The Interview: Natasha Finch and Lavinia Brennan, Co-Founders of Beulah London

Natasha Finch and Lavinia Brennan Co-founded Beulah London after an eye-opening trip to India in 2009. The pair set out on a mission to “fight slavery through fashion” and in 2010 Beulah was born.

The duo hired the women they met in India, who were rescued from the sex trade, to create the textiles for their clothing brand. The ethical luxury womenswear brand operates with one social mandate in mind: to empower vulnerable women through the business of fashion.

Finch and Brennan told TheIndustry.fashion about their ethical fashion journey, their expansion into brick-and-mortar retail and their future plans for Beulah.

You founded Beulah in 2010 after a trip to India where you taught sewing skills to women who had been rescued from the sex trade, can you tell us about the inspiration for the brand?

Lavinia: Nats and I have been family friends since day one, pretty much. We had this opportunity to go out to India, as you said, and work in Africa with girls who have been rescued from the sex trade. So the two of us went out there and lived in Delhi for two months. In the afternoons, we would spend time teaching women to sew basic products that they could then sell and generate an income for themselves.

We saw how powerful employment was in order to break that cycle of poverty and exploitation and so, in a moment of madness and passion, we decided to create a fashion brand that through our supply chain, we will provide employment opportunities to vulnerable or trafficked women. That's how the brand began and is very much still a driving force and at the heart of what we do today.

Natasha: We started almost 13 years ago now. We kind of set up the business basically from Lavinia's mum's basement and grew the brand very organically. Within the first season or so, we had amazing PR and press. That gave us a bit of a leap, I suppose. We've accelerated the business pretty slowly over the years, mainly direct to consumer, and then we opened a permanent store a few years ago.

Your joint mission has been to “empower vulnerable women through the business of fashion”, how exactly do you do this?

Lavinia: So we have what we call impact partners, which we work with on the ground. These are grassroots organisations that work in developing countries that employ the workers directly.

We have one partner in Calcutta in India that works specifically with women who've been rescued from the sex trade. We have another partner in Bangladesh that works with women from a rural village, whose husbands were massacred in the War of Independence.

We design our collections around their skill set, for example, we incorporate a lot of hand-woven fabrics, embroidery, or screen or block printing into our collections. We manufacture locally in India in a commercial factory, which has been vetted by us.

The business now works with eight partners in five countries, how did you find these partners? Are you looking to expand?

Natasha: For us, it's less about the numbers and more about creating those really good partnerships with different impact partners. It's about making sure that each season we can provide more employment opportunities and so we can order more linens and fabrics that need embroidering. The project that we work with is called Women's Interlinking in Calcutta, and we're having a really good impact on them and they can help us scale and grow.

Lavinia: In terms of how we find them, I think it's just about being tapped into the local community. When speaking with charitable organisations on the ground, they'll often have recommendations of partners to work with. We try and go out to India (pre covid we went twice a year) and we hope that will continue going forward. We use those trips to invest in the relationships with existing partners but also do a bit of research. Whilst we're out there, we look to see if there are any exciting new partners that we can work with that have a different skill set to what our partners already offer.

Can you tell us about the design process, from creating the brand story in London to partnering with seamstresses in the East? Do you prioritise their skill set, or do you come up with the designs first?

Lavinia: We try and prioritise our partners' skill sets. There's a fine balance between prioritising the skill set, but then also producing products that we know there's a demand for, and that is the constant juxtaposition for us. We need to make sure that we've got a commercial business that we can scale, but also have a meaningful and deep impact. That's kind of a constant challenge or question, but we try and start with the skill. Their skill provides the inspiration and then we build the collection around that.

Natasha: A large part of our business is our kind of wool crepes, which are actually manufactured here in East London. The wool is sourced from Italy and it's all RAS certified, so we know where the wolves come from. I think that it is really important for us to also support British manufacturing as well.

