A FRANK interview with O Pioneers

O Pioneers is a British clothing label founded in Camden, north London by Clara Francis, actor and jewellery designer and Tania Hindmarch, PR and home seamstress. Here they talk to FRANK about all things fashion and more.

''We’ve always shared an interest in ‘fashion’ and a leaning towards vintage clothes, charity shop gems and girlie frocks. Throughout the years of designing and making things for ourselves we were always happily surprised to find that friends, and friends of friends, loved our styles and often asked us to make for them too!

One morning, walking our dogs on the Heath we decided to create O Pioneers, our own small label, where we could share some of our designs with like-minded women. The items we sell are all things that we wear ourselves. We hope that if we love them, you’ll love them too. Our main idea: a few simple, feminine and flattering designs, hand-crafted in the most beautiful, end of stock, heritage fabrics. This means most of our pieces are limited editions and one offs. Although beautiful, we want our dresses to be practical. For wear everyday – not just saved for best! We’re both working mums so we know how important that is! Most of our clothes are made in cotton so they are machine washable (check the washing instructions on each item) and all our dresses have big side pockets because there’s always something to carry! Our clothes are made with quality in mind and designed to be staple wardrobe pieces to be worn and enjoyed for years to come. Our simple designs draw inspiration from old sewing patterns and the nostalgia and romance of dressing up. Because that’s how we like to dress! O Pioneers is a grown up fashion label for women who still want to be playful. It is our labour of love and we hope you love it as much as we do.'' Clara and Tania

“Our customer base is really very eclectic. From women from their 20’s through to women in their 70’s. We think she’s a very discerning customer, she knows exactly what she wants, what suits her, she has a strong sense of self and of her own style.”

When did you start the brand and how?

We met when our oldest kids were babies, 14 years ago now, in a book group for mums in Camden Town where we both lived at the time. Over those years we have together plotted and dreamed of starting our own clothing brand. We are both massive lovers, hunters and hoarders of vintage clothing, we have a shared love of pieces from the 70’s, Tania loves the 80’s and Clara has a huge archive of Victorian and Edwardian white Lawn dresses.. (we like a mashup)...we are also both extreme fuss pots and could never find exactly what we wanted to wear so our dream was to create a brand encompassing the absolute perfect items of clothing...the perfect dress... the perfect blouse...the perfect tank top. Beautiful, fun AND practical. We launched ‘O Pioneers’ just over a year ago. We have been trading almost exclusively during the pandemic, a very peculiar time to start a business!

Why at this stage in your life did you decide to go for it?

For Clara it was very much to do with the a creative need and compulsion after the death of her daughter, Maudie to (a) keep busy and (b) nurture something new and beautiful and for Tania, she had just come out of a horrible divorce and having given up her career 15 years ago to stay at home and bring up the kids found herself “up shit creek” financially and was finding it very hard to get back into the work place after such a long absence.

Where did the name ‘O Pioneer’ come from?

We spent MONTHS trying to find the perfect name...list after list after list!! We are both rather bookish, both love reading so we knew we wanted a name that came from a literary piece or just had a certain poetry to it. We also wanted a name which encapsulated the romanticism of our brand. We realised we both loved the novel “O Pioneers” by female American author Willa Cather and the poem of the same name by the mighty Walt Whitman. It seemed perfect as our style of clothing does hint at the Pioneer style ( that and of course a very British aesthetic as well!) We also felt like Pioneers ourselves - both In our mid 40’s, Tania coming from a PR background, Clara coming from an Acting/Jewellery background that we ourselves were pioneers, striding into scary, unknown territory, starting something new at this age, when we already feel half clapped out, is scary. We have since found out that when Clara’s Grandfather, Hans, escaped Nazi Germany and fled to the UK in 1939 and joined the British Army. His regiment was called the “Pioneers Regiment” ..she only found this out about six months ago and it just seemed so unbelievably perfect, like he was watching over.

“O Pioneers is based on our over riding philosophy that if an item of clothing is desirable, well-made and stylishly classic it will be a loved item in your wardrobe that gets revisited time and time again, for years to come.”

What is the ethos of the brand?

We want O Pioneers to reflect our core beliefs in slow, sustainable fashion; timeless style; flattering designs; quality making, with attention to detail. The antithesis of ‘fast fashion’, O Pioneers is based on our over riding philosophy that if an item of clothing is desirable, well-made and stylishly classic it will be a loved item in your wardrobe that gets revisited time and time again, for years to come. We try wherever possible to use past season and end of line fabrics from quality textile icons such as Liberty London, we focus on making our clothes as individual as possible whilst retaining a very definite O Pioneers vibe. We only make small runs of each item in any particular fabric design or colour-way and we avoid waste wherever possible by using offcuts from the pattern cutting process to create beautiful patchwork and applique embellishments and of course face masks have sold A LOT of facemasks... As working mums, it is important to us to collaborate and work with other female businesses and artisans, as we understand the fine balance between work and family. We work with talented women in and around London and beyond, who share our vision and help us create our beautiful dresses and knitwear. we believe in the mantra, ‘Buy well, buy once’. We are also very mindful of the practicalities of daily dressing.Many times in the past we have bought a beautiful top or dress that sits unworn, unloved in our wardrobes because it is impractical or uncomfortable to wear, it might have a sleeve that’s too long and dangly and therefore gets wet when we’re doing the washing up or even clothing that is ‘Dry Clean Only’ that we’re reticent to wear because it will need to be taken to the cleaners and that’s a palaver so we don’t bother wearing it... We try to make sure ALL our dresses are, to date, machine washable at 30 degrees and if hung up when wet, don’t even need ironing!!! We have practicality at the forefront of our minds when we’re designing our garments.One zip. Few buttons. Dressing with ease but without being bland. We live our brand. We wear our brand everyday. We want comfort, practicality, longevity and beauty in our clothing.

We love the ‘beautiful dresses NOT to be saved for best’ How pertinent is that in terms of our current covid situation?

We absolutely believe wholeheartedly that beautiful clothes are there to be worn every day not stored in our wardrobes waiting only for special occasions. This was our ethos at the very dawn of O Pioneers - obviously we have the odd days when we pull on our jeans and a sweatshirt but more often than not you’ll find us wearing a dress - a dress with boots or trainers but a dress, none the less. We definitely both have the "dress up gene” We want dressing up each morning to still be fun and exciting - like when you’re a kid “Who do we want to be today?” In regard dressing in a pandemic - We believe our ethos has come into its own during this pandemic. People have realised that making an effort with what you wear even when working from home has a massive impact on your mental health. Many of our friends said to us that getting out of their tracksuit bottoms and putting on something beautiful instead, even if not leaving the house, made them feel infinitely better. We are currently both individually walking our dogs on Hampstead Heath during this third pandemic in our dresses, this time with thermals underneath and wellies on of course!! Never underestimated the feel good factor of a heavenly frock!

“We try wherever possible to use past season and end of line fabrics from quality textile icons such as Liberty London, we focus on making our clothes as individual as possible whilst retaining a very definite O Pioneers vibe.”

“Our customer base is really very eclectic. From women from their 20’s through to women in their 70’s. We think she’s a very discerning customer, she knows exactly what she wants, what suits her, she has a strong sense of self and of her own style.”

“We want O Pioneers to reflect our core beliefs in slow, sustainable fashion; timeless style''

What has the been the inspiration for the style and the signature look of the clothes?

We wanted our brand to have a quintessentially British feel. Incorporating that unique often eccentric way that the British style things together... Edwardian day dresses mixed with 1970’s flounce and a smattering of what’s happening NOW thrown into the mix. As an actress Clara loves the concept of transformation and there’s no reason why the day to day way we dress cannot hint at a little transformation and play within ourselves. Dressing should fun. We are inspired by the fabrics themselves and often start

the design process with only a fabric swatch, other inspirations can be a character in a book we’ve read or a film we’ve seen. For a while we were obsessed with a TV show called Godless. We spent a couple of weeks doing our local supermarket shop dressed for riding a horse out in the plains! We are heavily influenced by what our mums wore in the 1970’s, what we wore in the 70’s. Both our mothers are incredibly creative. They made our clothes when we were kids and both our mums used Liberty Fabrics to make them, so we love to incorporate them into our collections. There is a certain nostalgia that comes with using those same fabrics, a continuum, a safety and a comfort.

