St. Mary crochet designer builds summer fashion brand from handmade craft

St. Mary-based crochet entrepreneur J'Adore Lovell Byfield is turning handmade designs into a growing Jamaican fashion label, after launching Crochet by J'Adore in 2022 while searching for a new hobby.

Lovell Byfield said her interest in crochet began in childhood, when she watched her mother work with yarn and asked to learn how to hold the needle. Years later, after losing her job during a company restructuring, she began treating the craft as a business, taking orders and approaching people attending parties who wanted distinctive outfits.

Her first piece for the brand was a pink tank top and skirt. Since then, she has expanded into summer-ready items, including sun hats, bags and pieces inspired by shells. She said her latest collection focuses on vivid colours, pearls and seaside details, after noticing that customers responded well to that look.

Lovell Byfield said some of the designs are built from patterns she finds online, including jelly bean, seashell and conch shell styles. She explained that crochet patterns often depend on counting rows and increasing stitches, which makes them easier for her to remember and reproduce.

Getting materials remains one of her main business obstacles. She said supplies can be hard to source in St. Mary, forcing her at times to travel to Kingston or depend on others making the trip.

Beyond the business, Lovell Byfield said she is raising money through GoFundMe for cochlear implant surgery. She said she has dealt with hearing problems for three years and has been completely without hearing for more than a year. The surgery, she said, would help rebuild her hearing, though learning to understand speech again would take time.

She described Crochet by J'Adore as an outlet for her broader love of creative arts, saying the brand is rooted in both passion and personal resilience.