Hi, I’m Louise
I've always been a maker at heart. As a girl I'd spend hours with my fashion wheel, glued to The Clothes Show. But it was never really the catwalk that caught me. It was the makers: the knitters, the weavers, the hands behind the cloth.
That fascination took me to college to study textiles, surface pattern and fashion design, then on to university for fashion design. Along the way I lost whole days at the V&A, the Gallery of Costume at Platt Fields and the Pre-Raphaelite rooms at Manchester Art Gallery. Klimt, and the iconic prints that defined their eras, still shape everything I make.
While studying, I worked part time for Laura Ashley, and it left a lasting mark on my design eye. It's also where I landed my first job in fashion buying and design.
From there came 20 years on the high street, at House of Fraser, Arcadia, Matalan and Peacocks. The job took me around the world, into factories in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and China, where I saw first-hand how most of our clothes are made, and the people who make them. I learnt so much, but every season took me further from the thing I loved most: the magic and wonder of making.
So at 35, I walked away, determined to make clothes in a completely different way: slowly, intentionally by hand, from cloth that already exists.
What followed was a road of rediscovery. I went back to the workbench and honed my pattern cutting, sewing and hand-stitching into the craft you see today. Every Hera Vintage piece is cut, restored and stitched by my own hands, in my studio in Whaley Bridge, in the Peak District.
Many hands, many lifetimes
I work only with vintage and antique textiles: quilts and embroideries made by real people, for the people they loved. Many were pieced together from grain sacks, worn-out work clothes and cherished scraps, from a time when every inch of fabric mattered.
I truly believe these textiles hold an energy that mass-produced clothing simply doesn't. The intention behind the make, and the love stitched into it, stays in the cloth. My role is to take that energy and carry it on.
Garments as talismans
Folklore, magic and the unseen energy that things hold have always guided how I design and make. So as I restore each piece, I add my own intention to it:
Plant-dyed sashiko, where the rhythm of the needle becomes a quiet meditation
Three-fold knot blessings worked into the hand quilting
Protection beads I make from rowan and other sacred woods, sewn into the openings of each garment, where old lore says protection is needed most
Although my pieces are undoubtedly beautiful they are not about status or how they look from the outside. They're about how they make you feel: protected, grounded and connected to the long line of makers who came before you.
Past, present and future.
Louise x
Our ethos is that of sustainability and beauty.
Our garments are made from recycled textiles, made in Whaley Bridge, England.
All of our pieces are designed with future proofing in mind; they are dual sized so if you go up or down a few dress sizes your piece will still fit you.
They are unique; no one else will ever have the same piece as you. Yes there are sisters amongst the collection, but they are not identical.