Alternatives to Brora?

[CortieTat]

I used to love Brora. I recommended them to many people and 30% of my clothes are from them.

Unfortunately they have recently lost my order and the customer service turned out to be a nightmare.

Where can I find similar style in a similar price range (or cheaper of course) and natural materials? I like their Liberty silk blouses and jersey tops, tanks and 100% wool or cashmere sweaters. Not a fan of frilly styles, ruffles and lace collars.

I like their quality and designs but I don’t think I can hold my nose and keep buying from them when they’ve been holding my money hostage for over a month.

If you really want new sources - rather than just a place to vent about Brora - I guess the best place to start would be

Liberty

as they obviously make shirts and tops with those prints.

Palava

might be another possibility. Not exactly the same, if anything their clothes are rather more vibrant and joyous.

I wonder if you might find

Colemimo

appealing. Again, it’s not the same - tiny shop, very, very cool and popular with people keen on fashion. Everything is staggeringly well made from really beautiful and carefully chosen fabrics. Well worth visiting in person.

Not venting, genuinely looking for alternatives :-) I’m really happy to see that Palava has started to remove VAT from overseas orders (I’m in Sweden), yay 🎉

But surely Sweden is just as good a source of crafty, carefully made, satisfying clothes as England? Denmark must be, too?

Eribe does lovely knitwear

There are approximately three brands I am aware of that still produce clothes in Sweden (and one of them is jeans). The style is also very different, either ascetic or Gudrun Sjödén’s colourful baggy tunics.

I think people don’t realise how much textile industry you have left in the UK, including manufacturing, especially knitwear and fabrics.

Brora fans very quiet at the moment …?

John Lewis sell Brora if it's just the delivery issue, although I understand if you're put off the whole company now.

White Company. Cos. Hush. Have you looked at M&S autograph cashmere which always gets raved about?

Unfortunately John Lewis doesn’t deliver outside the UK 👎

I have a COS cardigan and it’s fantastic, highly recommend. They do several colours of the same cashmere cardigan every season.
I need to look at Hush, both COS and the White Company are very different style to Brora.
I like Jaeger at M&S but it’s not available at M&S Sweden at all (and they are not planning to roll it out anytime soon - I asked).

I was thinking of the cashmere more than anything I guess. I still have the most gorgeous jersey tops from Brora, I can't afford it now. Would Toast be a brand you'd like? Or Baukjen, Plumo, Sezanne?

I love my Brora jersey tops too 🙂

Love-hate relationship with Sézane: the quality is hit and miss. Their simple breton jumper Leontine is great. It survived many accidents (I have a 5-month old), but I don’t like that they have more and more polyester and nylon in everything and their FOMO marketing is too much.

I need to check Baukjen and Plumo!

My lost order contained a Fair Isle yoke jumper. For some mysterious reasons it was redirected back to the UK on the way to me and has last scanned at Heathrow 3 weeks ago.

I must admit we’re so inundated with ‘Scandi style’ - with the implication that it’s all so superior to what we wear in the UK - that I had assumed there was a thriving textile and clothing industry there!

Anyway, this might be what you’re looking for:

https://bosie.co/collections/womens-sweaters

Justine Tabak makes clothes with Liberty print and has lovely knitwear. In fact all her clothes are great quality and usually made from fabrics from mills she visits personally.

This is heaven! Thank you so much! My google reluctantly suggested Harley of Scotland among 1000000000 “subtle” Zalando ads but I would have never found this myself.

We do have Fjällräven and the Övik jumper, I have one and it’s over 15 years old. It must have been made to specifications given by the Winter War survivors. It’s an outdoor item, I wear it in winter instead of a jacket.

I know the brand and I have two dresses: Didsbury and Saltaire. Bought them on sale and they are fantastic :-)

What about Poetry OP? I really like their cashmere knitwear and they very much emphasise natural fibres.

Celtic & Co have quite a few Brora-like clothes and also use natural fibres.

I used to like Brora a lot but have gone off them a lot. I have found them excellent quality but they seem to be stuck in a rut now and churning out same old designs season after season, and in IMO increasing ugly patterns. I also had a return go missing recently and found customer service very unhelpful. They do have a good sale though.

@CortieTat have you tried Toast. I like some of their stuff. There is a thread on here and a lot of people rave about their Donegal knitwear. They do have excellent customer service! I get the odd thing from Baukjen. Again I think stuck in their ways and hit and miss. Hush used to be very popular a few years ago but quality has definitely declined. Feedback on knitwear not great, but I have never tried it.

I can recommend Bosie knitwear as I have a couple of fair isle cardigans. They were around £130 and will last a lifetime. Beautifully made. Slightly biased as they are based less than 30 miles away.

Edited: OK I am out of date with prices. But still fab quality.

@MsDastardley my relationship with Brora seems to be going in the same direction as yours. They are repeating many styles which is not a bad thing because I noticed that they have also become much more Sézanesque in recent years - frilly collars, puffy shoulders, you name it. Anything frilly makes me look like Seinfeld in the Puffy Shirt. I used to like everything, and now it’s maybe 2-3 items per season.

@NotInMyyName I have visited their website at least ten times since yesterday. Unfortunately many things are not in stock in my size. I’m also not sure if the prices I see are exclusive of UK VAT so will have to write them an email before I order. I have to pay Swedish VAT when importing things from UK after Brexit so obviously not keen on paying VAT twice.

I think most of Brora’s knitwear used to be made by Johnstons of Elgin (https://johnstonsofelgin.com) but a lot of it seems to be made overseas now and isn’t 100% wool. Johnstons has more affordable lines in their factory shops in Hawick and Elgin but I can’t stretch to their cashmere prices online.

Harley of Scotland who I think manufacture for Bosie also look like they make jumpers for Campbells of Beauly (https://www.campbellsofbeauly.com/collections/womens-knitwear, they also have Liberty shirts), and Plumo, but Plumo seem to mark up the prices significantly compared to everywhere else. I’m keen on buying clothes made in Britain if possible, or in Europe as well, so keen for any other recommendations people have.

@abdnhiker conclusion is I should rent a lorry and visit this mysterious factory shop I’ve heard so much about here, plus Bosie on the way. Should work out way cheaper than buying online including getting a HGV licence!

I can confirm that my Brora cashmere (I only have a few pieces) is made in Scotland. The other 100% wool things (I have tanks and a jumper) are made in Portugal and Czech Republic. Which is interesting, Czechia is a developed and not cheap country, I would assume the costs of production are comparable or higher than in the UK.

I cheered myself up yesterday and bought a Brora cardigan on vinted while admiring the fabulous Bosie knitwear all out of stock in my size. Brora is not known in Sweden so it doesn’t sell well on Swedish vinted, it was a bargain.

Speaking of made in Europe - I have a Thinking MU merino vest made in Barcelona. I’m not sure if they are still producing their knits in Spain, I bought it three years ago. Their style is very different from Brora but my vest is a simple basic solid colour piece. Quality is great, looks new.

This should be a link to the AW2020 collection of

La Fetiche

just so you can see the glory that you missed! I have … more than one of those extraordinary checkerboard yoke jumpers, bought across succeeding collections. And I’m sad they don’t stock them any more. (I’d be amazed if anyone who owned one would put it on Vinted but who knows?)

Their current knitwear is completely lovely though. And the tailored things are breathtaking. I often ponder the sale of a relative to fund the purchase of a raincoat; their provenances are awesome.

Wow so lovely! You’ve certainly helped me to wean myself off Brora.
There is actually one checkered yoke La Fetiche jumper on our vinted 💪 unfortunately it’s too big and light blue that makes me look sick.