Araminta Campbell On Her Textiles Inspired By The Scottish Landscape

2 years ago

Araminta Campbell is a Great British Brand 2023

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Araminta Campbell On Her Textiles Inspired By The Scottish Landscape

Araminta Campbell is an entry in our Great British Brands 2023 book.

Araminta Campbell: Great British Brand 2023

‘Our brand is about relationships – with the alpaca breeders, the mills, the weavers and our customers – and when the pandemic struck we lost some of that personal connection. While our website offers a peek at what we do, the window to our business will always be our atelier, where we offer a unique private shopping experience: customers can see pieces being crafted, meet the weavers, touch the yarn and view each of our collections. One of our greatest achievements over the last two years was moving to our beautiful new atelier. Everything we do is inspired by the Scottish landscape and the move has been about creating somewhere that truly encapsulates the brand. The response to the new atelier has been exceptional, not just from domestic visitors but also those coming from overseas. In a world where bigger is better – more stores seem to equate to greater success – we are proud to remain committed to our ethos and values of connection, place, authenticity, people and provenance. I’m also very proud of several new important partnerships. We designed the tartan for one of the private rooms at The Audley, Artfarm’s pub in Mayfair. We also collaborated with Vacheron Constantin’s Edinburgh boutique.

‘We experienced a boom of orders in 2022 and if we see a similar boom this year, we will be at full capacity. One of the main challenges is that hand weaving is a slow process. I’m planning to increase the number of weavers we employ but it’s a highly skilled job and takes 12 months of training for weavers to be fully independent. I’m hoping to start an apprenticeship programme within the next five years that would help, but we don’t want the business to grow too quickly. We make beautiful one-off pieces and will never want to produce thousands of them.’ Araminta Birse-Stewart, founder and Creative Director.

Brand Timeline

2014

Inspired by the Scottish landscape and its heritage crafts, Araminta Campbell founds the textile brand.

2016

The brands ‘SIGNATURE’ collection launches alongside its CUSTOM service for private and corporate clients.

2017

The ‘MINTA’ collection launches and The Fife Arms showcases its new designs by Araminta Campbell.

2021

Fortnum & Mason unveils its brand tartan by Araminta Campbell and the ‘HERITAGE’ collection launches.

2022

Araminta Campbell moves to Duddingston, its flagship atelier on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

DID YOU KNOW?

All of the brand’s textiles are made in Scotland, the country that inspired their design.
Pieces are made entirely by hand, with each one taking up to three weeks to make.
A hundred percent of the brand’s alpaca fleeces are carefully sourced from British breeders. It works with select breeders to ensure the welfare of alpaca and workers alike.
There are 22 natural colours of alpaca fleece and the brand’s.
The brand knows the name of every alpaca whose fleece goes into making its handwoven pieces.