Carolyn Denham
I’m a maker; I’m not a designer.
Carolyn Denham’s creation of Merchant & Mills has brought style to the world of sewing.
What set you on the path to find a career that worked for you?
Carolyn. I grew up in a small village in the north of England. My parents weren’t local; mum was from London, and dad was from Gloucestershire. So we were like, what I would call posh poor. We had all the Encyclopedia Britannica, but we didn’t have a record player or a car. So we didn’t have any money to look cool to buy nice clothes as kids. My mum was a great seamstress, so I learned to sew, and as I got older, it was utterly liberating because I could make what I wanted; I’d look cooler than everybody else because I was making things when punk came in and new wave. I looked the business because I could sew. After all, you couldn’t buy those clothes; it was a time when there weren’t the high street brands that there are now; clothing was much more conventional. So the people on the street created fashion.
I studied art at O-Level and A-Level, and I knew this was what I wanted to do; I wanted to be a fashion designer with big ideas of amazing collections in Paris and whatever. So I went on to do a fashion degree, but after I’d finished my degree I wasn’t going to just walk into a passion job, so I took myself off to New York. I was pretty vocal, but at the same time, quite nervous and shy. And I needed to challenge myself, put myself out there in a vulnerable position, and learn not to feel anxious about these things. So I got a job with Anne Klein, an American fashion designer, prominent in the mid-eighties I went in for an interview, and they said to come back for a breakfast meeting at 7:30 am on Monday. But while I was there, I looked around the room, and it was like a model agency. Everybody was perfect, amazingly turned out and just had the right turn of phrase. I thought this was my nightmare, I’m not going to feel at home here. So I didn’t rock up to that breakfast meeting; I realised that I needed to explore different things before going straight into a job and seeing what else was out there. I had a good time; I worked as an artists assistant; I did window displays, costume design, a small collection of dresses and sold them privately. Then, after being in America for maybe four years, I had to decide whether I would commit to living there and maybe doing one particular job or going back to Europe. I wasn’t ready to come back to the UK. So I got offered a job in Italy, working for a company called the Little Italy Family, and I worked for them, it was casual wear, jeans. I worked for many different people, Diesel and Americanino, and I hated it. Everything was going too fast. Everything I designed was like I wanted to grab that piece of paper back off the boss and say, can I work on this some more? No, it’s gone. It’s gone. It is made. We are on to the next season’s collection. I couldn’t sleep at night. So I left the whole fashion industry, and I went and with my partner we renovated a farmhouse and ended up working in a café in the market town. I had a hilarious time; I got to know the Italian culture because I was in the community properly and spoke the language.
After about eight years, I knew it was time to go home to the UK; I thought maybe I could get a job as a postwoman, something less stressful. By that time, I understood design. I love all design disciplines; graphics, architecture, jewellery, fashion the lot, design is fascinating. I love it. But I’m a maker; I’m not a designer. I don’t want to be in that design world. So I got a job at a company that made hand-printed wallpapers and fabrics. A very hands-on job, I did a bit of the design, but my job was the colouring. It was a good place to be; I had the physicality of a job of doing something with my hands, which I loved. After that, I did a project management job in interior design, where I learned a lot.
So, how did the idea of Merchant & Mills develop?
Carolyn. When I came back to the UK in 2000, after being away for 12 years, I told everybody about the idea that I had to open a shop that sold fabric, patterns and finished garments. So you could choose to buy the garments or make them yourself. Well, that went down like a lead balloon; everybody said that is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. So I kind of parked that idea.
I became very ill when working as a project manager; I had a brain haemorrhage. I was on the edge; it could have gone either way sort of thing. I was on the trolley before going in for my brain operation for about half an hour. I felt cold and alone, but I also thought, OK Carolyn, this might be it, they’ve said you’ve got a 30% chance of coming out as a vegetable and a 30% chance of dying. So, you know, it could be curtains. What are you thinking? Well, from where I come from, I’ve certainly done a lot of things that I never thought I would. If I were looking back as an 18-year-old kid, I’d guess that’s all right; that’s not bad. But I’d never really shone, I had worked for other people, and I haven’t put myself out there. So I said to myself, OK, I will do that. I obviously didn’t die and came out absolutely fine. It took a while to recover from the brain injury, but a year later, I was like, here we go.
So, I started working on making patterns and the clothes. At first, I wasn’t sure if it would be a just ready-to-wear collection or the pattern idea. And I decided, no, it will be the pattern thing because that’s what I believe in. I believe in making as a positive activity, you can sit down, start sewing something, and you have removed yourself from that day to day chatter that goes on in your brain. And you can concentrate on that project, and you are somewhere else, not stressed about your whatever.
I launched in 2010 at the Hay Festival, where I was living at the time near Hay-on-Wye; maybe six or eight pieces made up all the different samples for people to try on. I would invite people to try them on, to see if they like them. I worked hard to convince people to make their clothes. I was trying to design my brand to appeal to myself. I wanted the tools to be good and the quality of everything to be excellent. And that is where Merchant & Mills started.
“You start with a creative idea that evolves. It is a company that is different from the original concept. It grows and develops.”
What interests me about sewing is that you can make it your own. When I started, because there wasn’t a skill base that there is now, I made straightforward garments that were easy to make, but you can make that design unique to you by choosing a different fabric, a different length, then that garment is yours. Multiple possibilities; I love that you can have a couple of patterns and make a whole wardrobe from them.
