Made in Barnsley - how Lucy & Yak become an iconic fashion brand for millennials

When Lucy Greenwood and Chris Renwick first dreamed of the slouchy, colourful Lucy & Yak dungarees that would sell out immediately and become a millennial staple, the idea of making them - and the pinafores, cargo pants, sweatshirts and crop tops that followed - in the UK, never crossed their minds.

Instead, in 2017, they visited China, Thailand and India to find a factory that would produce their garments ethically and transparently. Then Lucy stumbled upon a university study about the fashion industry in the UK, revealing that several factories were not paying employees the minimum wage. “It’s mad, isn’t it?” she says. “We think these problems are just happening in developing countries, not in the Western world.”

Born and raised in Barnsley against a backdrop of fading industry, her thoughts immediately turned to the history of making in the UK and the surplus of sewing skills now dormant around her South Yorkshire home. “When we started in India, we met this guy and two of his mates. We didn’t have a factory, we just had a little room with a few sewing machines,” she adds. “Lucy & Yak has grown side by side with him and now he employs 70 people in India. So, when we read that article, we thought, why don’t we do what we did in India in the UK?”

It all clicked into place after it transpired that Amanda Bower on Lucy & Yak quality control had experience managing sewing rooms. “We kind of let Amanda set it up,” says Lucy. “We have ended up with a lot of women who had recently been made redundant. There are still sewing jobs kicking about but it is mostly making uniforms, so the same thing day in, day out – it’s not very exciting or creative. It has been really nice to see them all come together and be like ‘we’re making something that’s on Instagram and people are buying it’.”

Although the Lucy & Yak flagship store is in Brighton, the warehouse – which was once based in Greenwood’s mum’s lounge – has always been in Barnsley. Transforming part of it into a factory was a natural step, but it wasn’t just convenience that led to the designers setting up in the area. “Barnsley had a lot of big sewing factories – my mum used to work at one called Corah, and SR Gent had a factory around the Barnsley area, so we knew there would be people around there that were skilled.”

The resurrection of stitching employment has been welcomed with open arms by Barnsley’s seamstresses. The team stands at six but there are plans to expand and even offer apprenticeships, vital to the future of the industry as many of the local workers started their careers in the original sewing factories. Collectively the Lucy & Yak team has 150 years of experience.

“It’s great that we’ve all been given a chance to once again use our skills and show off our talents,” says sewing room supervisor Carol Cooper. Tracey Ellis, who preps the garments for the rest of the production line, adds: “The best time of my working life was working in a sewing factory. I thought it was a dying trade in South Yorkshire but I am so excited that it’s making a comeback now.”

After closing initially due to the lockdown, the factory is now partially open and making scrubs, scrub caps and bags. Lucy says: “Our wonderful seamstresses Amanda and Carol have been hard at work producing scrubs for local hospitals in South Yorkshire while our small team in Brighton have been busy making PPE supplies for local Brighton and Sussex hospitals.

“We are also supporting the communities in which our businesses operate by donating a number of care packages to Barnsley and Brighton hospitals and offering a 20 per cent discount to all NHS workers as a token of our gratitude to those working on the front line.”

The warehouse in Doncaster is open, so customers can buy garments again. The final punk-inspired collection features pinafore dresses and cargo pants in fluorescents and bubblegum pink. Lucy & Yak’s champion dungarees aren’t included in the range, but the familiar shoulder ties and central front pocket appear on all the dresses. “We wanted to do something that people wouldn’t assume was made in the UK if they saw it straight away,” says Lucy. “Made in Britain brands tend to be quite traditional and made with things like herringbone, so we wanted to do the complete opposite.” There is something unavoidably British about the utilitarian pockets and heavyweight materials though, especially when photographed in front of Barnsley Main Colliery where it would have been commonplace to wear durable trousers at one time.

“Ever since I can remember, my dad has raved about how Barnsley used to be amazing,” adds Lucy. “All the men worked for the coal board and all the women worked in the sewing factories, and on Fridays they’d all be in the pub and get drunk. The whole community was built around these two big industries and then when they collapsed, the community just got destroyed. So, for the photo shoot we wanted to tie in the sewing factories to the coal mines to reflect the whole community, and Barnsley Main was the perfect location for that.”

The Made in Britain collection hard-wearing fabric (100 per cent cotton twill) is sourced from a local family-run business which has been developing high- quality textiles since 1901.

A good chunk of the Lucy & Yak customer base can be found in Yorkshire too, with Lucy naming Sheffield as one of its top cities. Northern or not, customers are clearly delighted with the collection; the initial Instagram video announcing the project generated over 67,000 views and responses to a photo of the seamstresses attracted comments like “Lovely Barnsley lasses keep up the good work” and “Please hold a competition to win the chance to meet these amazing seamstresses and see the factory”.

Despite spending much of their time in Brighton, Lucy and Chris can’t seem to leave Barnsley behind and spend at least a week or two there every month. “You can’t not be a lover of the North when you are born in the North,” says Lucy. “It’s just one of the friendliest places. People are not judgemental; they are really chilled and down to earth and I like that.”

Lucy & Yak’s Made in Britain collection is available online at www.lucyandyak.com.

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