Designed in Great Britain | Made in Italy
sales@luellafashion.co.uk
+ 44 (0) 1454 238940
Designed in Great Britain | Made in Italy
sales@luellafashion.co.uk
+ 44 (0) 1454 238940
Register as a Luella Stockist
Thank you for applying to become a Luella stockist. The information you have provided helps us to ensure that there is no conflict with any of our current stockists and that our brand is compatible with the other brands sold in your store.
It can take up to 48 hours to approve your application, and sometimes longer if your application is made over a weekend. However, we will endeavour to deal with your application as quickly as we can.
Once you are approved as a stockist, we will provide you with the requisite information to allow you to access trade prices on our website. In return all we ask is that your first order consists of a minimum of 2 items per style and is for a minimum of 10 pieces. Orders can be placed online or by e-mail to sales@luellafashion.co.uk. Please put your Trading Name in the subject line of the email.
Orders placed before 1pm are usually despatched the same day subject to payment on a proforma basis. Orders placed after 1pm are not guaranteed for next day delivery but will be despatched the following day, subject to payment.
Credit terms of 30 days net may be offered to customers after a period of 3 months and who are placing regular orders. Until credit terms are offered all orders will be on a proforma basis. All orders being despatched outside the UK (e.g. Eire, the EU, and the rest of the world) will be charged on a proforma basis.
By placing your first order with us you are agreeing to our Trading Terms & Conditions therefore please read the information below carefully.
Trading Terms & Conditions
By placing your first order with us you are agreeing to our Trading Terms & Conditions therefore please read the information below carefully.
“Luella”, “we”, “us” means Luella Fashion Limited
“You” “Your” “Yours” means the Trade Customer to whom each sale relates
“RRP” means Recommended Retail Price
Orders
After you have placed and paid for your first order with us there is no minimum order, either for quantity or value, for any subsequent and continuing orders.
Returns Policy
Our Returns Policy is set out on each proforma or invoice we send you and is as follows:
PLEASE INSPECT ALL GARMENTS IMMEDIATELY UPON RECEIPT OF YOUR ORDER. ANY RETURNS MUST BE MADE WITHIN 7 DAYS FOR A FULL CREDIT OR REFUND. RETURNS AFTER THAT TIME WILL NOT QUALIFY FOR A CREDIT OR REFUND EXCEPT IN EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES. WE CANNOT ACCEPT LIABILITY FOR ITEMS DAMAGED WHILST ON YOUR SHOP FLOOR NOR CAN WE ACCEPT LIABILITY FOR ITEMS AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN SOLD BY YOU.
All stockists are advised to read our Garment Care Guide and to ensure they are familiar with its contents when advising their customers about how to care for Luella products.
Please telephone us on 01454 238940 if you wish to make a return. We will provide you with a Returns Number and discuss with you the best method of returning the item(s) to us. We will refund standard second class postage (not signed for) charges only unless we have expressly agreed with you a return by an alternative method.
Please note: where non-fault returns are made without our express consent a re-stocking fee of 15% plus VAT of the value of the items returned will be (i) invoiced to you; or (ii) deducted from the value of any credit note(s) issued to you.
Credit Terms
Credit terms of 30 days net may be offered to customers after a period of 3 months and who are placing regular orders. Until credit terms are offered all orders will be on a proforma basis. All orders being despatched outside the UK (e.g. Eire, the EU, and the rest of the world) will always be charged on a proforma basis. For the purpose of this provision “regular” means at least every 30 days.
We undertake credit checks on all customers and reserve the right to refuse credit where a credit search indicates that offering credit may pose an unreasonable risk that we may not be paid within the requisite period or at all.
We reserve the right to withdraw credit terms where customers exceed the 30-day payment terms. Additionally, we reserve the right to charge interest on all late payments in accordance with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.
Legal Title
Title in any goods supplied by Luella will remain with Luella until payment in full has been received by us.
