The History of b.ella by Standard Merchandising Company, Highly Recommended by Whom You Know
This brand has been highly recommended:
They have now told Peachy their illustrious history, which we think you will also be impressed by:
The b.ella brand is owned by Standard Merchandising Company, a family-owned textile manufacturer that dates back to 1922. The inspiration behind the brand is a love affair with the most beautiful yarns from Italy. The name “b.ella” is a play on “Biella”, a town in Northern Italy famous for spinning and finishing fine wools and cashmeres. The owners and designers have made and still make frequent trips to Europe to source and, in fact, develop luxurious and novel yarns for our products. Luxury and novelty yarns normally found only in sweaters are available in b.ella legwear. Cashmere yarns, the core of the sock collection are offered in one of the largest color palettes available in the marketplace. It is not unusual for 15-20 colors to be offered in cashmere styles, a detail we know our customer’s appreciate.
Standard began manufacturing socks in its Reading, Pennsylvania knitting mill in the late 1980’s. Needing a niche to distinguish itself in the competitive hosiery marketplace, the company rapidly moved in the direction of producing very high quality socks from luxury fibers such as cashmere, angora, extra fine merino wools, mohair, alpaca, camel hair and the like. Between 1994 and the present time, the company made luxury socks for a large number of the major brands of luxury hosiery, including Polo/Ralph Lauren, DKNY, Ellen Tracy, Ann Klein, Hue, Liz Claiborne, Nautica, Tommy Hilfiger, Brooks Brothers, Ann Taylor, J. Crew, etc.
In sourcing the specialty yarns that went into its products., Standard would from time to time come upon a yarn that would make a truly wonderful sock, but was too expensive, or was deemed too unusual, for many if not all of its private label customers, with their attendant license fees, large store retail markup requirements, need to speak only to the larger market and so forth. Standard always felt that there was a market for some of these truly luxurious yarns and longed to incorporate them into legwear. B.ella was launched in 1999 to answer that desire and reach that market. Within a matter of months, the brand, with its distinctive embossed woven label, had national distribution and recognition. Today, b.ella is available in over 1,000 luxury apparel boutiques, as well as in some better major retail chains.
Over 98% of the socks sold under the b.ella brand are manufactured in our mill in Pennsylvania. B.ella tights, some of which are made exclusively for the b.ella line, are made in Italy.
