Most of the clothes we wear today are manufactured in the Far East. What happens when you decide to champion creating your clothing brand in the UK?

Today’s guest is Genevieve Sweeney, the founder of her eponymous luxury British knitwear brand. Genevieve designs and manufactures British knitwear for womenswear, menswear, accessories and socks. She champions and celebrates British manufacturing with heritage, craft and innovation in the industry using responsible fibres and sustainable practices. 

Learn more about the process of designing and creating knitwear by hand, and how Genevieve is championing the rediscovery of lost skills. We discuss the importance of slow fashion, and the steps that can be taken to reduce the environmental impact of creating clothes. We also cover the logistics of running a thriving business when you have a young family, and why Genevieve is passionate about developing an apprenticeship scheme for her company.

It’s a wonderful rallying call to the benefits of manufacturing in the UK. 

The Bring Your Product Idea to Life Podcast  - Best Business Podcast Award, Independent Podcast Awards 2023

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Welcome to the bring your product idea to Life podcast.

This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products, or if you'd

like to create your own product to sell. I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product

creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week, I share friendly,

practical advice, as well as inspirational stories from small businesses.

Let's get started.

Hi. Today on the podcast, I'm talking to Genevieve Sweeney. Genevieve is

the founder of her own luxury british knitwear brand.

Genevieve is devoted to championing and celebrating slow fashion,

british manufacturing and sustainable design. I hadn't actually realized

what an artisan craft creating

knitwear was. And Genevieve speaks a lot about the process of designing

and creating knitwear by hand. She talks about

how her knitwear is sustainable, about slow fashion,

and about how she keeps the manufacturing of her knitwear in the

UK and why that is so important to her. So I would love now to

introduce you to Genevieve.

So, hi, Genevieve. Thank you so much for being here. Hi there. Thanks for having

me. So, can we start with you? Please give an introduction to you,

your business and what you sell. Yes, of course. So, I'm Genevieve and I'm

the founder of a luxury british knitwear brand called Genevieve

Sweeney. And so I design and manufacture

british knitwear for women's wear, menswear, accessories and

socks. So I champion and celebrate british

manufacturing with heritage, craft and innovation in the

industry with responsible fibers. That's

amazing. Thank you. And I've got so many follow up questions.

Let's start with talking a bit about being a

knitwear designer. You know, your background and how do you become a knitwear

designer? It's quite niche, definitely. So I.

Yeah, as a lot of people, I knitted as a. From a

young age, from five, but I always knitted secretly

because it wasn't a cool hobby then. So, yeah, I knitted

all my life and I was never kind of ever not

knitting. Even in the car train journeys, I was always knitting. And

when I was doing a Saturday job, when I was about 16, I met a

student who was in her second year of a fashion knitwear

course. And I was like, oh, my gosh, this is it. This is like, my

path is set. So I went to university, Nottingham

Trent, and it was a four year degree

in fashion knitwear. So you learn how to knit

on the machines, you learn kind of all the design concepts

and inspiration, and you also do a year in industry. So

I did a year in London. I worked for

a swatching company where we designed kind of like mini mock

ups. Of designs that were sold so designed

to, like, gosh, like H and M, Abercrombie and Fitch,

kind of all Scandinavia and us. And it was just an amazing

experience of kind of like, understanding my handwriting

and just understanding what other brands were looking for.

So, yes, after I graduated,

I then went on to work for other global brands. So I

went to New York and worked for Rag and Bone and then

Hugo boss in Switzerland, and then came back to London and worked for

Burberry and Lance Scott before setting up my brand.

Well, that's amazing. Thank you. Gosh, you've got so much experience.

Yeah, I packed a lot in, definitely, but, yeah,

I've always loved knitwear and the kind of

the physical process of knitting, so I've. I

always knew I wanted to set up my own brand, but I just had no

clue how to do it in a kind of commercial business, I

guess, or so all my jobs kind of really

taught me the lessons I needed to learn how to design

production. Yeah, kind of learn everything,

which is great. And I'm going to ask what is probably a really stupid

question. So, forgive me, but is knitwear design

about designing how the garment sort of looks and

fits, whether it's a cardigan and whether it has buttons or zip and that kind

of thing, or the design, like the patterns on

it, or is it a bit of both? So it's both. I think

what's really beautiful about knitwear is that you're creating the fabric as well as the

silhouette, so it could be a jacquard,

and so you'll be doing the fashioning of the silhouette as well as the

pattern or the cabling of stitches. So it's a bit

of both, which is really nice. And sometimes it could be like a

much more simple style. But you're showing the beauty of the wall.

