By Margot Delacroix-Patel
About eighteen months ago I made a decision that I have not regretted and that has also, I will be honest, been occasionally inconvenient. I decided to stop buying fast fashion. Not to reduce it, not to be more mindful about it, but to stop entirely. No more £12 tops that pill after three washes. No more jeans that lose their shape by the second wear. No more buying things because they're cheap and available and I'm standing in a shop on a Saturday afternoon with nothing better to do.
The inconvenient part is that buying less but better requires actually finding the better things, which takes time and attention and a willingness to spend more on individual pieces than I was used to. The convenient part is that when you find the right thing, you know immediately. And you wear it constantly. And it justifies itself within about a fortnight.
The Valery skirt was one of those things.
What I Was Looking For
I'd been wanting a corduroy maxi skirt for two winters. Not a thin, limp one. A proper one — substantial fabric, high waist, a silhouette that moves well, and pockets that are actually useful rather than the decorative gesture that passes for pockets in most women's clothing. I'd looked at several options and kept finding the same problems: synthetic fabric, made in conditions I couldn't verify, or the right fabric but the wrong shape, or the right everything but no pockets.
No More Nobody's Valery skirt solved all of it. Deadstock organic cotton corduroy — fabric repurposed from limited-run sources, which means no new resources extracted and no two batches quite identical. High-waisted maxi silhouette. Deep, practical pockets integrated without adding bulk. And handmade in small batches in South London, which meant I could actually understand where it came from and who made it.
The limited-edition nature of it was the thing that made me order immediately rather than thinking about it for another week. Deadstock fabric runs out. When it's gone, that version of the skirt is gone. I'd learned this lesson before by waiting too long on something I wanted and finding it sold out. I didn't wait.
You can find it here: No More Nobody Valery High-Waisted Corduroy Maxi Skirt with Pockets
When It Arrived
The fabric was the first thing I noticed. Proper corduroy — the kind with actual weight and texture, the kind that makes a soft sound when you run your hand across it. Not the thin, almost-corduroy that gets used in cheaper versions. The kind that will look better in five years than it does now, because corduroy softens and improves with wear in a way that synthetic fabrics simply don't.
The fit was exactly right. The high waist sits where it should — not at the natural waist in a way that requires constant adjustment, but properly high, structured, holding its shape through a full day. The skirt falls cleanly from there without clinging or pulling. I wore it for eight hours on the first day, including a long walk and a dinner, and it looked the same at ten in the evening as it had at nine in the morning.
The pockets. I want to say something specific about the pockets. They are deep enough to hold a phone, keys, and a card without the skirt pulling to one side. This is not a small achievement. This is, in women's fashion, practically a miracle.
Six Months In
I have worn this skirt at least once a week since it arrived. With chunky knits in winter, with linen shirts in the warmer months, with trainers for casual days and boots for everything else. It has been washed repeatedly and looks exactly as it did when it arrived. The corduroy hasn't flattened. The waistband hasn't stretched. The pockets haven't sagged.
It is, by some margin, the most cost-per-wear efficient thing I've bought in the last two years. Which is the point of buying well rather than buying often. You spend more once and then you stop spending, because you have the thing and the thing lasts.
I've also had more compliments on this skirt than on anything else I own, which I mention not because compliments are the point but because it's a useful data point about how it reads in the world. People notice it. They ask where it's from. I tell them, and they look it up on their phones while we're still talking.
Who This Is For
Anyone trying to build a wardrobe of things that last rather than things that are cheap. Anyone who has been looking for a corduroy maxi skirt that is actually made properly. Anyone who cares where their clothes come from and wants to support makers who are doing it right. And anyone who has been burned by decorative pockets one too many times.
Browse the full range in our Clothing collection and Apparel & Accessories collection — there's more from No More Nobody and other makers worth exploring if you're building a wardrobe with intention.
The No More Nobody Valery High-Waisted Corduroy Maxi Skirt with Pockets is available now. It's made in limited runs from deadstock fabric. When it's gone, it's gone. Don't wait.
Margot Delacroix-Patel is a translator, slow fashion convert, and person with strong opinions about pockets. She lives in Bristol, wears the Valery skirt at least once a week, and has not bought a fast fashion item in eighteen months. She considers this a personal achievement.
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