FROM A HUMBLE OFFICE IN FAMILY BARN TO $1 MILLION IN SALES, MASON’S DESIGNS GETTING NOTICED BY MAJOR RETAILERS
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[photo caption: Lindsay Mason arranges samples in her office in Lafayette, Indiana]
January 29, 2019 – Lafayette, Indiana – Lindsay Mason, owner and designer at French Knot, a winter accessories company that works with artisans in Nepal, announced today that the company exceeded sales of more than $1 million in 2018. The textile company, established in 2012, recently collaborated with Anthropologie stores nationwide.
Mason’s success story has humble beginnings. After working for several years in the fashion industry, she was laid off and decided to move home. That’s where she couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe it was time to start her own knitwear business.
With little funds in her first year, Mason’s dad helped furnish a modest design office in a barn on the family’s property. She worked day and night for six months to develop her first line of French Knot winter accessories. In 2013 she debuted her line and received orders for over 12,000 pieces, generating $230,000 in sales during her first year. Following steady and consistent growth, French Knot sales break the $1 million mark.
A growing number of major retailers are taking notice of Mason’s designs. In 2018, French Knot collaborated with Anthropologie, Sundance Catalog, Olive and Cocoa, Soft Surroundings, Peach, J. Peterman, and more than 150 other retailers around the country to sell French Knot winter accessories and gifts. Mason will debut her seventh winter collection in New York City next week where she will introduce over 60 new SKUs.
Unlike her counterparts in the fashion industry where the focus is on making things as fast and cheap as possible, French Knot accessories are uncommonly elaborate and intricate. Each and every stitch is done by hand.
The pieces begin as an original hand-drawn design by Lindsay before she turns them into a CAD (computer-aided drawing) with technical specs about yarn colors and patterns. Mason’s designs highlight couture techniques such as intricate hand-embroidery and elaborate embellishments.
Then the accessories are hand-knit by over 1,000 women artisans in the highest quality wool and mohair available, making them wildly warm and velvety soft. Each year Mason spends a few weeks in Kathmandu, Nepal where her original hand-drawn designs take shape. During her visit, she works directly with her suppliers to start the sampling process. She is passionate about quality and hand selects each yarn, bead and detail for her designs. They are designed to be adored for decades.
In response to recent growth, Mason hired four full-time employees who work in the 2000 square-foot space near downtown Lafayette. Additionally, they operate a local warehouse where more than 40,000 pieces were distributed to retailers nationwide in 2018 with the help of ten part-time employees.
In addition to retailers, French Knot accessories are also available on their website at FRENCHKNOT.COM.
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About French Knot: French Knot is a woman-owned textile business that relocated to Indiana in 2017. Our winter accessories are designed in Lafayette and then hand-knit and embellished by artisans in Nepal using responsibly sourced natural fibers that are soft and warm.