28 Fashion pieces from North East Independent Brands

Mimi’s Edit

Mimi’s Edit was officially launched in September 2018 by Preet. Whilst she had always been creative and interested in fashion, it wasn’t until she had to leave her job in 2017 that she decided to take a risk. Unfortunately, her son had been diagnosed with leukaemia, and after a year of chemotherapy, she picked up the courage to start Mimi’s Edit.

Since then, Mimi’s Edit has only gone from strength to strength – acting as a hub of stylish clothing and designer style accessories out of the ordinary. In addition, she has also created the ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’ charity sweater, which is a completely not for profit product that raises money for the North England children research charity. A perfect piece for lounging around the house in and one that supports an incredible cause? Yes, please!

What About This

This Sunderland based fashion brand was set up by Laura Middleton, back in 2015. As a mum, she felt that the fashion market had a gap that needed to be filled: stylish clothing that’s both affordable and appropriate for everyday wear. 

She felt like the high street didn’t cater to people who spend their day running around looking after everyone else but want to look effortlessly stylish whilst doing so. So, she created What About This, and deliberately kept all prices affordable, as she herself understood that life can be expensive but that everyone deserves a treat.

Here are our favourite four pieces from the fashion brand:

Studio Courtenay

Whilst sustainability is a huge topic floating around in the fashion world right now, it is, unfortunately, a brand that is bandied around quite a lot. However, we’re extremely lucky to have the eco-friendly fashion mogul, Louisa Rogers, as she’s created not one but two successful businesses in the North based.

Firstly, we have her first fashion child, Trendlistr, which is home to true vintage womenswear, which is all about curation and colour. However, since the pandemic started, Louisa has created the gorgeous fashion brand, Studio Courtenay, which features her vintage-inspired clothing designs, all of which are made in Britain, too. 

So, if you fancy getting your hand on the North Easts latest (and coolest) fashion venture, here are our top four recommendations:

Lielle Womenswear

Based in Redcar, Lielle Womenswear is co-founded by Natalie and Danielle Futo. After three years of working alongside one another in the fashion industry, where they both mastered the art of designing, manufacturing and retailing, the sisters, full of courage and talent, began their own business venture in June 2017.

Their vision focuses on creating luxury, classic collections, full of modern, contemporary pieces that they believe their target customer will treasure forever. Their main focus is to use their design talent to deliver unique designs to the everyday woman, whilst remaining quality conscious, and manufacturing their garments in Britain.

Here are four of our favourite fashion picks from this extremely talented duo:

Tori Lo

Tori Lo Designs was established in Newcastle, and from a love for all things leather, quality and unique. Tori had worked in the accessories industry for over five years, but soon decided it was time to start up her own business venture. Gathering all of the ideas she had over the years, she felt limited by the very few design opportunities in the North East, and therefore decided she wanted to be a part of the change.

She wanted to cross boundaries within leather work, using fun and creative dying techniques to hand colour every hide – meaning each product is hand-made. This includes every step from cutting and dying, right down to the sewing. She also only uses top-quality veg tan leather and ensures that each stitch is perfectly in place. A completely unique present for a loved one (or yourself).

Here are our favourite accessories from Tori Lo’s collection:

Lily Ella Collection

This Newcastle based fashion brand was established in August 2013, and was the result of founder Zoe Glover, unfortunately, being made redundant from her previous fashion job as a buyer. However, it was during his period that she decided to follow her dreams and act on her lifelong ambition to start her own fashion label. And so, Lily Ella was born – proving an inspiration for even these current testing times.

Lily Ella is aimed at the more mature market; however, Lily Ella has proved to create something so many other brands shy away from. Each design is created with the intention of making the wearer feel fabulous, which is why they place so much emphasis on the fabrics fit and flatter. They only use the highest quality materials and craftsmanship and create ranges from sizes 10 to 26. In essence, they have fashionable pieces for every person.

However, these are our favourite four designs:

DLSB

Next up, we have Newcastle based DLSB, or as it’s more openly known as – Dirty Little Style Bitch. Safe to say that this is one of the more bold, brave and straight-talking fashion brands out there, and is aimed at those who prefer the fun and head-turning side of fashion.

DLSB was created by Shellie, a fashion design graduate. However, after working for numerous fashion brands, she felt she had all of the brand and experience needed to take the leap and start her own – which she has successfully done, as a business that’s eight hours old and counting.

Here are our favourite four pieces from DLSB, all of which are rightly on-trend: