16 WWW.THEFIELD.CO.UK
Fashion
cousin’s estate, next to Whitfield and Knars-
dale. They’d had reservations about staying
in London with three young children, so
made the move, with Bertie spending three
nights a week in London. Ensconced in
Northumberland, Bella has embraced the
variety and challenges of a rural life, far from
the bright lights of London. Her children,
now aged 10, eight and four, adore it. She
tells me: “It’s idyllic for the children, roam-
ing free in the country. We have two lurchers
and my daughter and two sons enjoy shoot-
ing and going beating and generally being
quite feral. Bertie shoots a lot, I enjoy rough
shooting and picking bunnies off the garden
from my bedroom window.”FASHION BEGINNINGS
Always interested in fashion, Hoskyns-
Abrahall had worked for a fashion agency
in London and later at Tatler and then for
a fashion-passionate female entrepreneur.
She had felt for a long time there was a real
void in the country clothing.
“It was all a bit unisex or the stuff for
girls looked somehow too ‘new’, I wantedIt came together
surprisingly easily,
in many ways it
feels like fate
something flattering, feminine, like an old
friend or a hand-me-down favourite. I
started off with a rail at the Northumberland
Show. I remember I got such a thrill from
seeing people trying my clothes on, I had
‘outed’ myself and put myself out there, and I
thought, ‘It’s actually happening.’ It still gives
me such a buzz, and my family are always so
excited when a fair goes well.”
Setting up a fashion business from
home had proved difficult when Hoskyns-
Abrahall lived in London but went sur-
prisingly smoothly once she moved to the
country. “I didn’t know anybody when we
moved here but on my first day I went to the
village shop and asked if there was any-
body who could sew and it turned out there
was a lady called Becca Losh who hap-
pened to sew in the room above the shop.
It all gathered momentum from there. It
all came together surprisingly easily, in
many ways it feels like fate. Also, the school
where the children are at in Whitfield, on
top of a moor, seems to have the most crea-
tive of parents: a talented school mum,
Gemma Koomen, helped me with my web-
ANDREW SYDENHAM; RACHEL ULPH PHOTOGRAHPY; DAN MAY; KATE BUCKINGHAMsite and a school dad, Dan May, who does