My Story

Hello, I’m Lauren — founder and designer behind Holland Street. I started this brand with a simple but powerful idea: to create expressive garments that celebrate print, comfort, and individuality. Holland Street is where textile artistry meets inclusive fashion, and every piece begins with a story. The name Holland Street comes from my family home in central Cambridge — the place that shaped my creative childhood.

Holland Street Cambridge, Textile Design Home of creative journey

Holland Street, Cambridge 1990.

Holland Street Founder Lauren Barfoot Textile Designer of Printed Silk Kaftans

Graduating from my MA at Royal College of Art in 2011.


This is where I believe it all began. My grandmother Nancy Flora was photographed in the kaftan — the one I believe sparked the soul and style of Holland Street. A well-travelled RAF wife and devoted teacher, Nancy lived across Saudi Arabia and Singapore, collecting kaftans as keepsakes of her journey. She had an eye for beauty, a love for craftsmanship, and a wardrobe that whispered stories of culture, colour, and individuality.My muse, her style was fluid, feminine, and fearless.

Her presence? Quiet confidence wrapped in elegance. The Holland Street kaftan is, in many ways, a love letter to her legacy — her grace, her wanderlust, her way of wearing memory and emotion.

Hello, I’m Lauren — founder and designer behind Holland Street. I started this brand with a simple but powerful idea: to create expressive garments that celebrate print, comfort, and individuality. Holland Street is where textile artistry meets inclusive fashion, and every piece begins with a story. My journey continued through formative roles at Alexander McQueen and Zandra Rhodes, where I refined my love for engineered textile prints. At Holland Street, every piece starts with hand-drawn illustrations and is brought to life using digital print technology. Our silhouettes — kaftans, kimonos, and flowing forms — are gender-free, one-size, and timeless. The printed silk kaftan remains our signature: fluid, expressive, and elegant. I believe in thoughtful design. Inspired by Paul Poiret’s idea that “dresses are like pictures,” I carefully place every splash of colour and detail. My prints draw from Japanese graphic design, personal memories, and the landscapes of Dorset — each pattern telling a story. Fashion is personal. What we wear affects how we feel and move through the world. That’s why I design garments that elevate comfort, confidence, and creativity. I’m proud that Holland Street has been stocked in Fenwick and Selfridges — and we’d love to be stocked in Liberty one day (a little manifestation there!). In 2025, we expanded into furnishing fabrics in linen — a clear nod to those early years in Dorset. The response has been amazing — thank you. Florals and nature, reimagined with innovation and modernity, remain central to our aesthetic. Holland Street symbolises home, happiness, pattern, and a safe haven for creativity. Recognised with prestigious accolades including The Textile Society’s Textile Design Award and the WGSN Award, Holland Street’s designs have been featured in Living Etc, Elle Decoration, and Financial Times: How to Spend It. All our materials are 100% natural silk and linen. The original kaftan — centrepiece of our story — was worn by my maternal grandmother, Nancy Flora Burden, a well-travelled RAF wife and teacher, on September 2nd, 1981. Whether you’re drawn to our inclusive shapes or emotive prints, Holland Street offers a fresh perspective on fashion and interiors. And if you’re looking for a piece that captures our spirit, the printed silk kaftan is the perfect place to begin.

The kaftan that started in all..

I believe in thoughtful design. Inspired by Paul Poiret’s idea that “dresses are like pictures,” I carefully place every splash of colour and detail. My prints draw from Japanese graphic design, personal memories, and the landscapes of Dorset — each pattern telling a story.

My professional journey continued through formative roles at Alexander McQueen and Zandra Rhodes, where I refined my love for engineered textile prints. At Holland Street, every piece starts with hand-drawn illustrations and is brought to life using digital print technology.

Fashion is personal. What we wear affects how we feel and move through the world. That’s why I design garments that elevate comfort, confidence, and creativity. Our moods are expressed through six emotional states: Cocooned/Grounded, Soulful, Daring, Empowered, Radiant, and Romantic. So base your style on how you want to feel.

I’m proud that Holland Street has been stocked in Fenwick and Selfridges — and we’d love to be stocked in Liberty one day (a little manifestation there!). In 2025, we expanded into furnishing fabrics in linen — a clear nod to those early years in Dorset.Florals and nature, reimagined with innovation and modernity, remain central to our aesthetic.

