it’s friday morning and kate has just dropped her 3 year old daughter with her parents, who own the farm behind sula. she brings a box of chicken eggs with shells in the most exquisite shades of pale blue-green or gorgeous speckly beige. eggs for friday lunch has become a sula ritual. it was a conversation between alison and kate’s father which prompted their meeting and her appointment last november.
after studing fashion design at nottingham trent university, she moved to london and had a brief stint with a fast fashion firm and vowed never to work in that sector again. she then went on to work with british manufacturer helene berman for 6 years, from whom she learned precision production skills over ready to wear and hat collections. after relocating back to sussex, kate spent 7 years with susie cave as the production manager on her ‘the vampire’s wife’ label.
sula is such a small team that everyone does a bit of everything and this is part of it’s charm. overall, kate works closely on production with hannah and the factories, contributes to fabrics and colour choices, helps with garment fits, selling sula in paris and new york and is responsible for social media.
“i love the cyclical nature of the development of a new collection from sampling to stores. the processes involved in bringing a design to life draw parallels to that of the crops my family grow. i really enjoy working in a smaller team, you are so hands on and everything you do matters. alison has created such a wonderful brand with a strong sense of style, the best quality fabrics and an ethos for ethical and sustainable manufacture, it is really inspirational. the studio setting is the cherry on top.”
over the years kate has compiled a ‘little black book’ of contacts who will enrich future sula collections. look out for our gorgeous flower-pressed textiles next summer…