Why Leto & Ariadne?

The very short and simple answer is why not? If you care to delve a little deeper you will look back several years, and see a 26 year old man sitting in the staff canteen of a major London department store, brooding over the remains of a less than appetising lunch, and wondering where his life was going. Although the practice of bringing a sketchbook to lunch was yielding few results of any worth I doggedly continued. Designs descended into random sketches, and then doodles. Finally, after a verbal wrestling bout with a customer who would not accept the fact that they could not have a refund if they had left their product on the train, I sat down and began to write. Perhaps inspired by the book of Greek myths and legends I had been reading on the bus that week I wrote the names 'Leto & Ariadne' in the centre of the page. A weight suddenly lifted, the lightbulb had come on. The words staring back from the page felt as if they had meaning and were a way to a better way of living. A chance to create something from nothing. A chance to design and, although it took several years to find a direction and realise what these words were leading me to, they have now become a collection of woven fabrics that I can feel proud of. The name of a label where products are made with care and attention to quality. Perhaps I am simply reacting to the trend of cheap disposable fashion that you wear for a season and then throw away, but I have long held the belief that it is better to own one thing which is well crafted and will last, than 100 things that are simply going to fall apart. That is what 'Leto & Ariadne' is for me.