Elinor Pitt, Stitched
“ELEVATE FEMALE ROLE MODELS”
Stitched brings together Elinor Pitt’s two passions: technology and interior design. Previously, customers buying curtains or blinds would have to cross their fingers that the colours, fabric and size would work for their space. With Stitched, 3D and Augmented Reality technology enables customers to build and visualise their product before it’s made. More than 50% of fabrics are made in the UK and all of them are eco-friendly, made from natural and recycled fibres.
“One of the reasons I left technology fairly early on in my career was the lack of female role models,” says Elinor, who co-founded Stitched in 2017. “There was no clear idea of what my path might look like.”
In the UK, just 16% of technology professionals are women. Beyond encouraging girls and women to pursue careers in technology, Elinor would also like lecturers and mentors broaden the scope of their career advice. “You can marry the technical and the creative,” she says. Elinor did her first degree in electronic engineering and her second in interior design. The Stitched board is 75% women which matches their customer base.
Stitched is currently in the process of becoming a B Corporation, a certificate for businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. “To be a successful business, we need to think about the whole pie - our employees, our investors, the product, our customers. We want to be a good business across the board.”