Hollywood stars and Vivienne Westwood - inside Chesterfield's iconic Fred’s Haberdashery

“It didn’t seem right that it could just be it, the end of an era. Very much out of my comfort zone. But, in terms of the shop and what it contains, it’s very much in my comfort zone. So that was it.”

This is Emily Lord, owner of the iconic Fred’s Haberdashery in Chesterfield, explaining the moment she knew she wanted to take the shop on. When asked how she arrived at this point, Emily smiles.

“I actually applied to the old Fred’s for a crochet tutoring job, which I got. So I was working there one day a week. Which was amazing for me. It was like my perfect job. And then the owners decided they were going to close. And I was like ‘You can’t do that… it’s Fred’s! And people like Fred’s!’”

This working mum of five daughters took the shop on, along with her husband Steve, in 2020, just weeks before lockdown. How did that feel?

“Well, it felt great initially. And then, obviously, it felt a bit scary. Nobody knew what was going to happen. We’d never been in retail before. It was completely alien to us. So, getting used to ordering, all the rest of it… And we didn’t even know what the normal was… it was just, yeah, very unknown.”

So, did you take on the shop from the original Fred?

“They were the people after Fred. Fred started on the market in 1973. Him and his wife. They moved into a small shop in the market hall. That’s when I first visited. We moved here in about 2000, and I remember going into that shop.”

“Everybody that lives in Chesterfield has a memory of going into Fred’s. Either their grandma, or their mum. And that’s really nice. Lots of things come out of the woodwork, lots of stories.”

And what’s Emily’s story with craftwork?

“I’ve always done lots of bits and pieces. Crafts. Certainly with my children. But my grandma was a City and Guilds teacher and did lots of sewing. She made Shakespeare costumes for an outdoor theatre. All by hand. And that was my holiday. I’d go and stay a few days and we’d make something.”

“And my other grandma was into sewing and knitting. She was always crocheting something. So, yeh, it’s always been part of my life.”

And your life before the shop?

“Basically, I was a stay at home mum for years. Until I took on that crochet job, teaching crochet. Before that, I was a computer programmer. I took a graduate job at HSBC in Sheffield. That’s why we ended up in Chesterfield. My husband worked in Nottingham. Chesterfield was a pin in the map in the middle.”

Emily talks of her love of crocheting, the science of it, the remarkable process of numerical order and shape.

“With my programming background, I really like the mathematical and the repetition of patterns and things. I’ve read a lot about mathematicians that use crochet to teach mathematical concepts. This is something else that I get really excited about. Hyperbolic planes, so, theories of physics.”

Hyperbolic planes? “A good example is lettuce leaves. They don’t lie flat. But they are one single plane. There’s lines and an equation, but those lines don’t touch.”

Emily laughs at herself, declares herself “Geeky”. She also admits to her enjoyment of what she calls “problem solving” with her customers.

“No day is the same. There’s always someone who walks in with a challenge.”

Emily glows as she says this, then tells of a lady who was making a very particular “Christmas cracker costume”.

“But this was after Christmas… What? And she said ‘Me and my husband are training for the London marathon’. They were going for a world record for the fastest Christmas cracker. But, there were a lot of stipulations from the world record people about how stiff the cracker had to be in order to be able to run.”

Any other stand out moments? “We had a film crew… last summer. They were working on a film at Haddon Hall in Bakewell. It was ‘Firebrand’, which is about Henry the Eighth. Jude Law was in it.”

“And they walked in… ‘We’re trying to do this and this… We’re trying to make a portaloo for Henry to have in his carriage, and we want to have some tassels round it.’ And then we had phone calls for the duration of the filming, ‘Have you got this?’ So that was quite exciting.”

Emily pauses, smiles. “And last week on our web orders, we had an order in from Vivienne Westwood in London… For a pair of embroidery scissors! A £6 pair of embroidery scissors from Vivienne Westwood! Odd… but hugely exciting!”

“So exciting in fact, that I went home and spent the whole evening making a felt scissor case to send down, and I just said ‘Look, massively excited with your order, been inspired to make a scissor case I’ve been meaning to do for ages!’”

Emily laughs. “Sadly, I’ve not heard back from them… They’ve not recruiting me to their design department just yet.”

The conversation ends with a crochet lesson, inspired by Emily showing her daughter’s Harry Styles multi-coloured homemade cardigan, worn to Harry’s gig in Glasgow. “And someone had to take her to the concert, of course.” Emily grins, turns, pulls another funky granny chic cardi from behind her chair. “So this is mine.”

Watching Emily slow crochet brings everything together. “You have a hook. And it’s all about the chaining. That’s a yarn over, and that’s making a chain. That’s how you start… It’s really good for mental health, heart rate, and also, it’s calming.”

Fred’s Haberdashery: Chesterfield’s stitch in time.