Living South magazine East Dulwich, Forest Hill, Crystal Palace, West Dulwich & Dulwich Village

Label of love

Amanda Byrnes has worked in just about any job in the field of fashion that you can think of. Since leaving school, the lifelong Londoner has been a shop girl, buyer, merchandiser and model booker. She even once had a stall in Portobello Market, and it was here that the eponymous Odie & Amanda womenswear label was born.

"We used to always go for the same vintage prints on a Friday and we’d end up fighting over a pair of 1970s curtains," Amanda says of Odie Green, who once held the stall next to hers. The pair eventually decided they’d be better off collaborating than wrestling over fabric, and so the Odie & Amanda label was launched seven years ago.

From the start, their goal was to produce "nice, beautifully designed, handmade things that weren’t made in sweatshops." The philosophy continues today, although Odie left the company last year to get married and Amanda has upgraded considerably from the market stall.

Together with designer Stephen Sherrington, she now runs two independent shops, one in the Oxo Tower and the other in Camberwell’s Grove Lane. Unusually in today’s current climate of instant, throwaway attire, all of the label’s garments are designed and manufactured within the capital – even their machinists are in west London. The range is exclusive to the two shops, so they don’t do wholesale and the creations aren’t sold anywhere else.

The operation is not unlike a market stall in that the pair are constantly creating new garments rather than only producing two collections a year. "We do very small runs, so we might make 12 of a dress," says Amanda. "We change stock quite quickly – we like to keep people interested."

The pair have maintained a style file that goes back seven years, containing every pattern the label has ever made. Women who want something different or to fit an unusual figure can pick a pattern and take advantage of Stephen’s passion for made-to-measure clothing. A client might specify a certain Liberty fabric, a favourite shade of pink or press-studs rather than covered buttons; in any event a garment takes two or three weeks to complete.

Amanda is a bit of a curator as well as a couturier, stocking pieces by friends and designers from around London – there’s handmade jewellery by Ciel of Camberwell, Portobello label Looking Glass, Laidbare products from Beckenham, Indigo organic fairtrade t-shirts made in Bermondsey; bamboo knitwear by New Cross brand Bailey and jewellery from south east London designer Lucy Allen. "I’ve always been interested in local," says Amanda. "I think it’s a nice way to be."

VIEW THE ODIE & AMANDA GALLERY >>>

Odie & Amanda, 113a Grove Lane SE5 8BG; 020 7737 9206; open Mon-Sat 11am-7pm