Yorkshire fashion brand Kit and Kaboodal: ‘People love our fun Christmas jumpers’

Based in Great Ouseburn, near Boroughbridge, this independent, family-run company stocks designs mainly by the Made in Italy label, an Italian brand that specialises in versatile, flattering, one-size clothing that works for all women.

Kit and Kaboodal founder Helen Marsden works with Made in Italy to create exclusive, in-house pieces. A familiar face to Kit and Kaboodal shoppers, thanks to the styling and new range videos she posts online and on social media, she is co-director, along with her husband, John Marsden, and her daughters Laura Taylor and Naomi Baines.

With the Christmas jumper collection already launched and proving popular, this is a busy time for all of them.

“We always do a really fun range of Christmas jumpers,” says Laura. “We did it for the first time last year and they absolutely flew out.

“We've got a Facebook group where we can really channel into what our customers are after. They don't necessarily want a sequin-y going-out dress. What they actually want is something that they can wear with flat boots, and to a Christmas dinner or on Christmas Day. So it's not that uber dressiness.”

It was back in 2013 that Helen and John began touring country shows selling Made in Italy clothing. In 2015, they opened offices in Ripon but were growing quickly. In 2017, they moved into a purpose-built warehouse in Roecliffe, while also developing a bigger website, and the following year built a new warehouse there, plus creative marketing hub and offices, and took on an in-house designer.

Growth continued. In 2019 Kit and Kaboodal launched its first direct mail campaign and was staging five photoshoots a week to keep up with new collections.

Then, in 2022, it moved again, to another new purpose-built warehouse, office and studio space, five times bigger than its Roecliffe operation, at Ousegill Business Park at Great Ouseburn, where there are now 15 staff.

“We're still quite a small team for the amount we actually get done,” says Laura, who oversees Kit and Kaboodal’s marketing and projects. Her sister Naomi oversees the operational and logistics side of the business, while Helen does buying, designing and merchandising, and John handles the finance.

Laura says: “What is nice is we see each other constantly, but also, because we all have our own departments and areas to run in the business, we still feel like we've got our challenges and roles.”

There are more than 5,000 members of the Kit and Kaboodal Facebook member’s group, in addition to the main Facebook page and Instagram. The members’ group is a community of the brand’s best and most loyal customers, who have access to special promotions, discounts and head-starts on new collections.

"It's a nice little community, definitely something we're really proud of,” Laura says.

Helen goes to the factory in Italy once a month for a week to sign off samples, which means there is a constant stream of new arrivals.

“We can be quite dynamic as a company,” Laura says, adding that chocolate brown, jewel tones, teals and the reds, and burnt orange colours, are proving popular this autumn, and jumpers are much in demand.

Needle cord skirts and trousers with matching tops or jackets are also going down well. “We're finding that the kind of range where customers can make the look their own is really popular,” Laura says. “In the members club on Facebook, you can see how the customers are styling it, what they're wearing it with, and you go, ‘oh, wow, we never thought to put those trousers with that top’.”

Kit and Kaboodal has also focused on its wholesale offer for independent boutiques, with a website section that allows boutiques to shop as customers do, but at wholesale prices. “It surprised us how well it was going,” says Laura.

“Over in Australia, we have loads of wholesale accounts so we still try and carry a little bit of spring because of the seasons being so different over there.

“It's actually all over the world. We've got a couple in America, so it's something that we feel we're only scratching the surface of, and I guess we'll see what next year brings.

“I think, for a shop owner, because the product is one size, the feedback is that they don't have to buy two eights, two tens, two twelves.

“We launched on Debenhams this year, which has been a really interesting step as well. And then we're looking at launching on other third parties over the next year or two. There's a lot of work from an operational point of view that goes into that.

“We're still doing our weekly photo shoots, but we're trying to get out and about in the local area, because the imagery looks so lovely when it's like outside.”

The AW25 fashion shoot took place on Naomi’s farm. “Her husband is a farmer so we're super-lucky in that respect because It's obviously easy to just go and plonk ourselves in her kitchen and use all the outbuildings,” Laura says.

“We've done them before at Newby Hall and it's been amazing down there, especially when Newby's got all the flowers for the spring and summer shoot.

“We've done them previously at Newburgh Priory as well. That's been a great one for us.”

“The photo-shoots are great, but you get to the end of the day and you're so tired because they're so full on. Everyone thinks, oh, it's so glamorous, you get to go to Italy on a buying trip and it's lovely.

“We're really fortunate that 80 per cent of our customers, if they shop with us once, will shop with us again. And I think that is partly because it is a family-owned business as well, so that it doesn't feel like we're just a faceless brand.”

kitandkaboodal.com