Margaret Howell on pioneering handicraft, androgyny and constancy in fashion

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Margaret Howell opened her first and only Italian store back in January 2015, during trade show Pitti in Florence. Until this Tuesday afternoon, she had never once returned. “It’s very good to be back here after 10 years,” observes the 77-year-old, who made her comeback to celebrate the anniversary of the store opening. “To see it so well lived-in.”

“Well lived-in”, is something that Howell aficionados tend to most relish about her garments, while Howell’s own label is itself supremely well lived-in: she founded it in 1970. The instinct and values that shape her products were formed before concepts such as slow fashion or ethical consumption were even articulated, yet they in many ways epitomise them.

The Florence store, currently decorated with finely photographed close-ups of Howell archive pieces in materials from — or manufactured by — partners including Carraro, Lardini, Tivoli and Mantero, sits on the north side of the city’s Ponte alla Carraia, on Piazza Carlo Goldoni. Also serendipitously, Caroline Attwood, the label’s CEO since last November, lived in this very same building at the turn of the millennium when she worked for LVMH. “I just bumped into my old landlady,” reports Attwood. “She couldn’t believe it!”

The Mulberry alum says she is taking a deliberately considered approach to her new role at Margaret Howell. “It’s something that’s so consistent. So how do you take it forward?” Coming in September is a new website, she offers. “The unsexy things — the processes and the infrastructure — are very important.”

Attwood adds: “We’re ambitious behind the scenes but we’re not grabbing, and we’re not in a hurry. Margaret’s history has shown that being slow and steady works.”