The Welsh label, Hiut Denim, has just 20 employees.
A small denim company in Wales is suddenly swamped with orders after their jeans were spotted on a celebrity client — Meghan Markle.
Hiut Denim, a small company made up of approximately 20 employees in the Welsh town of Cardigan, received a call from the press asking them to confirm that their jeans were being worn by the duchess-to-be during her visit to a youth center in January.
"We’re all going, 'Wow,' like that was a really cool moment," co-founder David Hieatt told APTN. "That’s the moment we found out — literally — that phone call.”
From that moment on, their company went from their normal production of 150 handmade pairs of jeans per week to a three-month-long waiting list.
"These people make great jeans, they’re world-class makers," Hieatt said. "Suddenly, the world is watching them and paying attention to their skills, so it’s good."
To meet the demand, Hieatt said they are taking on more staff, which leaves locals of the small town located on the western tip of Wales hopeful that the renewed attention to their industry will jolt their economy.
Cardigan’s main employer, a mass-production denim factory, shut its doors in 2002 and left 400 people — equal to 10 percent of the town’s population — unemployed.
This is not the first time the so-called "Markle Sparkle" has caused a boom in demand for local clothing boutiques.
The website for Canadian fashion company Line the Label crashed just minutes after Markle wore their signature white jacket during her engagement announcement and a handbag by Scottish brand Strathberry sold out minutes after Markle was seen carrying it during a separate outing.
Both brands renamed their attention-grabbing pieces "The Meghan" in her honor.
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