Has cashmere always been the fashion industry’s caviar? Especially this holiday season, the shops are lousy with the stuff. Four-figure cardigans, water-bottle covers, even socks painstakingly sized for newborns—it’s all completely fabulous until it accidentally ends up in the wash. (Or, heaven forbid, a moth-infested closet.)
Perhaps that’s why, in stylish circles, everyone is talking about the wool sweaters from &Daughter. The London-based brand was founded in 2013, but now it’s a thing. A pandemic-era fascination with coziness is part of it; so is our growing allegiance to sustainably produced everything, especially when such things are accompanied by the word “heritage.”
It all sounds trendy, but &Daughter founder Buffy Reid is anything but, and proud of it. A fashion-industry veteran, the native Londoner studied at Central Saint Martins before spending the first decade of her career on the design team at Gap. “I always like to caveat that it was in the early noughts, when Gap was quite a different proposition,” she says. There, she learned the art of the basic: the importance of scale and silhouette and how a stitch or seam can break, or make, a garment.
When Reid decided to strike out on her own, she called her father, but not for the reasons one might expect. Columba Reid was also in the business, producing private-label Donegal tweeds and Aran knitwear from his home, on Ireland’s western coast, for Bergdorf Goodman and Nordstrom. “I cajoled my dad into it, and we got in the car and visited all his old factories,” says Reid. “British and Irish knitwear was kind of in decline, because it was a time when a lot of [brands] had moved their manufacturing abroad.... So a lot of those makers were winding down or weren’t doing much.”
She learned the art of the basic: the importance of scale and silhouette and how a stitch or seam can break, or make, a garment.
The Reids saw an opportunity, and &Daughter was born. It began as a capsule collection of 10 essentials, mostly slightly updated and tweaked classics—crewnecks, V-necks, and cardigans—made from wool (and, yes, a bit of cashmere) spun from sheep who live on a nature reserve near Loch Leven, in Scotland. The wool is taken to the Todd & Duncan mill, which uses environmentally friendly washing practices and pure Scottish water to spin soft, supple, and strong yarn. The yarn is transported to Ireland, where one of five makers individually knits each piece of the garment, which is then linked and finished by hand.
Remarkably, this whole shebang does not result in $4,000 fisherman’s sweaters; &Daughter’s prices begin at around $400. Now it includes a menswear range as well. The rib-knit zip jackets, slouchy V-necks, cropped high-necks, and polos come in classic colors, along with saturated shades of poppy red, lime green, and “vivid” (almost neon) blue. It’s not rocket science, which is exactly why it works. “We redefine classic pieces, and evolve them as our own tastes evolve,” says Reid. Her growing team at &Daughter’s studio, in the Bermondsey district of southeast London, now includes five other employees, and the United States constitutes about 50 percent of the business.
Fans of the brand—and they are vocal, especially on social media—love the sweaters for their quality, and also their longevity. “My dad always says to me that I wear my knitwear really hard,” says Reid with a laugh. (That’s because she tends to chase around after her young sons, who are soccer-crazy and spend a fair amount of time on the field.)
Today, &Daughter includes a new range of cashmere pieces, but don’t worry—they’re not at all precious. “You can really wear them,” Reid says, “and know they’re still going to be all right.”
Ashley Baker is a Deputy Editor at AIR MAIL and a co-host of the Morning Meeting podcast
