Lord Von Schmitt: Handmade Crochet Clothing

Lord Von Schmitt is a colorful fashion high-end brand. They put a spin on crochet (a form of textured fabric knitting with a hooked needle) by incorporating 70s style psychedelic patterns into the designs. You can shop through their collection of ready-made items, from umbrellas to underwear, pants, blankets, socks, baby clothes, etc. Otherwise, you can custom order designs.

Founder, CEO, and designer Schuyler Ellers owns Lord von Schmitt, the company name originating from his nickname in college. A former English teacher in Spain, he also did a bit of acting. Today, Schuyler remains active in the company, currently residing in Nevada City, working from home, designing and selling his items through his website and online retailers like Etsy and Amazon.

The company began to take shape when Schuyler took up knitting as a hobby while teaching overseas. He also did some part-time acting and would knit costumes for himself and his fellow actors, learning how to repurpose old clothing into fashion hot-pieces in the process.

In 2010, while back in the USA, he tried selling his fashion masterpieces at a Los Angeles fashion show, with little success. His designs, however, gathered more traction when a popular blogging site wrote a post about him. He set up an account on Etsy and would sell from there as a side gig.

It wasn’t until 2015 that E! Television Network ran a piece on him and his designs that things picked up, and it became a full-time job for him. His colorful trance state designs became a trendy choice of attire at music concerts such as Burning Man. Some of them retailing up to $2500.00 for customized outfits. It was then that he decided to look for investors to help grow his brand. And try to spread its reach into more mainstream markets.