I’m really not a mail order girl on the whole, but by chance I had signed up to Plumo at some point not giving it too much thought. Then absentmindedly flicking through AW15, I fell madly in love with this faux shearling coat (you’ll have seen it loads on my Insta) and promptly fell in love with everything about Plumo – the fresh but eclectic folk-inspired fashion, the artisan & independent makers, the look and feel of it all…
Just days after I’d bought the coat, the opportunity arose (wonderful serendipity!) to meet the lovely Roth sisters behind the brand, which Esther set up 15 years ago. Over coffee I got to meet Esther and Verena – from Germany but based in London – and find out a little about this wonderfully passionate and creative duo. Here Esther tells us about her background, working with her sister, sourcing products and her favourite AW15 pieces. In Esther’s own words…
The inspiration
“Travelling the world, not wanting to sit in an office working for a big co-operation attending endless board meetings. I have always wanted to run my own business, be independent, trade, be content with what I do and whom I work with. So I decided to set up the business. Mail order was hugely appealing as I did not have to rent a shop or get a retail lease. Even today, I find the business concept hugely liberating as it allows you to move/ relocate the business anywhere you want in the UK, be it a city or countryside. The first catalogue was very small and niche, which was quite a novelty in the 90s. It grew from there with a loyal following of customers that seem to love our eclectic, inimitable style.”
Esther’s background
“I started off working for an old fashioned stock broking company in the City but after a couple of years, I moved into marketing & licensing for an American film company. I really enjoyed it as there was lots of travel. I attended amazing events and met interesting, creative people who were very good at doing business. The marketing and PR skills I gathered have definitely helped me build up the business from nothing and on a tiny budget. After a very brief stint working for a fashion company, I decided to set up my own mail order business.”
Sister act
“My sister, Verena, studied History of Art in Germany and joined the company 10 years ago. She has always been very interested in fashion, art, media and photography. She is a great with a camera and has a fantastic eye so we each bring our own strengths and interests to the table. Verena is the art director and manages graphic design, photoshoots, styling, campaigns, social media and the majority of the product sourcing and buying. I also get involved in buying but deal mostly with managing the day to day running of the business, email marketing and the paperwork. We have unbelievably similar tastes (we always order the same thing in restaurants!) so the dynamic works really well.”
Sourcing product
“We both love Morocco, have shot there quite a few times. We tend to source a lot of products from India, Africa and in Europe, especially France and Spain. Anything can trigger our interest, it could be a newspaper article about a product, artist, designer, an email from nowhere or a local crafts show. We never switch off, are always on the lookout for new objects for our site.”
Key AW 15 pieces
“Our knitted Jack sweaters have been incredibly popular. We now produce them in seven colours and have altered the style into a longer sweater dress. I own several myself and don’t seem to be able to live without them! Our Danish wooden marsh clogs have been huge, they make an outfit look instantly cool and unique – Scandinavian designs featured greatly in our collections. The Mishka coat from Mes Demoiselles has been a sell-out style. It’s a new brand piece for us from France that has been doing incredibly well. Their cuts are deliberately oversized and the yarns and fabrics are soft and sumptuous. Other key pieces are the fake fur jacket/midnight coat from Ganni, a Danish brand, Penelope Chilvers’s Anouk Inuit style boots and knitwear from a small Scottish company whom we have been working with for 16 years now i.e. Pioneer cardigan. We are very loyal towards our suppliers. Once we have established a relationship and they are delivering a good product, we tend to develop and grow the range with them season after season. We like the continuity and the almost old-fashioned relationships we build which makes a difference to how other fast moving fashion businesses can be run.”
A big thankyou to Esther for taking part in this interview– and I hope you enjoy the pictures below, an edit of the current Plumo collection I shot one sunny morning in north London!
