A BUSINESS owner from Hagley has seen her small knitting brand gain national attention after one of her creations was worn on a hit BBC TV show.
Lauren Aston said her business ‘soared’ after TV presenter Claudia Winkleman wore one of her jumpers on The Traitors.
She said the opportunity came unexpectedly when an email landed in the business inbox in May 2023 from the show’s styling team.
“The email just dropped in, and they said they were doing some fittings with Claudia and would we mind sending things for her to try,” she said.
“We sent anything that they wanted and then found out she’d be wearing some scarves and the green jumper on series two when it aired.”
At the time, she did not anticipate how big the impact would be.
“We didn’t really know what to expect and certainly didn’t realise it would go as bonkers as it did,” she said.
The moment of confirmation came on the morning the episode aired in January 2024, when Winkleman’s stylist tagged the business on social media.
“From the moment we were tagged, that was it, the website started really picking up and people just started ordering those jumpers,” she said.
“It just went absolutely nuts.”
The business, which specialises in knitting kits, patterns and hand-knitted commissions, saw a dramatic increase in demand.
Previously, around 10 to 12 commissioned jumpers were sold each year, but within a day of the episode airing, annual sales had been surpassed.
“We ended up with 100 commissions after about a month,” she said.
She added that seeing her designs on screen was ‘so exciting’, with a team of around 10 staff celebrating the moment together online.
The entrepreneur set up her knitting business around 15 years ago after moving to Devon with her husband for work.
The company still operates from a shop in Exeter, but she and her family moved to Hagley three years ago, where she currently lives.
She hopes the exposure will continue to inspire more people to take up knitting.
“Our passion is helping people learn to knit and making it fun and accessible,” she said.
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