Victoria's Secret

Retail could learn a thing or two from Victoria Stapleton, the owner of cashmere brand Brora, says Lucy Cleland

You only have to wake up to hear the news of yet another household name closing down sites or issuing profits warnings – Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser, Mothercare, even Topshop. But cashmere brand Brora’s story is one that defies the current doom mongering headlines of retail’s demise. Not only is it celebrating its 25th anniversary, but profits are up too – as they have been year on year. I catch the brand’s energetic founder, Victoria Stapleton, on the phone as she trundles up on the sleeper train to Scotland to spend a rare couple of days off fishing on the Helmsdale, just north of the village of Brora, which is, of course, where her story began.

How, as it were, can she keep her head when all about her are losing theirs? ‘There are two things,’ she says decisively. ‘Firstly, we are 100 per cent privately owned. Secondly, we have a very understanding bank manager! We’ve never had a year without a profit and we are pretty sensible about what we do.’ This, she confides, may have something to do with being a woman. ‘I’m not one for things like smart cars.’

Victoria Stapleton (right), with her mother Annabel, daughter Jesse and Midge the whippet

Brought up in Cumbria in a ‘very happy household’, Victoria says, ‘There were always conversations about business. We talked about money very openly.’ It’s no wonder then that her entrepreneurial father, David, who among other ventures, owned smoked salmon company Pinneys, had the wit and wisdom to buy the 100-yearold failing tweed mill Hunters of Brora in 1990. The mill had supplied the likes of Holland & Holland and Hackett, but by that time, says Victoria, so many brands had begun to take their production abroad to bring down costs: ‘the order books were literally emptying’. David put his young daughter, who’d studied interior design at the Inchbald School of Design and then read Art History at the University of East Anglia, in charge of the retail side. The mill eventually closed, but Victoria had found her passion and Brora was born.

Running a tight ship, Victoria enjoys and thrives on the business side of things as much as the creative. ‘I try and stick to budgets set by my terribly loyal Head of Finance [who’s been with her for 15 years]. I also think we have to not be at all vain. Every time a lease comes up we look at it very carefully. I closed our shop in Islington because the rent suddenly increased by 70 per cent and we felt on those figures it wasn’t going to work.’

Brora A/W’18

at work in the mill

Brora A/W’18

This perhaps is the key to a business that is owned entirely by the person who founded it. The passion still runs high and it’s not just a profit and loss ledger to be groomed by accountants, but a living, breathing, evolving entity that permeates the lives of everyone involved in it, from the shop assistant to the supplier. ‘I’ve kept the business fairly small,’ says Victoria, who bought a warehouse near her Stevenage home about 10 years ago, which houses 60 staff, has a photographic studio and is where all the fulfilment is done too (each item comes with a handwritten note from the person it was packed by). ‘People assume it is a lot bigger. I didn’t want the growth, say, of Boden or The White Company, because I am very committed to my supply chain and making everything locally in Scottish mills and English mills. I know all the people personally at Johnston of Elgin’s mill in Hawick [the same mill also used by Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Hermès], who have been making my cashmere since day one. Sixty-five per cent of their production is for Brora, so it’s a real responsibility.’

Not one that she bears at all lightly. ‘The key thing is the mill,’ she reiterates. ‘People don’t understand what real craftsmanship and talent we have in this country. They don’t think very deeply about their purchase; they see a price and don’t bear in mind the quality, the craftsmanship, the shipping, all those costs that go into making a product.’ Which is why she is adamant about never discounting in season. ‘We really have to hold our nerve but it can turn into a vicious circle. Discount trading is now the norm but what we cost is what we cost, take it or leave it. I can do this because we are privately owned. Sometimes we do have a bad quarter, but we move on and say it’s going to be better.’

Victoria and Jesse at home

Hill House, the family home in Hertfordshire

Brora A/W’18

The problems which have beset names like Marks & Spencer, she says, began when bigger margins became more important than quality. This meant using cheaper materials and then ‘you just lose you way’. ‘It’s a real shame what happened there because they were such advocates of “made in Britain”. ‘They weren’t a fashion-forward business,’ she continues, ‘but that’s what they tried to become [with the Alexa Chung collaboration]. We are not fashionforward either. We are fashion conscious – we’ve done collections with neon or slogans, for example, but I think it’s important that if you walk into Brora and find a fabulous navy blue jumper, you will always find that same fabulous jumper. The brand needs to feel familiar yet also requires subtle changes.’

Which is why you’ll find far more than just cashmere in the shops. ‘I’m so lucky I never have to go shopping,’ laughs Victoria, who tells me she’s currently wearing a Brora navy linen jumpsuit that I immediately start Googling. ‘There are so many nice things in the clothing range. Something for everyone, from your great grandmother to your cantankerous old uncle. We never tried to be über trendy. We’re what I call a 0-90 family brand.’

Victoria’s family is an integral part of the Brora set up too – and possibly its future. When Victoria married the photographer Johnny Pilkington, she inherited two daughters, Hermione (29) and Allegra (26) and the couple went on to have three more, Jesse (20), Nancy (18) and Lola (16). ‘They have all been a real influence on my life,’ says Victoria. ‘They’re very vocal about the brand and how they see the business.’ Jesse, who’s currently studying at Bristol, has taken on the social media, Hermione designs all the non-cashmere items (belts, bags, shoes, boots and jewellery) and helps to style the campaigns, and Allegra is an animator who’s done some fun animation for the website.

And what plans to celebrate the 25-year anniversary? She won’t fess up other than saying with palpable excitement, ‘We have an amazing collection launching in October. It’s really cool. A magazine editor [no name yet!], who’s been a fashion director for 30 years and has always been a lover of Brora, has put the collection together with me. We went through the archives and up to the mill together and looked through every single colour we’ve ever run. There will be 25 pieces for 25 years.’

And therein ends this woolly tale for now, while they prepare for the next 25 years, which will no doubt be just as full of family, passion and the joy of craft and creation.

Photos: Johnny Pilkington