Atelier: The Sheffield fashion house worn by popstars and punk bands
Milan, Paris, London, Sheffield. Rightly or wrongly, the steel city is probably not the first place you think of when you think of fashion. Aside from Robert Carlyle wearing the 1994/95 Sheffield United home kit in The Full Monty, or Self Esteem’s Meadowhall outfit at Glastonbury, the city has never seemed to have much of a presence in the world of haute couture.
That is, seemingly, until now.
Worn by the likes of Billie Eilish and Fontaines D.C., Atelier, founded and ran by Morgan Sidle, is taking the fashion world by storm. Born out of Barnsley garage, Atelier clothing can be found in shops across the country, and is being worn by some big names in pop culture.
But what makes a fashion brand? What is ‘Atelier’?
We met up with Morgan at the new Atelier warehouse in Sheffield City Centre to find out more about Sheffield’s latest fashion house.
Photo: Charlie Sweeney
“It’s always been a DIY project, from the very beginning”, beings Morgan, “I started out in a garage in Barnsley, screen-printing the designs in a cramped space and then selling them online. It started going well, well enough that I was eventually able to move to a physical store near Factory Floor in Kelham. From there, we moved to Leah’s Yard, and now we’re here in the warehouse!”. The warehouse we’re currently in is truly amazing. Full of Atelier clothing, manufacturing equipment, and posters, it is exactly what you’d expect from an up-and-coming fashion label; part-mad workshop, part cool art space. “It is definitely a good starting point for us, going forward. My aim is to open up the space, get the public coming in, But not just for the clothes, I wanna host events here too, music and screenings and the like. I just really enjoy the customer experience”.
It’s safe to say Atelier has burst onto the scene, or, at least, that is the external perspective. Does Morgan agree? “Yeah, I think we have sort of forced our way in. There’s not many options in the North for up-and-coming fashion brands, so you have to make people look at what you’re doing. That is the way to do it.”
What about the actual aesthetic of Atelier, though? Influenced by 90s grunge fashion, combined with a typical British punk mentality to customisation and design, it is clear that music is a very important part to Atelier as a brand. “Music is incredibly important to the designs, yeah. You can see the influence in more concrete ways, like with the references to bands like Sonic Youth and The Smiths that we have made on patches, but I think it’s also a more abstract influence in the way we go about designing the clothes. I have always found it easier to convey messages through artistic design, and I think that is echoed with the clothes. The Chaos & Order collection, for example, obviously has a lot of roots in the punk aesthetic, but it is also a way for me to focus on politics and convey my thoughts through the designs. More importantly, though, like with music, people can take what they want from the designs. It’s like a collage of interpretations.”
I don’t think there would be any way I could speak about music and Atelier without asking Morgan about the celebrity audience the brand has garnered. “Yeah it’s a bit insane. The Billie Eilish one was totally random, we had no idea that was gonna happen until it did. With Fontaines, that was actually a bit of a luck; I had reached out to one of them on Instagram and offered to send him some stuff, and it went from there.” I ask if there is anyone that Morgan would love for Atelier to dress yet: “Cage the Elephant or Jarvis, definitely; especially jarvis. Would suit the South Yorkshire vibe!”
Photo: Charlie Sweeney
Morgan then shows me round the warehouse, and talks me through the process of actually making an Atelier garment. “The whole idea stems back to my original upcycling motivation; there’s already enough clothes in the world, so I would rather adapt them into something new, than just generate more. I pick the base garments myself, based on personal preference; I usually try and envision how I want it too look. Then, once we have them, we screen print the patches on. We use a second-hand carousel to do it all; like the clothes, we don’t really trust new stuff, so most of the equipment is second-hand. The patches themselves are designed on the computer, and they’re always black-and-white.”
Throughout our time talking, it is very clear that, for Morgan, Atelier is Sheffield (and Barnsley), and the region is hugely important to the DNA of the brand. But, given the lack of fashion infrastructure here, does he feel the call of the big smoke? Is he tempted to leave to pastures new? “No, I wouldn’t enterntain a move to London at all. Sheffield and Barnsley are so important to London, it just wouldn’t feel right. Could the fashion scene here be better? Absolutely, but I want to help build that up with Atelier, I want to help create that scene. You know, hopefully other kids in Barnsley and in Sheffield can see what we’ve done here and do it themselves.” Looking beyond the surface, as Jarred Up is wont to do, at the region’s fashion scene, it is clear that there is new things happening. Other fashion brands like Thorns and collectives like the Hendricks Foundation are helping to lay the foundations for a new fashion scene in the region; let’s just hope it catches on.
Photo: Charlie Sweeney
But what comes next for Morgan? What does the rest of 2025 and beyond hold for Atelier?
“Main thing is finishing this collection, and getting the shop open to the public. It’s nice, we have got to the stage now where I feel like I we can choose our own destiny for Atelier. I just want to keep creating.”
The new Atelier shop can be found at 73 Earl Street in Sheffield city centre. You can browse their online shop here (they have a Black Friday sale coming up soon!), or buy tickets to their upcoming ‘A Boy In A Dream’ event, taking place on 29th November, here.
Words: Charlie Sweeney
Photos courtesy of Atelier
