Into the world of Merchant and Mills

After being repeatedly stopped in the streets and by ‘strangers on trains’ asking ‘where did you get that from?’ about her handmade clothes, Carolyn Denham decided it was time to start making her coveted designs available to the public.

But rather than producing the items herself, Carolyn decided to go about it in a different way.

“I just thought people are sewing again, why don’t I make the patterns?” she reveals.

The idea was initially conceived in 2000 after Carolyn moved back to the UK after working in fashion design in New York and Italy.

“I had this idea of doing dress patterns and selling fabric and people could make it themselves,” she says.

“Everybody was like ‘oh that’s such a stupid idea, nobody sews anymore’.

“So I thought, that’s true, I sew but I don’t know that anybody else does”.

However, after noticing a resurgence in sewing in 2010 Carolyn founded Merchant and Mills.

Upon announcing that she was going to set up her business, Carolyn says she ‘got the maximum amount of discouragement you could possibly get from everybody’ with people saying it was a ‘terrible idea’, ‘was never going to work’ and that she would ‘spend too much money on it’.

However, with some invaluable advice from a previous boss, who said ‘Carolyn, if it doesn’t work, you’ll just do something else’, she and her partner Roderick, a photographer, decided to go for it.

“I give Roderick a set of ideas, fonts, layouts, inspiration, then he works his magic on them to produce the amazing packaging,” she explains.

The packaging reflects the Merchant and Mills look, which is modern but traditional, clean and practical. Something which Carolyn recognises as ‘her style’ adding ‘I’ve always had that utilitarian, no-fuss vibe’.

Carolyn designed the company for herself, with the hope that other people would understand and like that style, which has proved to be a great success.

As well as her style, she ‘wanted to sell [her] own experience of making clothes’.