Yes, I guess that's what I love about it. You're doing both things at

once. And actually, as you were answering that, I was thinking it makes sense you

would have to do both things at once, really, because I suppose it depends on

the wool you're using, and I'm sure there's so many factors that are involved

in sort of how a piece of knitwear sort of looks on your

body. Yeah. And I think, well, cheap knitwear

will be custom sewn, but obviously, there's a lot of waste with that. And if

you're using a really expensive yarn, you don't want any waste,

and also sustainably, you don't want any waste. So, yeah, so creating the shape

is where that goes. In with the, with yarn as well.

Thank you. And so what inspired you to start your own brand?

So I said, I've always wanted to, but I never

knew what I wanted to say, what I wanted it to be.

And when I moved back to London, I had my own studio,

and I used to buy old machinery from eBay, from

Gumtree, and, yeah,

set them back up again into working order and knit just for

passion, but from buying these machines, I was traveling around the

UK and mainly in Scotland, and the people I was buying these machines from

used to work in the knitwear industry, but lost their jobs when

all production went to the Far east in like the seventies,

eighties. So I met all these incredibly passionate,

talented people who just had this huge love for knitwear

and had no outlet, like, they had no jobs. And it was

like whole communities had completely lost their

jobs, like, overnight. So it was really heartbreaking to

see. So I started doing kind of,

I guess, projects with them where they, I was kind of introducing them

to more modern handwriting and trying

to kind of get them knitting so they had something to show to give to

other brands. And I think the first

kind of project in, I realized that this was the start of my

brand and this is what I wanted to do was really champion these artists,

land across the UK and kind of

revitalize and revive the industry.

That's amazing. Thank you. And so how does that work

now? Are you still working with some of these people that you met all those

years ago? Yeah, yeah, definitely. So I'm still working with some of them.

Some have retired. So I guess the age range of the people

I met were literally like 50 to 80.

It was like ten years ago. So some of them aren't working anymore, but some

of them are. And yeah,

it's from that, obviously. Some. Some of them

only did the knitting. They didn't do the linking or the washing. So I

then had to kind of find this kind of infrastructure around

because some people still could link from home, so people can knit from home. And

then I had to find other factories to do the finishing. And so

I then had to start building this kind of, like, infrastructure and kind of

get all the kind of clogs together, which was really difficult.

And most people kind of like, laughed, laughed, and I told them what

I wanted to do. It took a couple of years, but once it was together,

it worked really well. But I then also started approaching other

small factories, family

run factories might just be like one or two people running it, all kind of

larger factories as well. To then do the knitwear

and the manufacturing or kind of help with the processing of the

washing of this kind of arthrogram pieces?

So what does, if you don't mind me asking? Thank you for explaining that.

What does washing and linking mean? I'm really sorry, but I don't know. It's

all. I know nothing about this. This is so interesting. So I know

nothing about it. So when

the jumpers are knitted, they're knitted in panels, and then the linking is

the kind of construction of it. So they're putting the seams together, putting

the collars on, and then the washing of it

can be really, really skilled. If you're washing something like

cashmere, the knowledge is just

incredible that they just know by kind of like, hand feel. And if you wash

it like 2 seconds too. Too much, that's it. It's gone. It's

ruined. And so that's kind of really key. And in Scotland,

they just know just the perfect way to wash it. And they don't wash it

in a super soft way because then it pills. You get

all those kind of like, bumps on them, all the bubbles. So

they wash it in a kind of

less kind of soft way. That means that you then break it in. So when

you wear it, it kind of gently softens on your body and you

don't get any pilling. And it just lasts for like 20

years, like 30 years. It is incredible. And it's just that knowledge

is just really hard to find. And the link is as well. It's

really a skill that's massively disappeared. There's not many people doing

it. And now modern technology is coming in with,

like, whole garment knitted machine.

So, like, the whole garment is knitted in one, like no seams or anything. So

then the link is not needed anymore. So that's a real shame.

So, yeah, that's where I'm kind of really

wanting to kind of help revitalize is to keep these skills here and keep that

knowledge here. That's amazing. And so,

okay, so from understanding, you have people who work for you, who do the knitting,

and other people who might do linking and other people who might do washing.

That sounds like, logistically quite, quite a

challenge. Yeah, it can be. And at

one point, it was kind of

very challenging because obviously people are different

ages and have, I don't know, family commitments. Sometimes that can be

quite hard, which is why I try and keep then kind of take,

if a kind of chain breaks, I guess I then have the kind

of factory to be able to do it there as well.

