Arabella Hill and Flavia Paterson took out two loans, £25,000 in January 2020 and a further £10,000 in June 2020 to set up Paterson and Hill, a clothing brand for women working in manual jobs.
The idea first came to Arabella, who is a landscape gardener by trade, when working on an award-winning garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. She noticed that, unlike her, the men working on the construction site were amply dressed in suitable clothing.
She wanted clothes made for women in skilled and outdoor jobs, clothes that are durable, practical, flattering and sensitive to the environment. Her friend Flavia had a background in energy and forestry and was keen to get on board. And so, Paterson and Hill was born.
The pair started during the pandemic and have been immensely resourceful in adapting the business to a new landscape. They are confident that the growing number of women joining skilled and outdoor trades means demand for their products will only continue to grow.