Website Only Retailers
We may decline to trade with website only retailers at our sole discretion. Should we choose to trade with any website only retailers we reserve the right to set a minimum price for any Luella branded garments or accessories that appear on the website. Website only retailers who offer for sale Luella branded garments or accessories below the RRP that we have set will have their account closed. The purpose of this provision is to protect the trade of our Bricks & Mortar stockists, whose overheads are much higher than those of online only retailers.
Online Trading & E-Commerce – All Customers
You may not sell on eBay, Amazon or similar website or any discount website without our express written permission. Bricks and Mortar stockists with their own online trading/e-commerce platforms must adhere to any RRP that we set for any Luella branded garments or accessories.
Home Sellers, Pop Up Shops & Table Top Sellers
We may decline to trade with Home Sellers, Pop Up Shops & Table Top Sellers at our sole discretion. Home Sellers are defined as retailers who trade from residential or non-commercial premises.
Should we choose to trade with Home Sellers, Pop Up Shops & Table Top Sellers we reserve the right to set a minimum price for any Luella branded garments or accessories. Home Sellers, Pop Up Shops & Table Top Sellers who offer for sale Luella branded garments or accessories below the RRP that we have set will have their account closed.
All Pop Up Shops and Table Top Sellers with whom we agree to trade must obtain our express permission sell Luella in advance of advertising any event and venue where they intend to sell Luella branded garments and accessories. This is to avoid any conflict with current Bricks & Mortar stockists in commercial locations where those stockists have exclusivity. This applies to all one-off events including, but not limited to, Christmas markets, other seasonal fairs and sporting events, including horse trials.
Bricks & Mortar Retailers – Moving Premises
Where your trading address changes, and you wish to continue to sell Luella you must contact us before you move to ensure we can still supply you at your new premises. Please note we cannot guarantee that we will continue to trade with you if we have an existing customer in the area into which you will be moving.
Failure to Adhere to our Stockists’ Trading Terms & Conditions
We reserve the right to decline orders and/or withdraw credit terms without notice where trade customers have breached our Terms & Conditions.
Limitation of Liability
Luella shall not be liable for any damage or loss whatsoever and howsoever arising without our prior approval or consent. Such approval or consent shall not be unreasonably withheld provided we are notified of any loss or damage within 7 days of the provision of those goods or services and we are given an opportunity to rectify or make good any faults or defects.
Luella shall not be liable or in breach of contract for the provision of goods or services – or any failure to provide those goods or services - if the damage or default whether wilful or neglectful arises out of the negligence, dishonesty or deliberate breach by or on behalf of individuals, agents or third parties beyond our reasonable control. Similarly, where there has been a failure by you - or any party to whom you sell goods provided by us - to follow our reasonable instructions we will accept no liability for damage or wear and tear.
Force Majeure
Luella shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performing our obligations where such failure or delay results from any cause that is beyond our reasonable control. Such causes include, but are not limited to: power failure, Internet Service Provider failure, industrial action, civil unrest, fire, flood, storms, earthquakes, acts of terrorism, acts of war, governmental action, including government mandated shutdowns or lockdowns in the event of a pandemic or similar risk to health event, or any other action that is beyond our control.
Governing Law
The laws of England & Wales will apply in our contract with you and in all cases and without exception.
These Terms & Conditions supplement the Terms & Conditions for use of our website which can be found here.
At Luella our Cashmere Blend knitwear is manufactured in Italy with Italian yarn. All of our yarns contain up to 30% cashmere, and are blended with either merino wool, or a blend of merino wool and bamboo. The bamboo blended yarn is manufactured especially for us and is exclusive to Luella in the UK.
To ensure our knitwear has a robustness and longevity that doesn’t always come with 100% cashmere, we add up to 10% synthetic fibre to our yarns, which might be polyamide or the metallic lurex yarn that features in many of our styles. Whatever the blend of the yarn, Luella cashmere blend knitwear always has a luxurious quality and feel.
