Meet the Founder of Brora: Victoria Stapleton

Brora was founded by Victoria Stapleton in 1993, well over 30 years ago. A long time devotee of Scottish textiles, she cut her teeth working for the tweed mill Hunters of Brora. Two years later, her entrepreneurial spirit kicked in and seeing a gap in the market for Scottish made colourful cashmere, Brora was established. We talked to Victoria about her Brora journey, passion for supporting age old craft, love of art & interiors and of course how she manages work commitments with the family life she holds so dear.

I remember sitting in my bedroom surrounded by boxes and boxes of cashmere. The phone was ringing off the hook for two days as the Financial Times had just cited Brora as having the best cashmere around and my home numb er was in the paper. With no internet people were just ringing to request the ‘black cashmere jumper’ they’d read Lucia van der Post had recommended as the ONE to buy, in the ‘How To Spend It’ feature.

When I started, I thought I’d never have a shop, but then a long lease came up on the King’s Road, our outlet shop today, and all the stars aligned for me to go for it. I then became a busy shop keeper running the mail order arm from the store basement. I thought I’d never have a second shop as I obviously couldn’t be in both places simultaneously but today we have 9 stores in the UK and one on New York’s Madison Avenue. I have had to learn to delegate!

It is unrecognisable. Brands that were huge have disappeared; others have popped up and grown stratospherically. The web didn’t exist, shops were everything, there was no social media. I wouldn’t have known the meaning of digital marketing 10 years ago - it was all paper mailing. And of course, the consumer is much more aware of the fashion industry’s impact on our planet now. I wish people acted more on that particular subject; but I am optimistic that will change again over the next 10 years.

When I started Brora, it was all about Scottish textiles, and f or the first ten years all our suppliers were in the UK, mainly up north. As we developed a larger collection, we looked to Liberty Arts Fabrics and started sourcing from incredible mills around Europe that specialise in fabrics such as corduroy, linen and silk.

In 2020, we conducted a full carbon assessment, and this has given us a much better idea of our strengths and weaknesses. It was satisfying to discover that we weren’t too far from reaching our earth-friendly goals due to my founding values of using natural materials and making close to home. But we still strive for better standards at every turn.

As of 2025, Brora became a Certified B Corporation. This is a globally Recognised standard which symbolises the high standards of social and environmental commitment which we continually strive for and has been at the core of Brora’s ethos for over three decades. This certification recognises the working environment, transparency, and accountability that Brora has endeavoured not only to achieve, but also to maintain.

That hasn’t always been easy, but as I love sport and theatre, selfishly, I rarely missed school matches and shows! Now I am much better at pacing myself, I start the day with a swim, look at some emails and rarely show up in the office until 11am. I think the team quite like some quiet time without me asking endless questions.

We are a big gang, and we live in the house where my husband, Johnny’s parents lived, so it is home to lots of first cousins too. I genuinely love having the house full of all ages, laughing, crying, being together, cooking and sharing our lives. There are now some very small youngsters on the team so they bring us all back to the ground, literally at times. Home is where the heart is and I think our happiest times are when we are all gathered there.