Company: Stitched
Website: www.stitched.co.uk
About Elinor & Stitched
Elinor Pitt, the CEO and Founder of Stitched.co.uk, is bringing the UKs antiquated £1.5bn curtain and blind industry into the 21st century with an online only offering that has seen incredible recent growth. Purchasing for your home should be enjoyable, but curtains and blinds are a very complicated product to buy online. With there not being a standardised window size in architecture, no two windows are ever the same – making it a typically confusing and fragmented buying process. To solve this problem, Stitched has developed impressive 3D customisation and Augmented Reality technology for configuring curtains and blinds as well as automatically measuring window sizes to generate bespoke customer quotes.
The Company has also recently announced a partnership link with MADE.com the leader of the online home décor sector – further bringing their unique offering to a wider market.
Stitched has an all female board including NEDs Gracia Amico (formally Topshop + Burberry) and Janine Manning (angel investor + Chartered Accountant). Elinor has a unique background mix across Electronic Engineering, Data and Interior Design which led her to develop the idea for Stitched. She is joined by a strong team across Marketing, Technology and Customer Experience with an impressive range of backgrounds including Secret Escapes, Carwow, Trainline and BCG Digital Ventures among others.
The pandemic has been pivotal for Stitched. What should have been an immensely challenging time when their supply chain was disrupted due to all major workshops having to make PET for the NHS, was turned into an opportunity. The team thought outside of the box and discovered a rich seam of local master curtain makers across the UK. These experts in their field were able to produce curtains and blinds to an exceptionally high standard for the same price as the largest workshops.
In turn, Stitched was able to provide these makers with a consistent stream of work, something that was previously much more difficult without typical access to the digital market. These makers could complete their work from their local workshops, complying with COVID restrictions and without the need to visit customers’ homes – a traditional business model that was no longer viable due to government restrictions. What Deliveroo did for people with bicycles, Stitched did with skilled curtain makers with sewing machines!
Alongside these benefits, Stitched was excited to discover the rich seam of makers during the pandemic, as it tied in with their ethical mission – to help customers understand where their curtains and blinds have come from. 42 million tonnes of textile waste is produced every year, and for that reason Stitched only sells natural and recycled fibres. Consumers are becoming increasingly interested in the sustainability and provenance of their purchases. Over 70% of Stitched fabrics are currently milled in the UK – helping fundamentally reduce their carbon footprint.
Short term, Stitched plans to own the online curtains and blinds market in the UK. Beyond that, their technology and infrastructure has always been built with an ability to move to other verticals and geographies – opening up the opportunity to bring 3D customisation and Augmented Reality to an even wider audience.