In order to ensure a perfect wear each time it’s important to take care of your garment.
We recommend washing Luella knitwear by hand using a detergent designed for cashmere, wool or delicate fabrics. Baby shampoo can be a great, gentle alternative. You can also launder your Luella knitwear on a hand wash cycle in the washing machine at no more than 30 degrees. For best results place the knitwear in a laundry net and don’t spin at more than 700rpm. Never wring your cashmere garment – lay it out flat on a towel and gently ease it into shape before rolling it up in the towel to squeeze out any excess water. Then lay it out flat on a drying rack or a clean towel.
Whichever method you choose to wash your cashmere, it’s always a good idea to gently de-pill your garment with a cashmere comb before washing it. Cashmere and wool are always prone to pilling – this is nothing to do with the quality of the product, but more to do with wearing it. And if you love it, you’ll wear it often! Pilling is a natural process caused when the fibres in the yarn rub against each other and form small balls. De-pilling your garment regularly will improve its appearance and maintain its longevity. And to ensure your garment keeps it shape, it’s best to store it folded.
Whether you’ve purchased sequined knitwear or sequined linens or cottons, we advise that they should be washed inside out at no more than 30 degrees. If you’re putting them in the washing machine, we recommend using a laundry net to avoid any inadvertent snagging of the sequins on other items of clothing. These garments are made using recycled polyester sequins.
Linens and cottons are natural fibres and can have a tendency to shrink if washed in water that is too hot. We recommend machine washing at no more than 30 degrees with a gentle detergent. If your linen is either dark in colour, or bright and vibrant, a cold wash will ensure the colours don’t fade.
Viscose and rayon are natural fibres and can have a tendency to shrink if washed in water that is too hot. We recommend machine washing at no more than 30 degrees on a hand wash cycle with a gentle detergent. If your garment is delicate turn it inside out and place it in a laundry net.
Knitwear is as old as the hills – and the sheep and goats that graze them. It has been the basis of making clothes for over a thousand years, and there’s no sign that anything better is about to come along soon.
We thought we’d take a deep dive into knitwear, answering all the questions you might have about what it is and the various ways it’s made and worn.
At its most basic, knitwear is clothing made of a single length of thread or yarn (usually wool), which courses back and forth, with every stitch linking with a stitch on the previous row. At the beginning of knitting’s evolution, it was made using two long needles of varying thicknesses.
Knitwear is as old as the hills – and the sheep and goats that graze them. It has been the basis of making clothes for over a thousand years, and there’s no sign that anything better is about to come along soon.
We thought we’d take a deep dive into knitwear, answering all the questions you might have about what it is and the various ways it’s made and worn.
With each row, the emerging fabric switches from one needle to the other, until it is completed. Various thicknesses of the needle are available, and since the wool is looped around the needle for each stitch, the gauge of the needle determines how dense or loose the knit is (smaller needles give a denser knit).
That’s just the basic knit, however. Knitters have, over the centuries, developed complex techniques, mixing different types of stitches, knitting varying numbers of threads together in a single stitch, and introducing different colours and different fabrics to create really interesting and beautiful knits.
By changing how the wool is knitted together, beautiful clothing can be made with ornate patterns, from the traditional Aran style to delicate, lace-like fabrics, all from a single length of wool.
Using knitting, a continuous looped shape can also be made, which is useful for seamless sleeves or stockings. In fact, it was this technique that led to the first mechanized knitting machine in the 1500s: William Lee’s stocking frame. Often, however, a rectangular or shaped two-dimensional fabric is knitted and then sewn around to make a shaped sleeve or leg.
Modern commercial knitting is now all done by machines, and you can even buy small knitting machines for the home, which you program with your desired pattern and let do their work. But the craft of hand-knitting is probably as strong as ever, with millions of people loving it for its therapeutic effect and the fact that you can make clothes to your own designs. The fact that there’s no shortage of celebrity knitters, from Meryl Streep to Tom Daley, has certainly boosted its credibility among the young. It takes a lot of practice, but it’s worth it!
