Like many, Louisa Tratalos adopted a rescue dog during lockdown, but unlike most of us, this resulted in the founding of a new business, Colours of Arley.
“I grew up in Cheshire, but now live in London, where I work as a photographer,” Louisa says. “I bought a new home and am deep in doing that up. My dad, Adrian and step-mum Neela are the founders of Arley House fabrics, based in Ashley. Neela has worked in the textiles industry for decades and my father a true entrepreneur. They looked at the industry and decided they wanted to cut our the middle man – both design and manufacture beautiful fabrics customers could purchase, to order, in small or large amounts – from just enough for a cushion to sufficient for a hotel lounge.
“While in lockdown I rehomed a terrier, Patch. He came from a rather sorry situation and I wanted to give him a nice new life, so decided to make him a really plush dog bed,” Louisa explains. “I wanted stripes in the colours of my choice, spoke to my dad and he said they don’t do stripes. After a little persuasion, however... I came up with the exact blue I wanted and the exact red I wanted, decided on the width of the stripe and sent it over as artwork and they produced the fabric for me, and I just loved it. All my friends loved it too, and wanted me to make them dog beds too, using their own colour combinations. I’m at the age when we’re all settling down and doing up our own homes, and I did some research and there just aren’t any companies doing bespoke stripes. A lot of companies make stripes, which is of course a classic, but there’s no easy way to find your perfect stripe. I spoke to some interior designer and and learned that they can buy 20 to 25 samples from all different companies and always have to compromise on something, whether that be the colour, the width of the stripe or the fabric, so I decided to create a company that manufactures bespoke stripes.”
Louisa came up with 180 colours, and three widths of stripe – 1cm, 5cm and 10 cm, which she has namd Skinny, Midi and Grand. She then selected the base cloths on which customers can choose to have their stripes printed: a natural cotton/linen blend; a velvet made from recycled polyester; a recycled weave and a recycled linen-look, both made from recycled plastic bottles that would otherwise head to landfill.
“The recycled weave and recycled linen look are by far our customers’ favourite options. The linen-look has a texture and variation that resembles natural linen fibre and is an excellent choice for drapery, while the Weave has a more contemporary feel and is great for upholstery. Both use around 12 plastic bottles per linear metre, which are diverted from landfill and spun into a plain yarn, before we print the customer’s chosen stripes on it.
“Plus, as all the fabrics are made to order in the workshop in Ashley, there’s zero waste on any order.”
With those 180 colours and three widths of stripe, there are 15,000 different stripe and colour combinations that can be made, and it’s very easy to lose oneself putting colours and stripe widths together on the website.
“I know a lot of people might feel intimidated when they see this many colour options, but we have come up with ways to help people choose and created a page on the website to help guide those who aren’t sure which colour combination they should opt for.
“I started with the main colours, looking at what was popular. I did a lot of research on what colours were timeless and everlastingly popular, and of course studied colour trends. There are lots of teals, lots of mustards, lots of neutrals, fresh colours, warm colours... 180 sounds like a lot, but it’s actually quite limited; when you’re looking at all the pinks you can choose from but can only select 10 or 15, it feels very limiting. Getting the colour options right was so important, it’s the foundation for the whole brand. Some of the ones I thought might be too mad for people, like Flamingo, are proving really popular
“And yes, there will be more colours as we grow – like Ben & Jerry’s, we’ll be in constant motion.
“The naming of the colours was really fun. I had to have an Ibiza in there, it’s my favourite place in the world, and I chose a soft pink as it reminded me of the sunsets there. When choosing the colours I find inspiration everywhere. I find inspiration for names in fruits, such as Watermelon and Peach, places such as Alderley Edge [a warm neutral] and Northern Quarter [a soft, deep brick tone that works beautifully with Alderley Edge]. There are colour names we all know, such as Teal or Coral, and words that simply mean something to me, such as Button or Shy.”
One of Louisa’s daily pleasures is checking the sample requests that come through the site, as people order a small piece of fabric to check their colour choices work for them.
“We can send people a piece of fabric with the colour chart printed on it, so they can see how they look, and then they can order samples of their own chosen stripes, before they commit. I check every day and so far most requests have been completely unique. A lot of orders do come from what people see on my website, on the Explore pages, so I am working on ways to encourage people to be more adventurous. I also have quite a few sending a photo of their room and asking for colour advice, so I am looking into ways for people to get advice from an interior designer who will be working with us.
Colours of Arley has proven to be the success Louisa hoped for, and she’s been thrilled with the reaction to her idea.
“I have been blown away by people’s reactions and their support,” she says. “We send a ‘Stripe Certificate’ out with fabric orders, detailing their colour choices, and we see this posted on Instagram at lot, and people send me photos of their finished pieces, too, which I love.
“Stripes are just timeless; they’ve been around forever. There are a lot of trends in fashion and interior design, but stripes just transcend that, so will last and last.”
