START-UP SUCCESS: FIELD & FOUND

From her home in Herefordshire, Victoria Whitfield spends years finessing the designs for her vintage artisan workwear. Her story is a lesson in how you can savour life slowly and still succeed in business

How taking it slow suits Victoria Whitfield’s artisan workwear business

The dungarees have had their final nip and tuck. For four years, they have been under the cutter’s knife: their hips widened, then narrowed; their waist taken out and taken in; their legs lengthened, then shortened. “Our process is pretty long-winded,” says Victoria Whitfield, designer and maker at Field & Found. “I want to make clothes that I’m proud of. I don’t want someone to think they’re too tight or too scratchy, or for them to tear within minutes. I want people to put them on and go, ‘Yeah, I’m going to dig the garden now or make some sourdough.’ I want them to be inspired.”

Victoria and Simon, her husband and business partner, test-run many of the clothes themselves. While Victoria sews, Simon does the accounts, speaks to customers and sends out orders with a handwritten note. Victoria works from a small studio on stilts, just yards from the couple’s cottage on a friend’s Herefordshire farm, while Simon works from the house.

CREATIVE SPACE

Victoria started Field & Found in 2014, after running a business upcycling tweed. A creative child, she had been making clothes since she was seven when she stitched costumes for the family hobby: medieval re-enactment. Later, studying textiles, she made her own clothes from curtains. “Creativity is core for me,” she says, a mannequin behind her. “I’ve never stopped.” Simon came on board in 2019, after a back injury made it difficult for him to continue his own business. He has recently put his carpentry skills – acquired when he was doing up a double-decker bus he lived in – to good use by building Victoria a ten-metre-square studio. The walls, made of reclaimed timber, are insulated with material recycled from old bottles; the windows are from ebay. Swedish military lamps from the 1940s illuminate three workspaces: for the sewing machine, the overlocker (a machine providing an extra layer of stitching to stop fabric fraying) and the ironing board. Their low-wattage bulbs are powered by the sun. Houseplants, a family “obsession”, sit in terracotta plants on shelves. “Having greenery around me,” Victoria says, “makes me feel alive.”

Working from home allows a flexible routine: “We don’t have a strict schedule, but we do have balance.” The couple get up before dawn to get their two sons, Orlie (eight) and Sid (six), ready for school. On a standard day, if they had to pin it down, Victoria then saunters to the studio, while Simon looks after “the homestead”. Having once run a deli-café, he makes them both lunch (yesterday, Pecorino salad with homegrown cherry tomatoes), ensuring Victoria doesn’t overwork. “My work is sewing; my hobby is sewing,” she says. “I used to stay in the studio all day and forget to take a break. I stop now.”

“We have an agreement that whatever needs to be done for the business gets done,” says Simon, who sometimes helps Victoria on the overlocker or attends to the children while she works late. “But the business is here to support our lives. Field & Found is an outlet for our creativity, so that we keep sane, and enables us to live as we do – surrounded by beauty and things we have made

1980s-1990s Childhood

GROWS UP NEAR LUDLOW IN SHROPSHIRE, WHERE SHE LEARNS TO USE HER MUM’S SEWING MACHINE

2002-2005 On the shop floor

WORKS IN A CLOTHES BOUTIQUE IN HEREFORDSHIRE AS SHOP MANAGER AND VISUAL MERCHANDISER, DESIGNING WINDOW DISPLAYS

2005-2008 Seamstress in training

STUDIES TEXTILES AT FALMOUTH UNIVERSITY, WHERE SHE WINS AN AWARD FOR HER EMBROIDERY

2008-2012 Make, do and mend

STARTS PRETTY RUBBISH WITH A FRIEND, UPCYCLING TWEED JACKETS AND TEACHING CHILDREN HOW TO BE CREATIVE WITH FABRIC. IN 2011, SHE GETS TOGETHER WITH SIMON, WHO BUILDS TINY WOODEN HOUSES

