Textile Candy is a Lancashire based studio selling ethically sourced and locally handmade gifts.

We spoke with designer and owner Becky Lois Burns and here’s what she has to share.

How would you describe Textile Candy in a line or two?
Textile Candy is a colourful ethical brand selling carefully curated, design-led gifts, accessories and home decor all joyfully made by independent artisans, social enterprises and purpose-driven small businesses around the world.

What was the inspiration behind starting Textile Candy?
A spontaneous and eye-opening trip to Ghana! I joined a textile design volunteer program there for 2 months and whilst there had the opportunity to meet with talented makers and see the traditional craftsmanship of glass bead making and batik wax printing. I returned from the trip, quit my fast fashion design job in Switzerland and moved back to Morecambe to start Textile Candy.

What was Textile Candy like in the early days?
Having a shop was a bit of an accident, I’d never had aspirations to become a shop-owner. I had no idea what I was doing most of the time and had no products to sell other than my illustrations and a few wooden necklaces I had painted. I had originally wanted to set up a freelance design studio but finding studio space in the area was difficult/expensive, so I decided to get my first shop (which was much more financially viable) and turn it into a studio. Then people kept coming in and asking what I sold and whether they could sell their products in my shop and it slowly evolved into a retail business.

How has Textile Candy evolved over the years?
It’s grown quite a lot and is now in a shop 3x the size of the first one. Over the last year Textile Candy has really grown, I now sell on 3 different e-commerce platforms and stock ethically handmade products from 11 different countries. Some of the illustrations I originally sold in my first tiny shop are now being sold in IKEA and Textile Candy recently won Ethical Homeware Business of the year 2020/2021 for Manchester and the North West.

What are you excited about in the months and years ahead?
I’m currently working on some really exciting projects for Textile Candy including a new small scale manufacturing business called The Social Manufacturer. The goal is to harness the skills of local seamstresses and match them up with businesses that are looking for a small scale production unit.

Follow Textile Candy on social to see what they’re up to!

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