How circular fashion brand Fanfare Label makes noise by upcycling jeans to become super-cool new denims

Esther launched Fanfare in 2018 in London with a mission to “make denim better”, offering a service repairing and upcycling customer’s own jeans, embroidering patterns, writing, painting and trimming them. “It became really popular,” she says. “Customers loved the idea that they could design jeans with us. It was something that nobody else was doing.”

After eight years in the capital, she and her husband, Josh, moved back home to Yorkshire last year to be closer to family, and now live in Cononley, near Skipton. Esther says: “I have a big passion for trying to bring work up here and not having everything in London.”

She was born in Birmingham, the eldest of three siblings. Her parents, Amanda and Fraser, both teachers, moved back to their native Bingley when she was 10. She attended Bingley Grammar, then Craven College for her A-levels, then Northumbria University, for a degree in Business Studies, with the aim of becoming a buyer.

“I thought having a bit of business knowledge would help, because we are essentially in charge of all the financials and budgets and making the company profitable,” she says. “You hear it a lot with fashion students that they are great designers, their creativity is brilliant, but actually, the numbers, they are just not learning.”

For her year in industry, she landed an assistant merchandising role at Barbour HQ in South Shields. “I absolutely loved it and it’s a big driver as to why I started my brand, because everything I talk about, about buying for life and not throwing things away, and cherished items, and not contributing to the landfill crisis we are in, they have been championing from day one,” she says, adding: “A Barbour jacket, people cherish, they look after it, they send it in to be repaired and rewaxed, and every time you speak to a customer, they are really proud of their Barbour jacket that they have had for 30 or 40 years, and they pass it on to their children.”

She gained more work experience by heading for London, sofa surfing and working in the Barbour store at weekends, then at Debenhams and other brands gaining experience in buying departments. She graduated with a First and won a graduate role at occasionwear brand Coast, starting as buying assistant and working up to senior assistant buyer. “It was a brilliant family vibe, a bit like Barbour,” she says.

Realising that sustainable fashion was the future, she moved to Vivienne Westwood. “I could understand the urgency of it,” she says. “I wanted to learn from someone who had championed it from the beginning.

“Her values trickled down through the whole company so that you really did feel that you know her well, because her passion and her activist nature, driving sustainability and climate change issues through to her staff, was really powerful.”

She left in 2018 to launch Fanfare Label. “My mum came up with the name. She is an English Literature teacher. I am massively dyslexic. She said that Fanfare means you’re making an announcement, and a positive one. We are making a sustainability announcement, not to make people feel guilty about what they are shopping for, but to inspire,” Esther says, adding that her aunt, Susan Leach, was a great help, too.

Fanfare now offers three sustainable jeans options, so there is the customer’s own jeans upcycle service, and then there is a collection of upcycled and decorated jeans to buy from the website. “I couldn’t set up a sustainable business without accounting for what’s already out there,” Esther says.

But there is also a collection of Fanfare’s own new jeans, called the Keep Hold jeans, made by an ethical Portuguese company using post-consumer waste denim, broken down and spun into new fibre, mixed with organic cotton.

The jeans are decorated to order, working with local artisans. Wool stripes are made working with an interior designer, using offcuts from rugs, and leaf embellishments use offcuts from unrepairable jeans.

Fanfare Label has other product lines, including recycled denim pieces such as bodices, and non-denim pieces such as T-shirts, jumpers, and a collection of linen shorts sets and trouser suits that have become a fashionista favourite. Esther says: “Linen is one of the most sustainable fabrics out there, completely biodegradable - seasonless clothing, relevant for years to come.”

Following investment, she has been able to hire a designer and a marketing manager. Covid meant she had to grow more slowly than originally intended, but this has been a good thing, she says. “The growth has been completely organic, with people hearing about us word of mouth. Fanfare pieces have been worn by celebrities including Amelia Windsor, have featured in Vogue, and have won a heap of awards including One to Watch in last year’s Draper’s Sustainable Fashion Award.

Future plans include moving to Leeds, developing the product range and growing through stockists and retailers, with a department store launch soon to be announced. Circularity remains a top priority. Esther says: “We don’t need newness all the time, it’s looking at how we can repurpose what’s already out there.”

*See all the designs or create your own upcyled jeans at Fanfarelabel.com

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