That's amazing. And so, yeah, I'm.

Yeah, I'm just really quite fascinated by how you've put together

this model and I think it's amazing. And I know that you're such a champion

of british manufacturing and I guess this is really,

really demonstrates that. Yeah,

yeah, it's. Yeah. So in my studio, I've got

kind of some of the machines that you would use for the linking. I've

got three of them here. So I do some of the linking and one of

my goals for this year is to start an apprenticeship, to teach.

To teach linking here as well. So,

yeah, it's nothing. I think we do a lot of tours here in my

studio on the site that. I mean, like a

heritage craft site. So there's lots of other creatives here as well and we do

a tour once a month and it's just amazing to be able to show people

how these machines work, what they do, and it kind of helps, kind

of, I don't know, build that understanding of the

complexity of manufacturing and the importance of

it. And even though that you're using the machines, it

still feels like a very sort of intensive process, as in, there is still

a person involved. Is that. Is that right? Yeah. So it's

still. It's a kind of. It's like a dial with lots of

points for the linking and someone still has to put

every stitch onto each point. So it is still

led by hand, which is. Yeah, which is really

beautiful. Really beautiful. I love watching. It's one of those kind of

really hypnotic things to watch.

It feels like a real skill. It is, it really is.

And it's also a really well paid job, like in Scotland,

you could. It's a very highly paid. Well, well

paid job, especially in Scotland, where

sought after. That's so interesting. And I'm assuming, though, that

despite being well paid in a skill and skill, there aren't that many

people in these roles, as you say, that some of

the. Some of the fact. I'm sure there are factories abroad, as you say, who

are knitting whole garments for machines now with very little

human intervention. So it's really great all you're doing to kind

of encourage people just to still do this. Yeah,

yeah. And a lot of factories stopped doing the apprenticeships because

they would train someone up and then another factory would come along and kind of

pinch, you know, poach them. So then that kind of stopped,

that kind of passing on to another generation and.

Yeah, so, yeah, that's, I guess, where we kind of,

like, got a little bit stuck in this industry with

the teaching. So, yeah, it sounds like there aren't that many new

people coming up and learning these skills. Yeah, yeah. But when you

do, like, I went to Scotland about

nine months ago and I was speaking to a young girl who

was 18 19 and

learning how to link and she was so proud of what? Of her skill and

what she was doing and it was just like, just so wonderful to sit there

and like talk to her and just kind of really feel her passion and

energy for him. That's amazing. And talk to us a little bit

about your apprenticeship. I think you're the first person I've spoken to who's

doing any kind of apprenticeship scheme. So do you have any ideas

now on how that will work? I'm still

kind of putting it all together because I need to. I'm trying to get

investment for a machine to be able to do the knitting here as well

as the linking. But I'm speaking to

quest at the moment and, yeah,

I'm hoping that it will be together by November time.

I'm hoping that. I've just moved into my studio space

about six months ago. So it's great to kind of have the dedicated

space for it. So it's kind of like, yes, taking small steps at a

time. That's such a wonderful thing to be able to offer.

Yeah, well, I feel that, like, I don't

know, governments don't really help too much with

the kind of issue that the British manufacturing is disappearing. And I

felt like if I don't do something about it, no one will. And that's

kind of how, how I feel about it. For small

businesses, you either have to work with a factory in the UK with huge

minimums or you're working quite a small scale, but it's very slow.

So it's very hard. Yeah, it's very hard to scale

as a small business with those kind of two options. So I feel

that the more kind of experience that comes

into the industry, the kind of more flexible it'll become.

Yeah. And then the better it will be for everyone in the industry as well.

Exactly, yeah. Well, I know that you're such a

champion of British manufacturing, but I know some of the other things you champion

are slow fashion and sustainable design. So do you want to talk

to us about that a bit? Yes. Yeah. So when I

started my brand, it was kind of slow. Fashion wasn't really talked about,

but it was really the kind of pillars of my business.

I'd worked in the fashion industry for about

ten years and was just generally shocked by

just the kind of things that were kind of generally acceptable.

Like you had a colour swatch and someone would expect

that colour swatch to be sent to china within 24 hours and for it to

be reviewed. And you're just thinking that's just a crazy amount of air miles

and just ordering huge minimums because it was just the standard

of what businesses did and kind of not, not really thinking

about you're ordering tens of thousands of pieces,

not kind of expecting to sell it and it going to an outlet store.

So I was just really shocked by the kind of, yeah, mass

overproduction, just the waste of energy

and materials. So it kind of really.

