Counting Sheep: The North Circular
Models of the modern age are way more than just a pretty face. In fact, after stepping out of the spotlight, more and more of them step into entrepreneurial endeavors as second careers. Just look at Christy Turlington’s skincare line, Sundari, and lifestyle clothing line, Nuala; Alek Wek’s handbag line, Wek1933; and Kathy Ireland’s very successful company of many varied products. The added plus of having her fame behind her helps make a model’s newfound endeavor often more of a huge success than it would if she had to start from scratch like so many small business owners.
Now, redheaded beauty-of-the-moment Lily Cole is becoming a businesswoman as well: She has founded The North Circular, a line of contemporary knitwear made from the wool of rescued Wensleydale longwool sheep from her native England.
What makes her company unique? Each piece in The North Circular line is fashioned by Cole’s grandmother—and other grandmothers, and mature ladies—keeping them gainfully employed in something they love and keeping the tradition of hand knit garments alive, as well as keeping labor local, an issue for England too, where work is often shipped overseas to countries that can produce goods for a cheaper price. Along with fellow model Katherine Poulton, Central St. Martins graduate Alice Ashby, and entrepreneur Isobel Davies, Cole started a company whose garments are entirely made in the United Kingdom. Thanks to Davies’ knowledge of the wool industry (which was dying a slow death on their home turf), the girls pledged to fight to bring production back to the UK, support their homegrown industries, and craft handmade, thus, high quality products that are ethical, put animal welfare first, and are eco/green to boot.
The company was born, Cole says, “over champagne and cups of tea” by Katherine and Lily who would ruminate on the idea of a knitting empire fueled by grannies hand knitting (Katherine’s grandmother, a talented knitter as well, came on at the beginning, knitting the circular neck snug, now hugely popular, that inspired the name of the company). Both girls longed for a return to the handmade product. Their goal was to personalize the process of production-to rekindle the relationship between the producer and the purchaser, as they profess on their website-the knitter and scarf wearer. Particularly in their part of the world, everyone needs wool in the wintertime.
When the gals finally got serious, they joined forces with Davies, who had founded Izzy Lane, an organization that rescues the endangered Wensleydale from slaughter houses and uses their wool to fashion garments. Davies was, to put it bluntly, literally saving the sheep’s skin, by letting them live out their natural lives her sanctuary in North Yorkshire where the sheep graze on organic land and the wool is spun and dyed naturally within a 120 mile radius (thus its status as an eco-friendly product, as the low mileage that the product endures, the wool passing through a 120 mile “north circular” route from sheep to scourer, spinner to dyer, on to knitter). Each garment carries a hand-made tag informing the recipient of how many sheep were rescued to date. Best of all, those who may be wool-wary can sport the garments in full comfort: The Wensleydale’s wool has no kemp, that prickly fibre, so can be worn without fear of the dreaded and constant itch found in most other wools.
And in the age of all things charitable, the company also donates five percent of all profits (and all of founder Lily Cole’s profits) to the Environmental Justice Foundation, who believe that environmental security is a basic human right and attempt to make a direct link between protecting the environment and the people and wildlife that depend upon it. How natural is that?
—CindiC
Tagged in: endangerned animals, fashion models, lily cole, knitting, north yorkshire, england,