2014 Go with the slow

SETS UP FIELD & FOUND, WORKING FROM A ROOM AT THE OLD ELECTRIC SHOP IN HAY-ON-WYE, WHERE SHE ALSO SELLS HER DESIGNS

2019-today The only way is ethical

SIMON JOINS THE BUSINESS, TAKING OVER ADMIN AND ORDERS. A YEAR LATER, HE BUILDS VICTORIA A SOLAR-POWERED STUDIO FROM RECLAIMED WOOD NEAR THEIR COTTAGE

ourselves. We haven’t had to postpone this lifestyle until retirement; we live like this now – and we appreciate it.”

At quieter times, Victoria might take time off to cut a hedge or look for four-leaf clovers with her sons. Sometimes the family go for a walk, their two cats and their Border terrier-patterdale cross in tow. Every evening, they eat together and catch up.

LOOKING THE PART

Victoria’s designs, inspired largely by the “practical but stylish” Land Girl look, appeal to many a maker, baker and gardener. She adds her own flair and takes suggestions from makers living near the couple in the Golden Valley. “It’s a collective process,” Simon says. “We’re creating clothing to fulfil a need.”

Linen comes from Northern Ireland (Victoria’s father is from there); the oilskin from a mill in Bradford (her mother’s family come from the north of England). “Using materials that tie in with our heritage is important to us,” Victoria says. She loves the way the linen tightens in the wash and loosens a bit when you steam it, and revels in how the oilskin gets “its own pattern” as you wear it. “The stories,” Simon adds, “are locked into the fabric.”

Leather, used for strap fasteners (a ‘sycamore’ design inspired by a pair of Simon’s vintage braces), is treated in Devon, although they are about to move production to the farm, where Simon will do some of the work. An army truck he lived in pre-victoria and after the bus will be converted into a workspace for him.

Most sales come through the website, with a selection sold through The Old Electric Shop in nearby Hay-on-wye. Victoria makes up stock when she predicts demand: the ‘Swift’ apron, which she has been making since the start, is popular all year round; linen dungarees take off in early summer. She is always thinking of designs: there are plans for ones just for potters (her mother was a ceramics teacher) and blacksmiths (her stepdad happens to be one). She is hoping to make one for foragers, too.

But there is also value in the versatility of the current range. Simon is championing the ‘Harrier’ half-apron, its water-resistant oilskin reaching down to the ankles. He wears it once a week at a

“I want wearers to say, ‘I’m going to dig the garden now or make some sourdough.’ I want them to be inspired”

campsite in the Black Mountains, where he makes heritage-grain sourdough pizzas, and almost every day for gardening (he grows everything from peas to raspberries).

Many designs are made-to-order to minimise waste, with production taking about two weeks. Where she can, Victoria works on small batches of items together (“I find it really meditative”), cutting several garments before stitching them. She can sew about eight headwraps a day or two pairs of dungarees. Laundering and ironing come later. “It can be challenging being the sole worker, but our life is fluid, so we make it work,” she says.

Field & Found wearers often return to snap up aprons, dungarees and dresses for friends and family, or to buy the same garment for themselves in three different colours. “Our clothes appeal to people of many ages because you can pair them with different things,” says Victoria, who’s wearing homemade scarlet dungarees with a navy top.

Customers like hearing about the process, appreciating that their garment has been crafted to perfection. The effort the couple put into them is picked up, believes Simon. “Those hidden touches are really important,” he says. “Some people wear our clothes like a religious artefact. They put their trust in them. They become attached.” Victoria knows how they feel. “I put a lot of myself into my clothes,” she says. “I want people to enjoy them.”

FIELD & FOUND is offering Country Living readers ten per cent off all orders over £100 during May 2021 using the discount code COUNTRY LIVING SPRING at fieldandfound.com.

“We haven’t had to postpone this lifestyle until retirement”