"People can be secretive as to where they source their fabrics etc and of course, where they get their clothing made. We naively found that people are generally not forthcoming with this information...so we were like a couple of Miss Marples trying to find our way through the forest. picking up nuggets of information as we went along. We’re still learning all the time."

Tell us about the process, sourcing fabrics, sketches etc?

Although Clara ran a successful Jewellery business and Tania worked in PR before starting O Pioneers’s and having ones foot in the fashion world it is essentially starting over again when beginning this venture. People can be secretive as to where they source their fabrics etc and of course, where they get their clothing made. We naively found that people are generally not forthcoming with this information...so we were like a couple of Miss Marples trying to find our way through the forest picking

up nuggets of information as we went along. We’re still learning all the time. In regard to fabrics, we did a small article for the Liberty Store website, their fabric buyer read it and offered us an account with them direct, this has been incredible for us because he allows us to buy older stock that is just sitting gathering dust in the warehouse. We love using up the old rather than printing more.

Who is your customer, I imagine they cross all age groups?

Our customer base is really very eclectic. From women from their 20’s through to women in their 70’s. We think she’s a very discerning customer, she knows exactly what she wants, what suits her, she has a strong sense of self and of her own style. She isn’t a slave to fashion, she desires clothes with personality, beautifully made, that will elevate her wardrobe and won’t ever date. Our customer is no fool!

How much does social media help the brand?

Social Media has been integral to the success of our little brand to date. Instagram as a marketing tool is simply incredible. We started this business with very little money. We both put only a small amount into the pot each. We have had no outside investment at all. So it wasn’t like we had any sort of marketing budget to begin with - we were entirely relying on social media and word of mouth to spread the word of our brand. The reach of instagram is so wide and fortunately we have a product, aesthetic and ethos that has really engaged with people. Our followers have embraced what we are trying to do with the brand and come along with us for the ride.It’s been such a wonderful, life enhancing experience.

Tell us about the fund raising you did in 2020 with the mask making. Who are your chosen charities and why?

Who is your team?

Well It’s currently just pretty much the two of us doing EVERYTHING in the day to day running of the business - design, sampling, sourcing fabrics, social media, marketing, fulfilment, post office runs, it’s all US and we’re bloomin’ exhausted... we’re such a new brand we’ve not permanently employed anyone yet! It’s also a bit of a family affair. We are delighted to say that both of our mums hand knit all of the tank tops that we make and sell. Tania’s brother set up and maintains our website, Clara’s brother does the odd photoshoot with us. We have a couple of wonderful local seamstresses that work from their homes making one off pieces and special orders for us and a little factory in the East End of London make our larger quantities. Anthony Lycett and Natasha Merchant are our brilliant photographers and that’s pretty much it for the moment.

We talked a lot when setting up O Pioneers about the idea of creating a company that would, one day, give something back to the community. We thought that if we ever made a success of things we could donate a proportion of sales to charity. We didn’t expect it to happen quite as so soon as it did! In March at the beginning of the pandemic Clara did some voluntary work for ”Age UK Camden” it was here that she saw the desperate situation that was occurring in regard severe food shortages within the community we live in so it was a no brainer that we would donate a proportion of all our sales at that time to “Age UK Camden”. Around the same time the Bereavement Charity “SLOW ( Surviving the Loss of Your World)” also needed help as obviously all their planned fund raising events for 2020 had to be immediately cancelled leaving the charity with a shortage of funds. This charity is incredibly close to our hearts as SLOW is the charity that helped Clara so very much when her two year old daughter, Maude, died very suddenly of Sepsis in 2011.... So we then, with great pride, donated a proportion of our sales to SLOW and finally we were then approached by the wonderful Isabel Spearman asking us if we would be interested in making face masks which matched our dresses and give a percentage of the sale of each face mask sales to another wonderful charity “The ICS - The Intensive Care Society” This charity helps brave Front Line NHS staff who work in the ICU by offering them much needed psychological support at such a horrendous time in their working life. All in all we donated to them all around £10,000. We are very proud of this.

www.opioneers.co.uk

@_Pioneersuk

Photography Credits: Natasha Merchant www. natashamerchant.com