Lavinia: For us, it's all about where we can maximise the impact on vulnerable women. We try and make sure that whatever decision we're making, it has the minimal impact on the planet. We have a three-pillar approach to sustainability, which is 'People', 'Planet' and 'Prosperity'.

'Prosperity' is about increasing the impact on marginalised or vulnerable women. Then the other two pillars, we think every business should have, and it is starting to happen. So, 'Planet' is about reducing our impact on the planet and 'People' is about trying to build transparency into our supply chain.

When you launched the business, the concept of “ethical fashion” was still, unfortunately, relatively new.
Was it easy to bring your concept to market?

Natasha: I think we were sort of the pioneers in that, 13 years ago. So, I think our customer really is very loyal. From the start, she has bought into our impact and charity story. But, I think we're seeing a lot more women, asking questions, such as: how were the clothes made and what impact did they have on the environment?

So, yes, I think there's definitely been a shift, which is really positive.

What shift have you seen in terms of sales, as the demand for ethical fashion has risen?

Lavinia: What we've experienced, is that the story is really important and creates loyalty from a customer perspective. But, the product has to stand on its own to generate those sales. So, first and foremost we need to create a beautiful product that fits beautifully and has beautiful quality. The story is then a feel-good onus part of the purchase that then drives loyalty from customers. The two have to sit hand in hand.

Do you think your approach to ethical fashion is one that can be scaled and incorporated into the wider fashion industry?

Lavinia: I think so. What it requires is a complete shift in mindset. I think all areas of the business have to be aligned. For example, there's no point of coming up with these beautiful designs that have maximum impact if production is not on board with the lead times and commercial aren't on board with the price.

It's definitely scalable, but you have to have a culture within the business that is pushing this as a priority. Truthfully speaking, it's a challenge. The production times are much longer, both from a sampling perspective, and then from a production perspective. It can be limiting at times. But then equally, their skill set is important and what's made us stand the test of time.

I think once you find partners that understand your ethics and you work with them for long enough that they then understand your quality requirements, then something really beautiful starts happening.

Natasha: Just to add to that, I think it's really important to also create with impact. For us, it's less about seasons, we say it's about stories. Our collections are transeasonal. So, a dress could be worn with a pair of boots and winter ot with a pair of flats in summer. Our pieces are not going out of fashion, they'll stand the test of time.

You opened a brick-and-mortar store in Chelsea in 2018. Why did you decide to expand into physical retail and are you planning on opening more stores in the future?

Natasha: We did a pop-up on Elizabeth Street, which is where we are now. It's really important for our customers to touch and feel the product because a lot of what we sell are silks and satins. I think it's important for her to be able to experience the brand, but also touch and feel and try on the product. From setting up that pop-up 10 years ago, we've really built up a loyal local clientele within the area. Then we later set up a store around the corner.

Majority of our sales are online, but I do think physical retail is very important for us and our brand. Yes, I think we'd love to set up a second store in the future. Maybe we'll look internationally. Around 20% of our online sales are from the US, so that's definitely an interesting market that we could explore. But, at the moment, it's just about prioritising.

Lavinia: If we were to open a new store in London, Marylebone high street would definitely be an area that we'd look at.

What does the future of Beulah look like?

Lavinia: We're both mums, I recently had a little girl who's five months old, so we're, juggling. Though we've got a fantastic team, it's small. Our focus at the moment is just about prioritising and really diving into what works for us and focusing our efforts on that.

Obviously, we recognise that we need newness for the customer to kind of keep shopping with us, so we've recently launched a collaboration with [swimwear brand] Cossie + Co.

We collaborated on a sweat set and a bikini made from recycled material. It's made from recycled polyamide fabric taken from the sea. With that in mind, we're trying to have meaningful collaborations with a social or environmental impact. I think that's probably exciting news at the moment.

Natasha: Right now, we sell direct-to-consumer and our plan is to look at wholesale channels as well. We're taking it step by step to grow the brand, very slowly, but organically and making sure that the foundations of the business is strong.