Careaux
Careaux is a luxury ethical womenswear brand founded by sisters and best friends, Laura and Rachel. From an idea when Rachel was fourteen combining her love of fashion and Maths, inspired by our Nana who was an incredible dressmaker and spoke about the importance of quality and tailoring the garment to each individual. Driven by the lack of sustainability and diversity and our passion to solve the problem that we are all different shapes, sizes and styles, and these all changes throughout our lives yet clothing does not accommodate this.
Careaux create timeless, classic dresses that changes to fit each woman’s unique shape, style, size and lifestyle.
We incorporated Careaux in April 2017 and have been developing the dress for several years before, therefore we have first hand experience with the R&D process and determination it takes to innovate.
We have trademarks (UK and European) and domains (.com and .co.uk) for Careaux, Registered Designs (UK and European) and PCT Patent pending.
We have also created a dress that was on display in the Pankhurst Centre to celebrate the centenary of some women getting the vote. We have also created dresses for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, the Science and Industry Museum, we are currently creating a dress for Prevent Breast Cancer and have partnered with Smartworks Greater Manchester.
In the past year, we have won the Barclaycard Everywoman in Retail Innovator of the Year Award, The EVAs Young Entrepreneur One to Watch, We Are The City Rising Stars Award and also been named on the Northern Power Women Future List.
We are currently D2C and have been working on bespoke for the past 12 months. To transition into online, we recently ran a Kickstarter campaign for the Careaux dress pre-orders for our core collection, which reached our goal within three weeks. The dresses are currently made-to-order and available to pre-order online, with the plan to expand into B2B later this year into retailers including boutiques, online marketplaces and department stores.
We spent over two years sourcing our fabric and working with local dressmakers. We wanted a fabric that we knew was from a highly ethical, sustainable and socially responsible supplier with the same values as ourselves and were committed to making the world a better place. The lining that we use is unused stock and also from a highly ethical company with an all-female management team.
One side to Careaux that is unique is that neither of us come from a fashion background. I am a maths graduate and STEM ambassador. I am extremely passionate about STEM and showing the different applications of Maths in the world. It is often misunderstood that maths and creativity cannot go together, but I always strive to show that it can and I have delivered workshops at the museum, in schools and at university showing this. Laura has Cystic Fibrosis and is really passionate about using her experiences with a disability to create a fully inclusive and diverse fashion industry.
- Listing ID: 996
- Contact: Rachel Beattie
- What are your aspirations and plans for the future?: Our next steps are to take our Careaux dresses to manufacture, partnering with a local factory to celebrate Northern innovation and skills. We then plan to expand globally, both online and through pop-ups then expanding into B2B in the next year, through boutiques, online marketplace and department stores. One of our main aims for the future is to research, source and use more sustainable fabrics within our collections. We want to keep manufacture in the UK and as local as possible to ourselves and partner with factories that share the same values and commitment to ethical and fair practices as we are. As well as our aspirations to become drive forwards and innovate in ethical and sustainable practices, giving back and using business as a force for good are our main values with the aim to become a B Corp within the next few years. We want to establish The Careaux Foundation to support causes we care about through Careaux.
- What types of projects are you interested in working on through Future Fashion Factory?: ● Scaling Careaux with manufacturers - both smaller scale and larger scale and for both D2C (through website) and B2B wholesale ● Customisable manufacture in the North of England ● Sustainability and circular economies ● Engaging people with STEAM and the future pipeline of incredible talent ● New sustainable materials ● How data and analytics and AI can inform fashion and sustainability ● Really interested to help and support wherever we can
