ATOM LABEL - Focus Jo & Steven Louther

"Fashion and Beauty: Jo and Steven Lowther are partners in fashion, design and manufacture.

It has been over a decade since Huddersfield fashion designer Jo Lackenby began selling one-off handbags from a market stall.

IT ALL began with a small business, designing and making individual handbags from offcuts of soft leathers and fabrics.

For textile design graduate Jo Lackenby, it was a way to earn a living.

And it was all going very well. Jolaby, as she called her label, was rapidly acquiring a fan base.

Jo says: “I had a place at the Leeds Corn Exchange designer’s market.  I’d spend part of the week making and three days selling. I was doing all right.”

And then in 2008, the historic building underwent a major refurbishment and the small traders and niche businesses that had flourished there found themselves without a home.

Undaunted, Jo decided to open her own shop, but this time in Huddersfield where her partner at the time, Steven Lowther lived.

Today, Dare, a small boutique near their home in Kirkburton, is just one part of the fashion empire that they have built together.

Jo designs seasonal ranges of women’s clothing – from special occasion dresses and statement pieces to coats.  Many of them have a distinctive sculptural style that make Jolaby dresses instantly recognisable.

The garments are created by draping the fabric over a form rather than with lots of tailored pattern pieces.”

Production of Jolaby garments now runs to thousands of items a year and her designs are sold in shops all over the UK and Ireland and even in far-flung locations such as Rome, Dubai and Kuwait.

One of the great selling points of Jolaby designs is that many are one size and belted at the waist with a removable sash, thereby fitting all shapes and sizes. It is a style that, it would be fair to say, has attracted imitators because of its flexibility and wearability.

While Jo began her business as the sole designer and maker, the company – that is based in the Ray Street enterprise centre in Huddersfield – now employs three full-time staff and a part-timer and garments are manufactured at a factory in Leeds, given over solely to Jolaby production.

Steven has been on board since 2008, when he gave up a job in specialist car sales to join Jo.

It is this partnership of Steven’s sales background and Jo’s creativity that they believe has been responsible for their success while so many other designers fail to realise their ambitions.

“I had been selling my handbags direct, but when Steven came on board we went down the wholesale route,” said Jo.  “We launched the first clothing collection in 2009 and it took off straight away.  We took it to trade shows and introduced ourselves to shops.

“The biggest obstacle that a lot of designers have is that they are not sales people.  They might have the most amazing product, but the road to market is difficult.”

Steven believes that perseverance is another quality needed by entrepreneurs.

“It’s all about not giving up when you are faced with a challenging situation,” he said.

Jolaby clothing began as a label for younger women but Jo soon realised that her versatile designs, which cost from £120 to £150, were also appealing to the over- 40s. She then launched another collection, Atom Label that features sleek, fitted dresses and jumpsuits.

“The one-size dresses are tailored around a realistic woman who doesn’t want to show off too much – like her back or the tops of her knees, for example. The dresses can hide the parts women want to conceal.  But the Atom label dresses are for women who want to show off their figure,” she explained.

“We don’t sell them to anyone else now,” says Steven, although a second boutique is in the pipeline.

Jo works one season ahead, designing collections of up to 120 garments. Over the years she has had to learn the intricacies of running a business as well as fashion design skills.  Jo and Steven said that having their own company is more than a full-time job.

“It’s never going to be a nine to five business,” says Jo.  “We find that we have to book our summer holidays at the beginning of the year or it gets to September and we realise we haven’t been anywhere.

“But the rewards and satisfaction we get are not just financial. You get a buzz out of achieving something.”