April Update
(Short One) Fundraisers, patches, shop openings, and a sneaky peek at RTS.
Hello!
This will be a pretty short update. Not because there isn’t much to say, but because we are so flat-out busy I haven’t had time to get this done properly. That said, I still want to blabber a little, if you’ll let me. Also, yes, very clearly I missed the month by over a week. Take all my mistakes ever as comfort we are a human brand.
Fertiliser Fundraiser
Hopefully our fundraiser is still running when I send this. If not, I’m very late. (checking back in to sub this before posting it, I am, in fact, very late)
You can read all about it here, but in short: we’re offering discounted gift cards to raise money for some things we want to work on but currently can’t afford, because we are squeezed. I saw a bike company do this recently and thought it was such a good way to give something, get something, and remind everyone that we’re literally a mum-and-pop operation trying to make ends meet. I’m not a bitter person generally, but I find myself forever furious at the ease with which other brands in our space spend money we don’t have — putting on shows, opening stores. That said, we don’t have it because we didn’t sell out.
Edit: we made our target btw!
Patches
The patches are in! Like all small, no-profit endeavours, these took far more time and effort than we anticipated. That’s okay. That’s our cross to bear.
They sold really well, which I’m so pleased about.
These are hand-embroidered, made from offcuts of our regular production. We’ve been hoarding these offcuts for about 13 years, always trying to find something worth doing with them. This is the most special thing we’ve managed so far.
They’re inspired by old handmade patches we’ve picked up over the years of vintage hoarding (yes, we are hoarders). Being genuinely eco-minded means holding on to the leftovers from everything you make, or finding a responsible way to let them go. We don’t always get that right. But we always try.
They’re very Story mfg, obviously. I love the idea of people stitching them onto their own clothes to make them a little more Story mfg.
We made up a bunch of vintage hats with the patches for our store, and to kind of give some direction on how we think they’d work well. To me, they look amazing.
Shop Opening
Lolalou, who just joined us, has been busy getting the space ready to open - and its open from this weekend! I’ll save the sneak peeks so as not to dull the excitement — but we are all really looking forward to having somewhere in London to meet you. No one really knew us when we had the last one, and the one before that was a narrowboat.
Kids Knits
In. Amazing. So cute.
RTS
RTS is probably my favourite line we do. It’s casual, beautiful, and a little more affordable while being entirely naturally dyed. Here’s a sneaky peek at some of the new shapes. The bombers I think are online next week, the blazers and trousers etc a couple weeks after that.
ALSO more immediately we have the SUN FADED bits in
ASICS collab
A short note on this as I get asked a lot — the design is done and the order has gone in. November release, we think!
I promise to do better next month!!!!