Knitting and weaving are the two commonest ways of making fabrics from thread or twine. But how are they different? It’s all in the way the threads bind together. With knitting, there’s essentially a single thread that loops back on itself.
A stitch connects itself to a loop (or several loops) on the previous row, and then when the next row comes along, that same stitch becomes the anchor for the neighboring stitch(es) on the next row.
With weaving, there are hundreds of separate strands running vertically and horizontally, and they interconnect with each other by each vertical thread going over-under-over-under the rows of horizontal threads. The basic over-under pattern can be changed to introduce more interesting forms, but that’s essentially how weaving works.
The differences aren’t just in the technique, however. The way woven and knitted fabrics perform are also quite different.
• Knitting tends to produce a more chunky fabric, as it’s a series of knots and loops that have a notably three-dimensional form while crisscrossing cotton tends to make a very flat, smooth fabric that’s ideal for shirts, undergarments, napkins, and tablecloths, as well as hard-wearing fabrics used in things like tents, sails and umbrellas.
• Knitted fabric is also more stretchy, as there’s more room for deformation in the loops compared to a weave which can’t really be stretched beyond the elastic limits of the individual strands of thread.
• Knitted fabrics are better at trapping air in the more complex form, so tend to have better insulation properties. Both knitted and woven fabrics have good breathability, though, as long as they are not made too tightly.
Any long, flexible thread can be knitted, but in practice, only a relatively small number of materials are used commercially. Most of these are traditionally wools, which come from an array of livestock and wild animals, but plant-based threads are also commonly used.
The vast majority of wool used in clothing around the world is sheep wool. Sheep have traditionally been farmed in the UK for centuries, and wool was the basis for most Britons’ clothing until the emergence of a cotton industry at the end of the Mediaeval period. British wool was exported all over the world. Now, it mostly comes from China, Australia, and New Zealand, but the UK remains a big player.
Sheep’s wool can be soft and tender from certain breeds, but a lot of commercially available wool can be a little less comfortable, making it a little irritating and scratchy, especially against sensitive skin. Wearing an underlayer is usually enough to solve this, but that’s not always convenient.
Associated with luxury for centuries, cashmere wool has its origins in the harsh mountainous regions of what today are the Indian, Pakistani and Chinese borderlands. The region is known as “Kashmir”; the wool being spelled differently avoids confusion.
The wool comes from the cashmere goat, but it’s not the outer layer that you can see on the goat – that’s so tough that it’s used in paintbrushes! The wool that’s used for cashmere is soft, downy wool that grows on goats during the winter months to provide an essential layer of insulation.
The goats molt in the spring, and the cashmere wool was originally collected from the ground, but the goats were eventually domesticated and sheared. Find out more about Cashmere in our complete guide.
Cashmere wool has all the properties you could wish for in a garment. It’s so soft that it can be worn against the skin without irritation, but it’s also insulating, strong, and breathable, which makes it perfect for layering. Modern cashmere is often blended with other wools to keep costs down without affecting its softness, and sometimes with small amounts of man-made fabrics to provide elasticity and strength
Merino wool grows on a breed of sheep called (you guessed it) the merino. The breed seems to have emerged from Spain in the late medieval period, and it has always been considered a cut above regular sheep’s wool.
In terms of comfort, insulation, and cost, it generally sits somewhere between regular sheep wool and cashmere, so it’s a good option for many people. It’s also good at keeping its shape without requiring blends of other materials.
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Away from the Caprinae subfamily, there are other animals that produce wool commercially, although most are extremely rare. One slight exception is the angora rabbit, an incredibly cute and cuddly-looking creature that comes complete with a huge fluffy coat. It produces a predictably fluffy and soft yarn, angora wool, which can be used to make garments.
