Piece of the action

By which it means it provides gorgeous, unusual clothes made from natural yarns that are the product of sustainable farming, fair employment and low impact manufacture.

“We are applying the ‘slow food’ principle to clothes production,” explains Beate Kubitz, who started the label with Nicola Sherlock-Windle in Todmorden seven years ago, having moved from London where she was a campaign organiser for Amnesty International.

It’s eight years since Beate bought some sheep, set up shop in Todmorden, and met Nicola, who has a degree in knitwear. Soon after, Makepiece was born. Fast forward to the present day and the sheep are still on the hill, and Nicola and Beate are still making their knitwear in their Todmorden studio, and now are just about to open a new shop on Market Street in Hebden Bridge.

They source British wool and try to make sure that nothing has to travel too far.

“If you think of what you’re wearing and you find it’s been round the world before you put it on for the first time, was manufactured out of cotton dripping with pesticides or sewn by people in shoddy conditions, it suddenly doesn’t feel half as glamorous,” she says.

Last year, they launched a bridal collection and that is going very well indeed. In September, they will be showing at both the bridal fair in Harrogate and at London Fashion Week.

The clothes shown here include both the new autumn and the current summer collections. They are lightweight, beautiful and look fabulous both layered and worn alone.

Each garment comes with care instructions, a length of spare yarn in case of accidents and your own little pop-out lamb.

The new Makepiece store opens at 7 Market Street, Hebden Bridge, on August 3.