Charlotte Ryan speaks to Ellen Mooney of ELN, an independent fashion designer, about going viral overnight, prioritising sustainability and making adaptable fleeces for young cancer patients.
As happens to more and more people in this age, Ellen Mooney woke up one morning to find that she - and her independent streetwear brand ELN - had gone viral over the weekend.
It began innocently enough: content creator Kayleigh Trappe shared a sketch video of herself wearing one of ELN's colourful fleeces. It boosted ELN's followers by a few thousand. "I was laughing then thinking, Oh, my God, this is great. I can't believe how much that can help", Mooney recalls.
Then came a second one, a playful send-up of Joanne McNally as well as an engagement announcement, that so far has racked up a whopping 1.2 million views on Instagram. "And it just took off", Mooney says. "It just went mental."
It's been a massive learning curve for the young designer, who started working on her streetwear-inspired designs while at Ulster University in 2019, and now handmakes and hand-packages all orders in her Banbridge studio and shop alongside a tiny team of friends and family.
"There's no guide on 'here's what to do when all these people start following [you]'. And I think especially because of the nature of the brand, because it is small scale, small team, just me, [when] all these people are following, they just see the jumper. They're not necessarily getting the full background of everything."
ELN has been cultivating a devoted following for a number of years now, especially for their cosy fleeces and Claddagh-embellished jumpers, hats and more. A quick glance through the enthusiastic comments section of her videos show fans eagerly waiting for a chance to snap up a fleece in the next restock, or those celebrating their success at nabbing the must-have item.
As well as that, there's been the odd flurry of frustration from buyers keen to snag their own fleece. In this way, Mooney has had to be even more transparent about the workings of her small independent label.
"The truth is that this time last week, I was planning for this restock with 8,000 followers. This week I think it's sitting on 19,000." In the few days since I spoke to her, that number has climbed to almost 22,000 on Instagram alone.
"I had people saying to me, Oh, sure, just stick a few hundred up for sale. If you make them late, you make them late for people. And I'm like, again, so tempting, but I don't want to do that", she says. "The big numbers are definitely something that I'll have to get used to. And that just comes with it, doesn't it? The more people, more opinions."
It's also why Mooney is so emphatic about showing the behind-the-scenes of her business, from designing and sourcing materials to the constant conversation about keeping the items as sustainable as possible: "There's a lot of things these days that we just pick up and you don't even question where or how it was made."
Sharing the joy of creating something was what inspired Fleece Club, her wildly popular workshop that invites buyers into the studio to customise and design their own fleece, which Mooney then handmakes. Now more than two years in the running, the project gives fashion lovers a glimpse behind the curtain and offers something cosy that is undeniably theirs.
The project is also partly a rebuke against fast fashion and hyperconsumerism, a way to help people slow down and think about where their clothes come from.
"Fleece isn't the most sustainable fabric", Mooney says. "I know that, and I know that to get a sustainable option for it, it's not the cheapest, it's not the easiest, and it's still not 100 % sustainable. But if I can just work in a way that's a bit more thoughtful, and getting people involved to make them appreciate the process."
It was Fleece Club that led to Mooney's next project, the Cancer Fleece initiative in collaboration with Young Lives Vs Cancer, one of the UK's leading charities for children and young people with cancer. Simon Darby, a Social Work Team Leader with the charity, spotted Mooney's designs on TikTok and wondered if they could be adapted for cancer patients going through treatment.
A small group of cancer patients aged between 16 and 24 came down to Mooney's studio and gave feedback on the tweaks and customisations they would want to see in the designs. She added vertical and horizontal zips on the arms for IV drips and ones on the chest for pick lines, so the wearer can receive treatment without taking off the fleece in the often chilly chemo wards.
It's clearly something that still moves Mooney, who travels down to Amy's House - a Young Lives vs Cancer Home from Home just minutes from Belfast City Hospital that offers free accommodation for patients and families who are travelling for treatment - every month or two to facilitate the workshops.
"It blows my mind that something to me that seems so small in the grand scheme of everything they're going through can really lighten the day", Mooney says. "To be honest, it brings everything a bit back down to Earth around here. I'm stressed out over fleeces, and they're going through so much."
"I feel like it's nearly like them wearing their little bit of armour going in. They're repping their own colours and essentially taking cancer by the horns."
