The shop, Swann's Way, metamorphed from Vernon Rumbold, agents who specialised in selling clothes made by British Craftsmen to posh US retailers. Holly Rumbold & Elspeth Vernon floated into the rag trade in the 1980's when they were lucky to act as PA's to Philippa Powell, the clever inventress of the Chelsea Crafts Fair. They helped Lady Powell to select exhibitors, do the secretarial work and generally administer & produce the show. Once the Fair was up and running, Vernon & Rumbold were given free rein by Lady Powell to put on adlils fashion shows: to boost the profile of the amazing beautiful clothes & accessories on offer, & to make the point that the Chelsea Crafts Fair was a real showcase for avant garde style & not just a gaggle of well-meaning luddites.

After working with the Chelsea Crafts Fair for several years, Vernon & Rumbold became so enchanted by the creations they were promoting, & the intrepid creators, they offered to help with marketing. Most of the craftsmen live and worked in Wales and other rural places, had young children and found trotting around US buyers impossible; it is also fact that it can be embarassing to sell your own work & easy to vaunt the merits of someone else's.









Vernon Rumbold took on the work of Patricia Lester , Children of The Forest (now Rainforest Clothing Company) & Jasmine Hixson and were successful in selling their work to top US buyers. Elspeth Vemon's large London house (with four children in it), was the base of operations. Patricia Lester became very successful & took over her own selling, so Vernon & Rumbold decided to evict the clothes from home and set up a shop.They call their shop Swann's Way because it was old fashion ( a la recheiche de temps pendu) and started selling Austian clothes because they work well with the hand made lines, being colourful and well-crafted. As time goes by it has become more and more Austrian.