It has to be said, however, that angora wool is controversial, with many fashion houses refusing to use it.
Sheep and goats need acres of grasslands to grow healthy coats and are only sheared in the spring, so the industry is considered ethical when done properly. It’s theoretically possible to let angora rabbits roam free and only be harvested when it suits the animals.
In practice, however, the rabbits are often kept in inhumane conditions and are plucked rather than sheared, and it’s difficult to trace the origins of angora wool to ensure it’s harvested humanely. Luella does not sell any clothing made of angora wool.
Mohair is another type of wool from a goat, which is actually called an angora goat (it is not related to the rabbit). The stand-out feature of mohair is its big, bouncy look and feel, as the strands of the wool project off in all directions. It also has a distinct sheen that other wools don’t have. It’s a bit of a novelty or statement fabric, thanks to its unusual looks, but it’s still pretty popular – and the punks of the 1970s loved it!
Finally, there’s cotton knitwear. It’s fair to say that cotton is usually associated with weaving and wool with knitting, and the distinction usually holds. But there’s no reason why cotton can’t be knitted, and beautiful clothing can be made using this technique. You can find out more about cotton knitwear in our complete guide.
Cotton knitwear is generally lighter than wool, simply because the threads have a smaller diameter. They are also less expensive thanks to the costs of farming, harvesting, and manufacturing.
As well as the range of wools and threads from which knitted clothing can be made, there’s a wealth of knits that can be created. The arrangement of different stitches in a knit can produce beautiful and complex patterns, weights, and feels in knitwear. Here are some of the favourite knits.
The jersey knit is a basic type of stitch, which is knitted one way and purled on the other. The end result is a fabric with a distinct repeated interlocking “V” shape on one side and a less attractive appearance on the other side, where the stitches run horizontally, interlocked like bricks. It’s the standard issue knit with no embellishments, and it’s not reversible.
Also, as it’s about as simple as a knit can be, it’s the most lightweight knitted fabric.
With double knit, two separate yarns are used, and the technique produces a thicker, heavier type of jersey. The appearance is very different too – there’s more wool intertwined in a more complex pattern, and instead of the large V shapes, there’s a more uniform face. It’s heavier than a single jersey knit, and importantly it’s the same on both sides, so it is reversible.
The cable knit is one of the most famous types of Aran, often used in the traditional sailor’s jumper. It gets its name from the fact that the wool is built up to form a pattern that resembles a twisted rope or cable, but there are many variations of the pattern such as knots, simple twists, and lattices. The cables can be spaced out or close together, and are sometimes alternating, with different types of cables or perhaps ribs. Cable knits are very popular in jumpers as well as cardigans.
The rib knit is a series of raised lines of fabric running along the entire length of the fabric. It’s produced by alternating between sections of knits and sections of purl on each row, and the end result is a relatively weighty knit that’s very good at stretching in one direction (i.e. so that the ribs are being pulled apart). Rib knit is also commonly used in collars, cuffs, and hems as there’s a gentle but natural elasticity to it.
Diamond stitch is similar to cable knit in that it uses built-up sections to produce a repeated pattern. However, whereas cable knit has patterns that run in straight lines, with gaps made by another knit in between, a diamond stitch has a repeated raised pattern that covers the whole fabric.
An interesting take on the diamond knit is the diamond lattice knit. Here, instead of the diamonds being raised above the rest of the fabric, the diamond shapes are created by making gaps in the knit. The result is an elegant, lace-like fabric that’s very light, flexible, and breathable.
The trellis stitch knit is made from a mixture of built-up wool knits and gaps, and there are dozens of beautiful ways to interpret the look. It’s often used on baby clothes as it’s light and airy but still has warming properties.
Now you know exactly what you’re looking for in your knit, why not put your knowledge into practice? We’ve got a superb range of knitted clothing in both cashmere and cotton, with several of the patterns you’ll recognize from this article. Take a look!
