Behind Dorothy, a one-off and custom New Zealand knitwear label is the mother and daughter duo, Anne and Lucy Aitchison.
Their label began with a single phone call made on a chilly morning in 2017. After seeing a growing number of small, local hand-made businesses on Instagram, Lucy pitched to her mother, Anne, the idea to blend her design background and Anne's prolific knitting skills to create their own label.
"I knew she had always liked the idea of designing clothing and I'd seen the fab piece she'd knitted in the eighties," added Lucy.
Anne had spent her younger years making her own clothing and learning to knit. Despite wanting to studying fashion design, she was instead encouraged to pursue a different career direction. However, making wearable art remained a strong creative outlet for Anne, so when Lucy suggested her idea, she was up to growing a business together.
Their label Dorothy specialises in creating unique knitwear designs, often working with the customer to create something that is uniquely their own. All of their garments are made by hand, by Anne, alongside a couple of her friends who help out from time to time, using ethically-sourced New Zealand mohair wool.
"Hand-knitting for me is such a relaxing and creative process, I love creating things that make people happy. I also cherish that I get to collaborate on something with my daughter through pooling our ideas and employing our individual strengths," noted Anne.
The duo finds inspiration for their designs from a variety of places.
For Lucy, the primary designer for Dorothy, she often gets ideas from her physical landscape, including nature, architecture, art and design.
For Anne, Dorothy's main knitter, she finds inspiration from old knitting books and the colours and textures of the natural yarns used in their garments.
Their advice for anyone who is interested in starting their own fashion business is to utilise Instagram and social media.
"It's an easy way to start small and build a following. It is exciting as it gives anyone who creates the ability to build a brand, with very little financial risk," explained the duo.
Looking forward, they hope to continue creating hand-made and custom pieces for Dorothy's customers.
"Our business is small and I can't see that it would be any other way. Hopefully, people can continue to appreciate knitwear that is made lovingly by hand so that we can keep doing this for years to come," concluded Anne.
