Interview: Whitstable fashion house And Danu
Whitstable womenswear brand And Danu on capsule wardrobes, working with family and the indie high street
Inspired by the Kent coastline, Whitstable fashion house And Danu is the project of Shelly and Isobel, mother and daughter of the Keeys family.
Taking on a bricks-and-mortar shop in the town’s picturesque Harbour Street, the team are passionate about independent businesses being at the heart of the high street - the family’s Ruskin fashion store has been a Whitstable mainstay since 2014. But while Ruskin sources high-quality brands to stock its rails, And Danu creates its own clothing line. Informed by a passion for clean contemporary lines, the ‘seaside style for the new decade’ is made almost entirely in the UK from responsibly-sourced fabric.
The brand was originally set up as Nula, but a recent rebrand has seen a new lease of life inspired by generations of females of the family.
“... adventurers, artists, performers and businesswomen; we are proud to be the product of a group of women who never compromised on their dreams, and never let society limit them. With this in mind, all our pieces are named for members of our family.”
There is a laidback and wearable style focusing on quality over quantity. There is a zero-waste policy, with scraps and offcuts being made into scrunchies or sent to FibreLab in London to be recycled into new, useful materials.
There is use of low-impact yarns, such as tencel, linen and hemp, as well as deadstock fabrics, diverting materials from going to waste. The brand has also begun collaborating with local artists, commissioning unique pieces to adorn its clothing. Well, with all our favourite fashion boxes ticked, we had to get in touch with Isobel to find out more.
Where did the name come from and why the change from Nula?
We ran into several problems with new brands or businesses starting up since we started with the same or similar name - and several of these were getting bad reviews, but as they didn’t have great SEO or online viability so people were finding us instead, meaning we were getting negative reviews that were nothing to do with us. Then when my sister stepped down to focus on her bakery [Oast in Cliftonville] it seemed like the perfect time for a fresh start. Danu is the Celtic name for Mother Earth, so the fact that our two biggest inspirations as a brand are the strong women in our family and creating sustainable clothing it seemed like a great fit.
What is the ethos behind the brand?
Creating sustainable clothes that have the smallest impact on the planet as possible, both in the way they are made and that you will want to continue to wear them season after season - therefore not creating waste. Our clothes are designed in Whitstable and made just down the road in Margate, so you can’t really get closer than that. We aim to avoid ‘trends’ because we believe that timeless pieces that you will want to keep and re-wear for as long as you can is the best way to be sustainable.
How would you describe the style of clothing?
I design our clothes with the mindset of a capsule wardrobe - I like to keep the colours natural and the shapes classic, with the thought that things can be worn together, as well as with the things you already have in your wardrobe. The more your clothes go with, the more outfits you can make out of the things you own and the less you will feel you need to buy.
How is working with a family member?
I get this question all the time, but honestly I don’t know any different. My parents opened our sister store Ruskin while I was still at uni. I was heavily involved right from the beginning as I was studying fashion at the time and neither of them had a background in fashion, so it was a great insight into the industry for me and I was a big help to them. I continued to travel down from Edinburgh, where I was studying, a few times a year to do the buying. When I graduated, I slipped right into working with them, firstly alongside a fashion internship but then I made the decision to work for Ruskin full-time. So I have been working with my family for 10 years and I love it.
Why have you decided to take the brand into a bricks-and-mortar high street store?
There wasn’t a plan to open bricks and mortar, but I was working in Ruskin when James, of Flory & Black and Duma, who had the unit before and is now our neighbour, came in saying he was thinking of moving and it got me thinking. My sister had just made the decision to step down, so the business was entering a new chapter and units don’t come up on Harbour Street often, so it seemed a little bit like a sign from the universe. Also having had Ruskin for 10 years this June, retail is something I really know, so it seemed like a logical next step in growing the business.
Will you also be looking for stockists of your brand?
Not for our clothes right now as we love being able to produce it all in Margate and this wouldn’t be possible if we started to wholesale our clothes - but I would love to think that in the future we could make this work. We do, however, wholesale our waterproof jewellery and have quite a few stockists now all over the UK and even some in the States - we wholesale our jewellery through a website called Faire.
What is your favourite And Danu piece and why?
I think that because of having Ruskin I come from a different angle when designing. Because my aim has always been to create pieces that will become staples in your wardrobe, I think about what it is that I’m missing from my own and also what customers have said to me is missing from theirs.
I really like to think about what it is that you will reach for time after time. Our Izzy Sweat has become a best-seller for us and I’ve had so many people come in and say they wear it all the time and love it. It’s a really amazing feeling knowing that you have created something with the intention you wanted for it.
How do you choose which artists you will collaborate with on your T-shirts?
Sometimes we have known them personally - the first artist collab we did was with my sister’s sister-in-law Amy Moss, who is an incredible artist - and sometimes it is someone we meet through social media. It’s really lovely to come across smaller local artists that fit both our aesthetic and also our ethos and be able to work with them.
Do you have any brands or shops in Kent you really admire?
So many! I am really proud to be a woman in business, but growing up in Whitstable that never seemed something unusual because the high street is full of incredible businesswomen. Nicky, who has three stores - The Whiting Post, The Clothes Horse and Fig - and who I worked for growing up had one of the first retail spaces on the high street and has really paved the way for Whitstable to become the shopping destination it is now. Then you have Mary-Clare at Frank, Sam at Urbanista, Shanaz at Mosaic and Mary-Jane at Buttercup.
INFO: anddanu.co.uk
