Uruguay, batik made by an Indonesian craft community, masks from South American tribes and even baskets woven by ex convicts. In the case of O Pioneers, it was getting two talented mothers back into the workplace, whose brand is now helping to support Britain’s post Covid, post Brexit manufacturing boom, (ok, mini-boom).
But the story doesn't end there. The dresses were cotton, and winter was coming. Part of the premise of an O Pioneers dress is that you can wear it every day (“Forever dresses, not to be saved for best”). Tania’s mum Dianne had an idea. “It was to have a bodice,” Dianne shared last week at the swanky new O Pioneers shop in Marylebone. “I knitted an alpaca one, and the girls loved it.” They made a few adjustments, bringing in the shoulder and shortening the body, and put it online to see what happened. It sold in minutes.
Soon Dianne couldn’t cope with the orders, so Clara recruited her mum, Judith, 79. “We started with our mums because we just didn’t know how many orders we were going to have,” says Clara. “Plus mine always had something on the go, either for me when I was growing up, or one of my kids.” Little did either of the two Grannies realise, they were about to get a second career.
“I'm not a professional knitter,” says Dianne. “I worked in a bank from 16 to 60, but I’ve been knitting since I was 6 years old. I'm going to be 80 next year and I’m working again!”
As the orders racked up, Tania and Clara found more willing and able Grannies and now have a database of 20 they can fire up when needed. “We set them all up on a Whatsapp group so we could manage who was knitting what,” says Clara, “but it’s been lovely for the community. It’s full of chit chat, they show each other all the other things they are knitting -”
“- and we all get to wish each other happy birthday or happy holidays,” says Dianne. “Or someone says ‘my husband’s going into hospital’, and we say ‘hope he's going to be okay’. It's just lovely.”
“It’s also a real window into their world,” confides Clara. “A friend of my aunt’s sent a message saying ‘I’m so sorry, I haven’t finished the jumper. My husband died in the middle of the night - I’ve just got to do some form filling and sort out the funeral and then I’ll finish it for you.”
For Jenny, who had been married to her husband for 55 years before he died in February, the knitting has been a relief. “Since the passing of my husband and during the months of his illness, I’ve found the knitting has helped me a great deal. The evenings don’t drag as much, as I have something to occupy my mind. I’ve been knitting since I was 11, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would knit for a luxury fashion company!”
In fact, two of the group lost their husbands last year, “and from what I know of them,” says Clara, “having something to get up for, a purpose, has been helpful. The ladies love being a part of our business. It’s because we are ‘in the world’, and I think older people often don't feel like they are a part of the world. Now they are contributing to the world - as they should be, because they have these skills that are dying out. Knitting is not being passed down generationally. Honestly, watching these women work is phenomenal: their hands move like concert pianists’ and they’re not even watching them - they’re watching the telly!”
And of course, they’re getting extra cash. “Money is tight for everyone at the moment, so the idea we might be helping with the heating bills is nice,” says Clara. “We’re quick at paying and they like the simplicity of it. Some don’t have online banking and aren't even on the internet - we send cheques if we have to. Of course it’s complicated, and expensive, as I’m having to send wool and paycheques out separately all over the country. But I do think it's worthwhile as it’s a lovely way of getting things made - knowing someone sat and made something by hand for you is really special.”
Isabel Spearman of Daily Dress Edit agrees. An early fan of O Pioneers, she loves the fact that each dressmaker, each patchworker and each knitter is named personally in the labels. “I love that you know each stitch has been made with huge care and love, all in the UK. It is the ethos of the O Pioneers brand and why I treasure each piece I own of theirs.”
But it’s not just the work, or the money or the community. Now their work is becoming famous. The whatsapp group went into overdrive when they spotted their work on TV’s Doc Marten. “The Caroline Catz character - her entire wardrobe is O Pioneers,” laughs Clara, “All the ladies were like ‘Oh my god there's my jumper! I'm famous!’ They were really excited because it's so special for them.”
“It doesn't feel real,” grins Dianne, (looking resplendent in a sold out Clara dress). “Tania told me I was on Net a Porter and I was like 'who the heck are they?’ Then I looked them up and I couldn’t believe it. Some of my jumpers have gone all around the world - Australia, America, Japan, Sweden. If I sat and thought about it, I’d be terrified, I’d probably never knit again. But I don't think of that, I just think, ‘I’m knitting, I'm enjoying myself and I'm loving doing it!”
Vive la France
Good news from across the Channel where are French friends are making very progressive steps in the right direction. Not only have they banned all plastic wrapping on fruit and vegetables, but the Mayor of Paris has decreed the lights of all municipal buildings will be turned off at 10pm every night - including the twinkly Eiffel tower. As I walked back from dinner along the Rue St Honoré earlier this month, I couldn’t help thinking it would be good if shops followed too. Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Balenciaga were all lit up like Christmas trees. If one of them had turned the lights down, I would have respected that very much.
Sneaker Pimp
A very chic friend was pouring me wine this weekend (yes, let’s unpack that sentence - it’s as delicious as it sounds), and confessed to being all over the new Loewe On sneaker collab. Now, as this friend heads up a sustainability council in the interior design community and is just about to launch her own line of sustainable furniture, I couldn’t help point out that there were better choices to be made (God I’m tedious). ‘Where then?’ she said, challenging me. Here I said:
Chloé are on a punchy path to sustainability, with double On’s sustainability credentials. (On claim a total recycled content of 20%, Chloé, 40%). For even better carbon credentials, I told her she could head to AllBirds, but this is a woman who wears two designer bags at a time. There’s another problem too. The Loewe On trainer is £295. The Chloé Nama is £595. Sigh….
Until next week!
Tiffanie x
As a special gift to my It’s Not Sustainable friends, (and for making it this far), I have persuaded O Pioneers to offer our community a 15% discount. All you need to do is shop here and type in the discount code TIFFANIE15.
The Knitting Grannies
Oh more of knitting Grannies and also all the other skills that French would value as couture and we sort of decide a printer will do better
My granddaughter knits and sews. Hmmm.