“I’ve never been a fast fashion person; I hate the fast fashion industry, the idea that we need to constantly change and have fashion poking us, saying it is a bit dated. To a certain extent, we are all victims of it, but stop it; we don’t need it.”
Has the look and feel of Merchant & Mills changed?
Carolyn. I had started working on the graphics for Merchant & Mills poorly, then my partner Roderick came in. I had lots of mood boards of how I wanted it to look. Roderick is not a graphic designer; he’s a photographer, but he came in, and I explained what I was trying to achieve; in fact, the files were almost ready to go to the printer. He said, hang on. Roderick is one of those people; if you tell him your vision, he will do something above and beyond with your ideas. The packaging design was an excellent springboard for getting us into the Design Museum and cool places in Milan and Paris. The look of the packaging helped to break that barrier and endorses the whole brand, and meant that Merchant & Mills products were available in very cool places.
There is the initial idea for Merchant & Mills, and where I took it too, as a business person, but then what starts to happen is you employ key people. All the first employees are still with me. Michael Jones has experience in product development, wholesale and retail; he is a crucial member of our team for moving the business forward. Chrissy is a fantastic seamstress; we initially worked together. Having somebody with that skill level helped move things on as well. Michelle is very motivated; she keeps our web presence right up to date. Emma is a proper grafter; she now manages wholesale and Anna is marvellous at managing the retail team. So I think all these people changed the business, key people that have their own vision. It is still Merchant & Mills, with ideas coming in from many creative people, to feed the pot instead of everything coming from me. Which, I’m OK with now; I had been a right little dictator about it all. I had to take a step back and say, I don’t know everything or everybody’s taste. You have to be open to other people’s ideas and want people to thrive in your business. You want them to be able to stretch their legs and make a difference.
Are ecological credentials important to you and your business?
Carolyn. So when I started Merchant & Mills, I didn’t have very much fabric at all; it was almost like a step too far to include that and all the patent developments and everything. But as we’ve grown as a business, so has the fabric side of things. And today, it is probably the most significant part of our business. Once you get to the stage where you can commission specific quantities, you can also decide how your fabric is made. I have two things in mind, price point; I don’t want anything to be out of reach of people. We can be more expensive than other things that are available, but we are offering an excellent quality product. Also, there are so many things in the world, stuff we don’t need, so if I’m going to bring something into the world, it has to have the minimum amount of impact on the planet. And it has to answer a problem, for example, fast fashion. So I feel like I’m offering an alternative to buying stuff on the high street. I’m offering something that I have tried to make as eco as possible. That is organic; it is linen, it is made in Europe. I’ve been to the mills and met the owners, so I have a relationship with them. So that I am knowledgeable about the dyes that they use, how they recycle things, what is their water cleaning system, all these things are part of my responsibility to have the least amount of impact. So that the people making Merchant & Mills clothing have a choice to buy beautiful cloth that has had its eco-credentials examined. So we’re getting better and working at it all the time.
We’ve invested in a camping field, setting up the campsite and rewilding the area. That is something that we’re planning to do more of. We’ll buy little parcels of land and rewild them. Little projects like that use Merchant & Mills money to do something that we believe in.
I want to give the maker the best choice to make their garment, either tools or fabrics. With the sustainability and eco-credentials of our fabrics, I want to give our customers a choice.
Do Merchant & Mills have plans and aspirations for the future?
Carolyn. When we renovated our shop on Tower Street, we set up the mezzanine floor for classes. So people could come to us in a beautiful environment, spend a week attending a class and learn how we think a garment should be made. Katie came to introduce herself to us quite a few years before she started working here. So Katie was one of those people we took on to help do this, and she ended up running the whole thing with Chrissy, who I mentioned earlier. So we honed that offering, and we have people from all over the world, from Alaska, Japan, Australia, Germany, Belgium, wherever you like, come and do a class with Chrissy and Katie. They are such brilliant and skilled teachers. They make sure that when they’ve left, they have a garment to be completely proud of. And now, Elwen has joined that team as well, allowing us to expand and develop.
It’s educational and social; it is lovely to watch everybody learn to sew and go on that journey together, and how supportive people are of each other, it is nonjudgmental and inclusive.
We thought if we could create our own house, we could design it all with Merchant & Mills fabrics, The Grove. So it will be another point of inspiration for people, where they can look around and think, oh I can make a blind, curtains or maybe a bed throw. Perhaps you don’t want to make your clothes, but you want to make something else, and you don’t know how to do those things. So sometimes, it is about just showing people what can be done. So that project is going on now.
“Rye has worked well for Merchant & Mills; when we found the building on Tower Street, we thought this was perfect. It’s easy to get to; you come to this beautiful little town, lovely places to eat, lots of other great shops to visit. We have the sea just down the road; wineries, what’s not to like?”
We have grown a lot over the last few years; we’ve got space in a warehouse, a shop, storage containers. So the next project is we are having a warehouse built at Rye Harbour that will be storage, design studios, packing, dispatch, the whole lot in one place. Again, there are many eco things that we are put into place. So yeah. It’s pretty exciting.
• Feel like making something? Just click this link. Don’t be shy, give it a try!
Merchant & Mills
14a Tower Street, Rye TN31 7AT
merchantandmills.com
01797 227789
Instagram
