How to get fleeced, Teesdale Mercury

You’ve heard about shaggy dog stories but shaggy sheep stories? 

With a London Fashion Week show under the belt, a top model, Lily Cole, signed up and numerous column inches in the broadsheet supplements and fashion magazines, you could safely say Izzy Lane Ethical Fashion had hit the big time. 

You would expect the aforementioned clothing company to be based in London. But you’d be wrong. Big time.

Izzy Lane’s head offices are in Richmond. That’s Richmond, North Yorkshire, not Richmond, Surrey. And the firm’s stock is kept in Teesdale. Not in a warehouse, but in a field near Greta Bridge. 

 

This is ethical fashion at its best and most beautiful. Company founder Isobel Lane decided to return north to launch her new clothing venture and the pieces she designs come from a love and passion not only for fashion, but for animal welfare too. 

After years of running a successful organic vegetable delivery business, in London and the North East, Isobel Lane wanted to do more to help the animals she cares so passionately about. She decided to set up a fashion label that uses the wool from sheep saved from the slaughter house. 

 

Shocked to discover that UK farmers often burn their wool because it has so little value and that 80 per cent of wool used in this country is imported from New Zealand, Isobel decided to try to change the wool industry in the UK while also rescuing sheep from being killed simply because they are lame or because they have a black spot in a white fleece. 

Isobel, a long-standing vegetarian, saved her first four sheep and launched Izzy Lane 18 months ago. 

She now has 600 sheep and the company is the darling of both the fashion and animal welfare worlds. 

Not only is the company a saving grace to hundreds of mainly Wensleydale and Shetland sheep, who would have been killed, the money she pays for the sheep also helps farmers get more money for their animals, and workers in a textile industry who are rapidly becoming a dying breed. 

 

While the designs the company makes are somewhat expensive, they will undoubtedly last a long time. And  as we sink into a deep recession, cheaper clothes seem to be falling by the wayside and we are apparently shopping for quality over quantity. 

Once world-renowned for our wool industry, Britain has turned into an importer and this angers Isobel. 

“Our textile mills have turned into apartments and it is a trade that has nearly gone forever and we can’t just resume this overnight. Farmers are actually burning their wool because it has so little value here.”

The cheap imported clothing trade has flourished, with stores selling tops for as little as £1, but Isobel hopes this will change. She said: “All the cheap stuff we buy ends up in the bin or charity shops but the better made, more expensive things we value and they stay in our wardrobe.”

 

With a covetable collection of coats, jackets and skirts, all made from the undyed wool of the Shetland sheep she has saved from slaughter, and knitwear made from the Wensleydale flock, it’s easy to see why customers clamour for this classically fashionable, ethical range.

Originally from Yarm, Isobel’s inspiration comes from both her 23 years in London and her love of the countryside.  

She says: “I like things that are stylish but that will also keep you warm.“

 

Despite her obvious eye for design and bucket loads of fashion industry savvy that can only be acquired in London, it is Isobel’s passion for animal welfare that is the most compelling factor of this story. 

She said: “I hate to see the way animals are treated in this country and the conditions they are kept in many farms are appalling.”

With the launch of another collection in the new year and the winner of an RSPCA Good Business Awards, Izzy Lane could really make a difference in so many ways. 

For the good of the animals, for the good of the UK’s wool industry, for the good of farmers, and for the good of fashion itself. 

To view the collection visit www.izzylane.com 

KAYE  JEMMESON