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Inside The Young British Brand Beloved By Meghan Markle

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A shirt to live in, work in, dine in and sleep in – London-based Pip Durrell, a former editor at both Tatler and Vogue, founded With Nothing Underneath as part of her mission to create the perfect button down. Inspired by men’s tailoring but designed for women, Pip uses 100 percent cotton and has the shirts made by hand at a family run, female-only factory in Portugal. The shirts come packaged in a cotton envelope, ensuring the utmost in environmental sustainability at every level. A classic wardrobe item made to last a lifetime, Pip draws inspiration from icons like Carolyn Bessette, Jane Birkin and Charlotte Rampling. And this year, the brand added a new soft and downy brushed cotton to its range – available in a rainbow of cool-girl colours: coffee, navy, oat and sky blue. However, it was not a new launch but a new champion that led to the brand’s meteoric rise. At the end of 2019, Meghan Markle oversaw a behind-the-scenes photoshoot for the charity Smart Works and arrived on set wearing a blue and white striped shirt from WNU, while earlier in the year she visited the Luminary Bakery in North London and wore a white and midnight blue striped poplin shirt.

How did you first setup shop and create the With Nothing Underneath brand? I’ve always been into style over fashion, and it really came about when I was working at Vogue. I needed to be polished and put together and a shirt was always a great ‘uniform’. The idea came about then, and it wasn’t until two years later when I finally thought let’s see if we can make something cool, elegant, ethical and affordable – a piece that really could be for everyone.

What are some of the design elements that define your brand and aesthetic? What sets you apart from your competitors? WNU is still only one shape, which I designed and you know it’s a WNU, not because we have any logos, but because the buttons are on the right, like a men’s shirt. The whole concept of them being a men’s shirt adjusted for women runs throughout – shorter sleeves, neater cuffs, narrower shoulders – but still perfectly oversized.

I use the same materials as a lot of the big fashion houses, but I sell them for a quarter of the price – I said to myself if I can’t make a poplin cotton shirt and sell it for under £100 then there isn’t any point.

What advice do you have for other young entrepreneurs? You have to ride the lows with the highs – and the people you surround yourself with are the most important. I am incredibly lucky that I have amazingly supportive family and friends who are WNU’s biggest cheerleaders. It makes all the difference. And hard work, that’s the crux of it lets be honest!

Talk me through process of design and manufacturing? I have a family run factory in Porto, Portugal where each shirt is made by hand. I have personally met all the women (it is all women!) who work there, and I have a very open and communicative relationship with the owner. It’s all very well saying you are a sustainable brand with an ethical ethos, but this needs to start right at the beginning of the journey – from soil to shelf, so quite literally from growing your natural materials to the methods via which you sell.

When you meet someone at a party, how do you describe what you do?Honestly this is the worst part! I try to avoid the conversation at all costs and then mumble about making shirts.

How have your experiences as a fashion editor impacted what you do now? The eight years I spent in the magazine industry completely shaped me, and as such, the brand as it is today. I would be nowhere without the women I worked under and learnt from – and that hard graft you have to do from the bottom up, that’s essential.

Tell me about the Markle effect? Walk me through that - were you tipped off she was going to wear it? Did she buy it anonymously from the site? And what impact has it had on your brand? I had been contacted by Kensington Palace to say she owned some WNU, but I didn’t know if she would wear it publicly. Yes, it was bought anonymously from the site. The sales were unsurprisingly huge and the global awareness it created is a game changer for a small brand. The Duchess also wrote a handwritten letter to say how much like liked the company’s ethos, which was pretty special.

What are the trends you've picked up on around how people shop for women’s fashion in 2019? I think it’s all about the opposite of a trend or a fad – it’s about understated luxury and conscious consumerism. We need to be smarter about about the way we shop and thoughtful about what it is we are consuming. I also think the idea of unisex clothing is expanding – I hate that word but that focus on clothes that are for both men and women.

How has social media changed what you do? A platform such as Instagram is exactly how a company like WNU is able to get started – I had no budget full stop, let alone for marketing or advertising but Instagram gave me a free public platform to mood board and create this style of lifestyle brand – for all its negatives, social media is an amazing creative outlet for anyone to share their work.

What made you want to start a fashion brand in the first place? It was very organic, I never started it thinking I was creating a ‘brand’ – it really just started with one shirt and went from there… I guess I thought that if I wanted this wardrobe staple then others might too. The philosophy has always been less but better - we should all own less, but better quality things. Invest in timeless pieces that mean more.

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