Holland Street symbolises home, happiness, pattern, and a safe haven for creativity.

Recognised with prestigious accolades including The Textile Society’s Textile Design Award and the WGSN Award, Holland Street’s designs have been featured in Living Etc, Elle Decoration, and Financial Times: How to Spend It.All our materials are 100% natural silk and linen.

Whether you’re drawn to our inclusive shapes or emotive prints, Holland Street offers a fresh perspective on fashion and interiors. And if you’re looking for a piece that captures our spirit, the printed silk kaftan is the perfect place to begin.

Lauren x

 

 

 Want a longer read of the brand story?

Sherborne, Dorset, was where the story begins — in the mid-1980s — with a farming family, a landscape enriched by nature, and a love story between two people.

This is where my parents met. My mother owned a fabric shop called ‘The Julian’, nestled in a historic sandstone building at the top of Sherborne High Street.The pair worked together to build the business, with my mother driving through the countryside in her Morris Minor, delivering handmade curtains and cushions to her local clients. Textiles were already woven into our family’s DNA — my grandparents had run a fabric shop back in the 1960s.The success came to my mother’s business when she started offering clients new options from fabric books, all the contemporary and innovative textile designs that had caught her eye at Liberty in London. She adored the bold language of up-and-coming fabric designer duo, Collier Campbell, whose fearless use of colour was becoming a staple in stylish, middle-class homes of the era. The people of Sherborne embraced it enthusiastically.

It was in 1985 when my dad was offered a job at Cambridge Science Park in Agricultural Economics. It was a difficult decision — a tug between the soft, undulating Dorset countryside with its Jersey cows and winding lanes, and the pull of a new chapter in a vibrant academic city.I was born into this transition. In Cambridge, the rhythm of life no longer revolved around the seasons of calves and apples. My mother continued her fabric business while raising my sister and me.

In 1990, we moved into a house on Holland Street — a home overflowing with pattern and creativity. The Julian fabrics were everywhere, and although the shop had closed, its spirit remained a huge part of our lives. Life for my mother was now focused on raising daughters.

It wasn’t until I was 10 that life changed and we left Holland Street and moved back to Dorset to pick up where my parents left off and reconnect with our roots, heritage, and family. After 15 years of a cosmopolitan and romantic life in Cambridge, the running thread through life was travel, art, design, and creativity.Unsurprisingly, I found myself drawn to design from a young age. My interest in design was deeply embedded in my heart; art and design were the only things I excelled at in school and at 18 I went straight to Loughborough University to study Textile Design.

Later, at the interview for the prestigious Royal College of Art, I was awarded a place on the spot. I studied textiles, not fashion design, and went on to obtain an MA in 2011.

At the RCA, I specialised in print — and print only. I was obsessed with pattern and pushed my skills to an expert level. I soaked up London culture, with the V&A museum just steps from the college. I often found myself admiring the garments behind the glass late into the evening — especially those by Zandra Rhodes, a admired designer in our family. In fact, when I was born, my father gave my mother The Art of Zandra Rhodes fashion book with the handwritten note: “Positive and creative – I look forward to our future.”

In 2012, fresh out of college and working part-time in a Clapham bar, I came across a job listing for Zandra Rhodes’ studio in Bermondsey. At the time, I was freelancing and interning, selling the occasional print to large commercial companies. Landing a role with my design idol felt like a dream come true.

Holland Street Kaftan, Lauren Barfoot and Zandra RhodesLauren at work with Zandra Rhodes

After gaining invaluable experience in design and business, I felt ready to pursue my own journey — to start a fabric label rooted in the values I had inherited. My training in textiles and focus on print, composition, and materials helped shape a distinctive aesthetic.
There was only one name for the brand: Holland Street, in honour of the home that defined my creative childhood. In 2014, the brand launched at London Fashion Week with a collection of printed silk kaftans. Buyers from Fenwick Bond Street snapped them up, and boutiques along the King’s Road proudly displayed them in their windows.

Since then, Holland Street has grown, branching into new products and building international clientele. I now have a family of my own — two sons to share this creative journey with. In 2025, we expanded the brand to include furnishing fabrics in linen — a clear nod to those early years in Dorset.

Florals and nature, but with innovation, modernity, and forward-thinking practices, have a huge part in the aesthetic — and you can see why. Holland Street symbolises home, happiness, pattern, and a safe haven for creativity.