The Hatchery - Making Things Better

Some of you have been asking us recently what the Hatchery actually is.

So we thought it was probably time we explained it a little better, and started bringing you along on the journey with us properly.

Why did we buy the building?

In 2024, we took on an old building in North Yorkshire, next to our warehouse, that had been sitting empty for years. 

To some people, it looked beyond saving, but to us, it felt full of potential.

At the time, there were a lot of questions floating around at Palava.

Why does the fashion industry work the way it does?

How can we be better? 

What would happen if we tried to do things differently? 

The Hatchery became our experiment in trying to answer some of those questions.

Not by growing bigger, but by trying to grow better.

Where are we now?

Since then, it’s been a huge amount of work.

Repairing windows, restoring floors, insulating rooms, planting gardens, growing flax and woad for natural dyes, learning about British wool, recycling fibres, and slowly setting up the first parts of our own small-scale fabric printing space.

This season, for the first time, some of the fabrics in our collection were printed by us at the Hatchery itself.

That feels like a very important milestone.

The Hatchery is becoming a place where we can test ideas, make smaller runs, use what we already have, and experiment with new ways of working.

It’s also become a place for conversations.

About waste. 

About making. 

About whether the fashion industry could work differently.

What do we want it to become?

Over time, we hope the Hatchery becomes something much bigger than just a production space.

We’re building towards a small micro-factory, alongside The Hatchery CIC (community-led company), focused on learning, sharing skills, workshops, growing, mending, making, and bringing people together.

A place where people can volunteer, learn heritage crafts, explore natural fibres and dyes, and feel part of the process rather than separate from it.

We want to take you on that journey with us.

Because the Hatchery isn’t really about one building.

It’s about asking whether there’s a better way of making things, and trying, little by little, to build it.