Smock London Meets Leah Lane from My Mulberry House
Smocking is a story woven with stitches. With each stitch and each pleat the design and its story takes shape. Inspired by this slow, manual process, we wanted to celebrate the “making” of the creative souls we count as friends and conspirators. Just as a cake is baked and a smock is sewn, an artists is also made - with rich ingredients, an often unpredictable journey, and always with surprising and remarkable results.
Finding the Joy in the Everyday: The Story Behind My Mulberry House
We are thrilled to introduce our first #smocksister, Leah Lane from My Mulberry House. Art director, story teller, designer, a creative polymath whose visions and creations have garnered an audience over a million on her instagram channel alone. Grounded by a rare gift for seeing, cherishing and celebrating life’s simple joys, her story was deeply inspiring, revealing that the little, everyday decisions we take each day are those that create the glorious whole. Thank you Leah for welcoming us into the hallow ground of My Mulberry House, sharing your story and your extraordinary creations in person. Watch the full interview below or scroll down to read the highlights.
[Leah wears our Pankhust Dress in Brunnera Blooms, India wears the matching Katherine Johnson Dress]
Please introduce yourself:
“My name's Leah, and I would say that I'm basically a storyteller, whether that's through design, through creative direction, or anything to do with Mulberry House.”
[Leah wears our Butler Dress in Rosebud Plumetti, India wears the matching Katherine Johnson Dress]
Can you explain a little bit about your own story and where it began?
“It all began during lockdown and I found the quiet that I didn't know I was looking for. I had this moment where baby India was on this picnic blanket and my son was playing around in the mud and the leaves were rustling in the trees and I know it sounds super cheesy but it was literally a moment where I was like, oh, this is life…”
[Leah wears our Butler Dress in Bonne Manon Cotton, India wears the matching Anna Pavlova Dress]
“I had sort of a nugget of an idea of where I wanted to be and how I wanted to live my life and that sort of manifested itself in creating an Instagram account that then has bled into becoming a creative director for shoots and becoming a designer and just all sorts of interesting and fascinating new ways of being able to basically.”
If you could impart one thing”?
“If I could impart anything it would be to find that one moment of joy in every day. [...] Imagine a sunny Sunday. The birds are singing. I let the chickens and ducks out. We sit on the porch. We have a cup of tea on the porch. We eat breakfast on the porch and then pot around in the garden, maybe have a picnic. Simple things like go down to the park, maybe splash around in the stream.…wafting around in a lovely dress. I literally do everything in a dress. [...] I wish everyone could find that moment…..those small pockets of joy in the everyday..
Tell us about your inspiration?
I think a lot is my mum. She was a really really strong feisty and powerful little pocket rocket of a woman. And she really instilled with me, into me, a sense of sort of morality, fairness, kindness, but also really hard working. And she loved antiques. And so she took me to antique shops all the time and I bought my first antique when I was about seven. And then I get a lot of inspiration from period dramas and a complete period drama obsessed!”
What is it about Smocking that appeals to you?
"I think the main thing I love about Smocked clothing is the sense of nostalgia. I've only just realised that is probably the main thread to my whole life; the sense of nostalgia and what that means to me like a warm hug. I think smocking is part of that to me. It has that 80s charm I grew up with, but also this beautiful 1930s–40s feel, which speaks to the history nerd in me."
Do you have a Smock Memory?
"My mother loved beautiful dresses and I was always in a dress which is probably why I dress my own daughter in a dress. She would buy the most beautiful smocked clothes and this lady that she used to get them from used to hand sew a little bell in the netting of the skirts so you'd always know when the little girl was arriving because she'd be tinkling along.
I just remember it really, really vividly. Two dresses. One had puffed sleeves and was really smocked on the chest. It was navy blue and it had a matching little beret and a little matching bag which was absolutely adorable. And another one that I had was a pair of dungarees. I've got pictures of me in this beautiful smocked dungarees with a sailboat on it, in the sand with this ice cream all over my face! So I have really, really fond memories."
"When my children were born ten years ago there were hardly any smocked clothes compared to now. I'd go out into vintage shops and I'd often be getting vintage smocked clothes because there just wasn't the market for it. So it's amazing now to have these smocked clothes from Smock to be able to hand down as heirlooms for the future. Hopefully my daughter will be dressing her daughter in smocked clothes too."