I guess. I guess it really affected me. And so when I started my

business, I just didn't want anything to do with that and kind of set

that, you know, so I wanted to work locally so

I could have less carbon footprint and also to

be close to my manufacturers. So if there was anything wrong or

if, you know, there needs to be changes made, I could be there quite

quickly and not have to have kind of like, I don't know, like a

prototype going backwards and forwards for three months across

the world and. Yeah, and then

also working with responsible wool and

responsible fibers. I've always

been very aware of animal welfare and how

the land is cared for. So I work with really amazing

mills that really kind of respect and

care for the welfare of the animals and the land they graze on.

So all the yarn I work with is certified

and. Yeah, and yeah, really kind of

fantastic mills that even when you go and visit them in the factory, they

all run by solar panels, they kind of collect all the

dust of the cotton and turn that into paper for their office. And it's just,

they do really incredible things. All the water is

all recycled and used again for agriculture. So

kind of everyone really cares about each part of their

process. That's amazing. And actually, I didn't know that some of

those things were even possible. So turning the dust into paper, that's

just. That's bloke my mind a little bit.

Yeah, no, it's amazing. It was a cotton mill, so I guess it does kind

of go, when it's spinning and being twisted, it does kind of go into the

air. And I don't think it's like a bad enough for you to breathe

and for it to affect you, but they do kind of extract it up and

it goes into this paper making facility. It's

fantastic. And it's those small things like I

find it's really important to go and see where you make your product,

where your raw materials come from, because

you learn kind of each process and you can see kind

of like the good or the bad for doing. I guess it's both. And you

have a better understanding of your products from start to

finish. Yeah, that makes absolute sense. And I can see as

well that you, you know, you, because you're.

The process of creating your products is, you know, there are all these

pieces. I think it must be even more important that you know

each piece, you know really well so that you

can tie it all together. Yes. Yeah, definitely.

Like, I feel like to be able to confidently say that

you create a sustainable design, you have to make sure that it's sustainable from

the start to the finish as well. So I do

use all kind of natural

fibers and I do use some sparkly yarns, but they're

all

se certified or recycled.

So even the kind of ones that aren't very natural, they

all are certified and kind of. Yeah. And

made from these factories that kind of do fantastic things to

like the solar panels and the recycling of the fibres.

And I think what's great is that you're so close to everything that you know

all of this. Yeah, yeah. I mean, my happy place is

being in the factory, whether it's knitting or in the yard mill. I love it.

I love being around the people that make it all. But I

think that's really good because I think it could be know, I think a lot

of us want to be doing, want to be doing good. But I think what's

really nice is you're so close to every part of your business that you, you

know, all of these small details, which I think can be

not lost. But I think, you know what I'm saying, that

sometimes, you know, you might find a manufacturer, but how deep are you actually looking

into them, if you see what I mean? How much do you really know about

their business? Yeah, no, definitely. And also, like, when

you go and see them regularly and you have a cup of tea, you kind

of learn, you know, how the staff are, how they're, you

know, how they're looked after. It's those kind of small things I think are really

important. You learn much more from that than you

do like an audit form. But I completely understand if you

manufacture, you know, far away, it's quite. It's hard, it's

harder to go and see. But I guess that's what's really amazing about manufacturing the

UK is that you are so close and I think it's. Amazing you've

been able to do that as well because I know for lots of people that

is the dream, to be able to manufacture in the UK, but for

know, certain products or product types, it's just not possible. So I think

it's such an advantage to be able to do that as well and be so

close to it all. Yeah, no, definitely.

And I'd love to sort of pivot slightly, if that's okay, and talk

about how you found building your business around a young family, because

I'm, I think I'm right in saying your children are still really young.

Yes. You've got your studio, you're running your business,

you're doing a lot. How have you managed

that? Yeah, it's not

easy. I've got an 18 month old and a four year old,

and they've just grown up with

two family businesses. My husband has a business in Quiddo, I

guess, just what they've grown up with. But Hester, my eldest, was born

three days into lockdown, so it was kind of

unusual. And then carrying on working as well. So

he basically had the first year of his life in my stock room and

not doing much else. So he's not too, he's not too

induced by socks or knitwear. But Hugo, obviously,

because he was born outside of lockdown, he's had a great, like, experience.

