Local Dress Designer Working with Gok Wan
Knaresborough based business Working Wardrobe received another accolade for their range of ladies business and workwear clothing when they were specifically invited to participate with TV personality stylist Gok Wan at his One Size Fits All Show held in Sheffield.
Jackie Pattison, Managing Director explains ‘We worked with Gok Wan last year on two of his Fashion Brunch Club shows and we were thrilled to be asked to participate again this year. Even more exciting for us was the fact that we are now designing and manufacturing our own range of dresses so it was a great show case for the new Capzule range of business appropriate clothing. Ironically we actually manufacture our clothing in Sheffield so it was great to get the chance to model the finished products in our manufacturing base. We’re very proud to say we are a Yorkshire based company from inception to completion.’
The ethos behind Working Wardrobe was borne out of necessity as working in the software market with blue chip clients, Jackie found herself being frustrated with the limited range of business appropriate clothing for ladies.
‘The challenge for ladies in the work place is having clothing that allows you to be feminine but yet business appropriate. Also I had many long days where I could be sitting in the car for hours or getting on and off flights so having clothing that would be forgiving of that environment was essential. Having spent years trawling the high street and internet I realised that there was a gap in the market for this type of clothing – so I decided to launch Working Wardrobe.’
Having traded online for over one year (www.workingwardrobe.com) using stock carefully selected from wholesalers, Jackie quickly realised that the type of garments she wanted to sell weren’t available even in the wholesale market. Having teamed up with Head Designer Sarah Rawling they set about designing a range of dresses using high quality fabrics, designing everything with the working woman in mind and manufacturing every piece in Yorkshire.
Sarah explains ‘A lot of our design and manufacturing focus is on functionality – utilising wrinkle free, machine-washable fabrics and design elements that focus on comfort but also our pieces are timeless, versatile and classic. Sarah goes on to say “in researching our designs we found, from speaking to our customers, one of the biggest issues they faced was incompatibility in sizes – a nightmare when ordering online. Even from the same supplier significant inconsistencies across sizes were found so it was essential for our customers to know if they’d ordered a size 12 from us previously they could order another dress style in the same size safe in the knowledge that it would be a standard and consistent fit. “
Having spent many months creating the design and sourcing fabric, Working Wardrobe’s Capzule Dress range was debuted at Moda at NEC in Birmingham which is the UK’s largest fashion trade event.
The full range of Capzule dresses is available online at www.workingwardrobe.com and through a select number of independent boutiques nationwide. For any retailers interested in becoming a stockist of the Capzule range of dresses visit the Wholesale page at www.workingwardrobe.com.
