Slow Fashion: Founders Interview with ByElleven

This month at Mindless Mag, we're partnering with Liverpool-based brand, ByElleven, to celebrate our Consumerism Campaign. We're joined by ByElleven today to talk through the brand, their mission, their products, and more! 👏

Mindless: Hi, thanks so much for taking the time to talk about all things By Elleven today! First of all, we'd love to hear all about the business, who you are, what do you do?

By Elleven: Hi! We’re Rachel and Joanne and we’re the founders of By Elleven. We launched our brand in November 2020 during lockdown. We’re a slow fashion brand and therefore we try to make everything we do as sustainable as possible. That includes the fabrics and materials we use which are almost all 100% Organic cotton or from recycled origin and we launch our product in small drops to ensure there is no excess waste. We have a curated Vintage offering which runs alongside our main collection because buying second hand is the best way to shop sustainably! We also have a no plastic policy which means all orders are sent out without any unnecessary plastic packaging, our swing tags are recycled and we use compostable mailer bags.

Mindless: This all sounds so amazing! What’s your story and what sparked the concept behind the brand?

By Elleven: We both come from a fashion background, Rachel is a Fashion Stylist and Joanne is a Fashion consultant with a background is Styling and Buying. We worked together at a large fashion retailer for a number of years and we became very aware of the lack of sustainable brands. The products we were selling had a high price tag but they weren’t made from organic or recycled materials. So we wanted to create something of our own, something that we would be proud to sell that wouldn’t impact the environment in the way that Fast Fashion brands and large retailers do. The basis of our brand is a capsule wardrobe, well made pieces that you can style together easily and that you can wear again and again. “Buy less, wear more often” is a big part of our brand ethos. The pandemic happened and that gave us the time and opportunity to finally do something with our ideas.

Mindless: The work that you’re doing is fantastic and we’re super excited to see more! What’s your biggest goal with By Elleven?

By Elleven: Our goal is to grow to become an internationally recognised brand, but all whilst sticking to our guns and remaining as sustainable as possible. We understand global growth has its limitations as a slow fashion brand, but we’re excited for the challenge!

Mindless: We wish you all the luck in the world! We love your latest collaboration with Lydia Hignett from Intangible Objects! Why is collaboration so important to you?

By Elleven: Collaborating with likeminded individuals and supporting local talent is really important to us, as a small independent business we are part of a community and that community should support one another. It’s also just a great way to inject some fantastic creativity into the brand, from an area that we’re not personally experienced in. So working with an Illustrator like Lydia was great because neither of us can draw so it was really exciting to watch her ideas come together.

Mindless: We'd love to know, what advice would you give to anyone wanting to delve into the world of slow fashion?

By Elleven: We would say just go for it, for us it’s a choice we made but with climate change accelerating like it is, it probably and hopefully won’t be a choice for much longer. All brands will have to make conscious changes to limit their impact to the planet. Also, don’t feel like you have to be “green” in every single part of your life to be able to get involved in slow fashion. Sustainable choices aren’t always possible for everyone. No one is perfect and gets it right 100% of the time, but if we all do our bit and make conscious decisions where possible then hopefully we can make a change.

Mindless: What's something that we perhaps wouldn’t know about consumerism?

By Elleven: This might be something everyone already knows but social media algorithms are fuelling our rampant consumerism, and the gratification we get from shopping is so short lived we chase it like an addiction. Slowing down and making considered purchases is as good for our planet as it is for our mental health, and bank balance!

Mindless: Where can our readers go to get involved in all the fantastic work you do?

By Elleven: You can check out our collection on our website and if you subscribe to our email list then you can keep up to date with what we’re doing. We like to collaborate with interesting people in a Q&A which we send out every couple of weeks, you would hopefully find these an interesting read! Past features are uploaded to our features page on the site. We also attend some local pop up markets where you can come along and chat to us and view the collection in person. We’re hoping to expand these out of Liverpool and into other cities soon.

Fancy working with us? Get in touch at info@mindlessacademy.com ❤️