In July, Princess Kate stood on the sidelines at the Guards Polo Club, sipping a glass of Champagne in a cornflower blue dress by Beulah London and cheering Prince William on during a charity polo match. Along with a pair of chic sunglasses, she was wearing the Sonia model in blue silk crepe de chine, a floral pattern on the bodice and a subtly whimsical peacock motif on the sleeves. The kiss she planted on William’s cheek after he celebrated a win was the headline grabber that day, but her outfit also got plenty of attention. The dressy yet casual look perfectly summed up Kate’s style at its best.

Kate’s polo day also felt like the end of a comeback arc for Beulah. The brand, which was founded by Lavinia Brennan and Lady Natasha Rufus Isaacs in 2010, has been associated with the princess ever since she first stepped out in one of their looks in 2011. For years, Kate has relied on Beulah’s statement-making designs for special occasions and to emphasize her style evolution from newlywed to young mom to working professional.

“She wore something from our very first collection, which was incredible,” Rufus Isaacs tells Vanity Fair in a video call. “So we’ve had her support for a long time.”

Despite their high-profile loyal customers, the company ran into some of the troubles that have faced many independent fashion brands over the last few decades. When lockdown orders came down in March 2020, it nearly brought the business to the brink. That July, the business went into voluntary liquidation. But at the time, Rufus Issacs told the Mail on Sunday that she and Brennan had every intention of bringing the brand back to life.

Beulah London launched with an unusual selling point. Rufus Issacs and Brennan set out to create a socially conscious brand, making their dresses in England, but packaging them in a tote bag sewn in Calcutta, India, by women who were survivors of human trafficking. For Brennan and Rufus Isaacs, their acquaintance with charities helping trafficking victims came before the idea to start a business. The pair, friends since childhood, took a trip to India to spend a few months working at Atulya Home, an aftercare home in Delhi that houses women escaping from abusive labor situations and sex trafficking.

“I’d heard about human trafficking through the church that I go to,” she tells VF. “I couldn't believe that it was happening in today’s society, but it’s also happening on our doorstep. We just wanted to go and find out a little bit more.”

It was an eye-opening experience for them both. They were living in South Delhi, a very different environment than the Gloucester countryside where Rufus Isaacs was raised, and they were working with women who had experienced trauma and abuse.

It was also an education in how the economic context can influence a person’s vulnerability to sex work and exploitative labor conditions. “We were teaching them very basic sewing skills in the afternoon,” Rufus Issacs explains. “And I loved the idea of teaching these women a skill that could keep them from going back into that life and give them a sustainable livelihood.”

Before the trip, Rufus Isaacs had been working at Sotheby’s and didn’t have a background in fashion other than being, as she puts it, “obsessed with dresses.” But Atulya had them thinking about starting a business that would allow them to keep contributing their energy and funds to the women they had been working with.

Rufus Isaacs remembered the perfect idea coming to mind as the pair relaxed on a day off. “We were flicking through a magazine, and we just sort of said, why don’t we just set up a fashion business?” she says. “Why don’t we set up a dress brand—actually being inspired by India, by the colors, by the fabrics—that can then have a positive impact on these women?”

Beulah’s founding coincided with a period when human trafficking and modern slavery were becoming mainstream concerns. In 2000, the United Nations adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, after observing that globalization had altered value chains and labor markets in a way that increased labor abuse. By the end of the decade, governments across the globe were coming up with methods for intervening in trafficking networks. Through nonprofits like Love146 and Agape International Missions, nongovernmental organizations around the world were putting the issue on the agenda too.

At a moment when ethical fashion was also taking off as a tool for brand awareness and customer retention, Beulah was positioned to succeed, though Rufus Isaacs says that, in hindsight, she wishes she had gone to business school before diving in. But with a bit of seed funding—and the type of press attention that comes from being a longtime friend of Prince William—they made a splash early on. They also made inroads with an array of other British women who straddle the line between It girl and aristocrat, like Cressida Bonas, a former girlfriend of Prince Harry.

Though the brand’s backstory helped propel it to the forefront of British fashion, the founders’ innate sense for the type of events their customer would be attending, be it the Royal Ascot or a formal wedding, helped them stay popular with those looking to make an investment for a piece that will last.

“I think it is our timeless, romantic pieces,” Rufus Isaacs says. “Our Ahana [style], for example, is our best-selling product. We’ll bring it out in different colorways, and it’s gone within, like, a couple of weeks. So we had a lemon Ahana, which has little buttons down the front. It’s quite romantic in that sense.”

These are, in other words, occasion dresses, and it meant that a world without events would prove perilous for the brand. “COVID was really tricky for the business, because suddenly our sales went from a record February, and then they dropped off a cliff, because suddenly there is no Ascot, and none of all those events that our customer goes to,” Rufus Isaacs says. “No one was going to any weddings, any events, so that was really tricky.”

The July 2020 liquidation came at the end of a few shaky years for the brand. That month, the Mail on Sunday called it the result of “the Kate curse,” noting that a few other brands that had dressed the royal in her early years had shuttered. But over time, the pandemic proved to be a generational reckoning for independent fashion businesses across the globe, and a moment where designers were increasingly forthright about the long-term headwinds facing the industry.

The restructuring also happened as both founders were going through changes in their personal life. Brennan became a mother for the first time, and Rufus Isaacs gave birth to her third daughter. Though Beulah had been like a child for Rufus Isaacs, having a family of her own meant that she was more “ruthless” in her decision-making process so she could make it home to her children. It also solidified her passion for the business and its mission.

“That period, Lav and I really took a step back and we really looked at the business, looked at our product offering,” she says. “Four styles were driving our top revenue. So we looked at those and put those in a few other colorways and really looked at simplifying the business. In fashion, it’s often so complicated and there are so many SKUs. We just wanted to bring it back to, like, Okay, what also do we love wearing?”

The classic Ahana dress in a few of those colorways became the cause for the media to take notice of Beulah’s return in June 2022. Both Princess Beatrice and Sophie Winkleman, the wife of Lord Frederick Windsor, wore a version of it to the Platinum Jubilee Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral; Beatrice wore it in pale blue while Sophie opted for hot pink. For some dresses, it could have felt like a fashion faux pas, but the structure and sophistication of the dress meant that they both fit right in. Even Kate owns a pink version of the dress, which she wore to Wimbledon in 2022, and again to an engagement at the Young V&A in late June 2023.

A decade after their entry into an ethical-fashion boom, Beulah’s lasting commitment to the model has proven unique. Rufus Isaacs explains that making a product the way they do requires patience and flexibility, which doesn’t always come naturally to the fashion world. But it has helped them carve a different path. Recently, the brand has begun sourcing regenerative cotton as a way to reduce the carbon impact of their clothing, and last month, Rufus Isaacs, Brennan, and a handful of their staff traveled to India with the aim of drawing inspiration for the next spring/summer collection and expanding their supply chain.

For Rufus Isaacs, the dresses help connect the customer to a world outside themselves. “We want our customers to feel beautiful inside out. Empowering her, but also empowering her by knowing that this product might have had an impact on a woman who has been through trauma and is now making a fair wage,” she says. “For us, that also creates loyalty with our customers. I think that’s really positive.”