He's been to the factories, he's been on photo shoots, and he's really kind of

seen the fun side of it. But, yeah, it is

really hard. I didn't have the time to leave for either, so I was kind

of back at work after a couple of days. But, but

I guess with it being your own business, you can

take to do it your own time. Like, you know, I don't, I don't have

anyone to kind of, you know, telling me what to do or,

you know, if my deadlines, me pushing, that's been me pushing. And luckily,

my, my knitters were all really, really supportive and

kind of really helped me kind of keep things

ticking along in the background. And I've got an amazing assistant that helped

as well, kind of keep, keep things ticking. So I definitely had,

yeah, I couldn't have done it without all of them, but it was challenging at

times, that's for sure. Yeah, it sounds. And, yeah, I didn't realize

you didn't get any maternity leave, so that's, that's quite a big ask

to have to have a baby, particularly when you had your first, and then to

just keep going because it's such a huge life change.

Yeah, definitely. But I guess I think also, because it was Covid, it

was probably quite nice to have the distraction of both.

I think that was probably quite needed, so.

Yeah, it was. But I do have a really fond

memory of Heston being. I think he was like four days old

and we kind of had this kind of conveyor belt of packing, my

husband and I, and estimates kind of like laying there asleep. And it is a

really fond memory of kind of moments like that.

And, yeah, they come most weekends they're here at the studio, but

they now they kind of start to make a bit more of a mess and

there's cars everywhere. But it's good. It's a good balance.

No, it is. And as you say, the great thing about, I think, creating a,

selling products particularly, is that you don't really have to be

anywhere at any particular time and there aren't really any

deadlines. It doesn't really matter if you're packing orders to go out at

00 in the morning or 10:00 at night. I think there is a lot of

flexibility. Yeah, no, definitely. And I do kind

of share the scene behind the scenes in my life. So

I think a lot of my customers are aware that I have kids, so they're

generally quite relaxed with things like that.

And also because I do show the kind of behind the

scenes, they see everything from the making and then the kind of

studio life as well. So, yeah, it works well. And I think

it's nice as well for the children to see what you're doing because

I started my first business when my youngest was about

six weeks old because they still, as you know, they still sleep quite a

lot and doing things in nap times.

And I think I actually really like the fact that both my children see me

whack and know what I do and have an understanding of what I do. And,

yeah, I just quite, I just quite like that, that I'm not disappearing somewhere

every day and then coming back and, you know, it feels like just

part of our lives. And I do really like that. Yeah,

definitely. I think seeing them, seeing that process, isn't it like

they, like, I don't know, they see a cone of yarn and then they see

it something and then they seeing it being packed and then I might show them

a picture of a customer wearing it. And it's. Yeah, it's that understanding of, like,

I find it really important understanding that something is made. It's not

just bought in a shop. And it's. Yeah, I'm trying

to kind of teach that with food as well. We're trying to grow vegetables.

I'm not very good at gardening, but I'm trying. But I guess it's that kind

of understanding that there's a process, isn't there people involved within

it? Yeah. And I think you're right. That is really important.

So thank you for all you've shared so far. Genevieve, I have one final question,

which I ask everybody, which is, what would your number one piece of

advice be for other product creators? And

so my number one piece of advice is to kind

of. I find it really important to have friends that

are founders, other business makers. And one thing that

me and a few friends are doing is sharing our

highs. And so we have a kind of WhatsApp thread, and they could

be something so mundane to like family and

friends, but to you, as a business owner, it means a lot. It could be

something that you've worked out, a logistical solution, or

you've won an account, or you've sold something that wasn't working before. And

it's. I just find it so amazing to have this thread with my kind of

other founder friends. And when you're having quite a low moment, it's

just amazing to look back at it and think, oh, well, what I've achieved, you

know, the small and the big things. So I just found that really

important and gained a lot from it. That's really nice. And I

think it's also really nice because you're all celebrating each other's success as well.

And while it might be sometimes, like a small win, sometimes those

are the ones that are even more important, because I think, hopefully,

lots of us are good at celebrating the big things that happen, but

sometimes the small things, you just kind of. They just happen.

And maybe you tell someone, but

you know what I mean? It could be really easy just to overlook those things

are how nice that you've got a record of it as well, that you could

go back and say, oh, look at all these things I did last year or

last month, whatever. Do you think that's really good? Yeah, definitely.

And, like, you know, as a small business owner, like,

sometimes your friends don't get it. Like, or your family don't get it. But to

have people that understand, yeah, the smallest of wins is. I think

it's brilliant. I think that's amazing. Thank you. And thank you so much, everything

you've shared. No, thank you very much for having me.

Thank you so much for listening. Right to the end of this episode, do remember

that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources on my

website, vickiwineberg.com. please do remember to rate and review

this episode if you've enjoyed it, and also share it with a friend who you

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