Coffee With... ( 2008)

Kara Ross

Friday 19th December 2008

What inspired you to create your jewellery line? I was on a trip to South Africa with my parents when I was younger and they bought me a native gemstone which I then made into a ring. This was really the start of my interest which led me...

Caroline Stanbury

Friday 5th December 2008

What inspired you to create Gift Library? Having been a stylist for years, I found that I wasn’t just styling people but was becoming more of a shopper for them. Often clients would ask me to buy gifts for their husband, friends and even for their children’s stockings at...

Chrissie Rucker

Friday 21st November 2008

What inspired you to create The White Company? It all came about because my then boyfriend (now husband) bought a new house and I wanted to show him what good wife material I was so, I set off to kit out his house. From table linen to towels, everything...

Sophie Conran

Friday 7th November 2008

What inspired you to create Sophie Conran? I’ve always had a business of some sort. Even when I was tiny I had my little shop stall in the street so I suppose it was a natural progression from there. My first real business was with a friend selling underwear....

Annabel Lewis

Friday 24th October 2008

What inspired you to create VV Rouleax? I was a florist for a long time and I was always after ribbons for the flowers and it used to bug me that in all the department stores they only ever had a few metres of “safe” coloured ribbon. I was...

Nicky Kinnaird

Friday 10th October 2008

What inspired you to create Space NK? I was dissastified with what what was out there in the beauty world. Department stores were the place to go if you wanted good quality beauty products, but they were always badly lit with disinterested sales assistants, and trying to pander to...

Lucia Mizzoni

Friday 26th September 2008

What inspired you to create Dolce V? When I first moved to Ireland in 1998 I realised how much I'd taken the luxury lingerie available in Italy for granted. Living in London in 2000 I realised it was no better there so I'd end up filling my suitcase with gorgeous...

Sarah Curran

Friday 12th September 2008

What inspired you to create my-wardrobe.com? I used to own a boutique in North London called Powder and whilst I was doing that I realised that everything was moving online. I started to research the market and found that there only seemed to be either uber luxury or,...

Alexandra de Curtis

Friday 29th August 2008

We had a coffee with Alexandra to find out what inspired her to set up her own business, dig deep about all her shopping habits and discover where she likes to shop online. What inspired you to create Alexandra Bee? The idea came from my frustration at never being able to...

Kirsten Goss

Friday 15th August 2008

What inspired you to create Kirsten Goss? Having done a degree in fine art I wanted to create a brand that would fuse art and jewellery and be utterly unique. It was also important to me to create a brand that customers had a real relationship with. What makes your product...

Madeleine Thompson

Friday 1st August 2008

What inspired you to create Madeleine Thompson? I was working as a buyer for Seibu in Hong Kong and they asked me to design some jewellery for them. I was extremely flattered and tempted but knew I'd probably be better doing it for myself, not for someone else....

Britt Lintner

Friday 18th July 2008

What inspired you to create Britt Lintner? I’d been in the finance world for a good 13 years and I wanted to fill the gap between professional and personal wear. I was sick of wearing suits and feeling drab by the end of the day in what I was wearing but...

Claire Collins

Friday 4th July 2008

What inspired you to create Violet May? I was working in the digital sector so always had my laptop with me but I couldn’t find a fashionable and practical case to carry it in. I’d see all these stylish women with their Anya Hindmarch bag in one hand and...

Alison Chow

Friday 20th June 2008

What inspired you to create Coco Ribbon? It all really started from the lack of lifestyle boutiques in London - boutiques that catered for women and had everything under one roof. We wanted to create a boutique that was like a beautiful home for people to walk into with cute...

Mandy Watkins

Friday 6th June 2008

What inspired you to create Hush? Well I moved to the UK in March 2001 and it was a real low point in the English weather (no surprise) especially as I’ve lived in Australia and Hong Kong before! With the weather so cold and wet I noticed that people weren’t as...

Emma Bridgewater

Friday 23rd May 2008

What inspired you to create Emma Bridgewater? It was actually my Mum’s kitchen. It was always such a warm, sociable, fun place to be with yummy food, people chatting and laughing and generally having a good time. Then one day when I was struggling to find a perfect cup and...

Clare Hornby

Friday 9th May 2008

We had a coffee with Clare to find out what inspired her to set up her own business, dig deep about all about her shopping habits and discover where she likes to shop online. What inspired you to create Pyjama Room? I’ve always wanted to have my own company and thought...

Heidi Klein

Friday 25th April 2008

What inspired you to create Heidi Klein? It all really started when I was going to the Maldives for a bit of winter sun with my boyfriend at the time and I just couldn’t find any nice swim and holidaywear. In the end I just settled on something...

Susannah Hunter

Friday 11th April 2008

What inspired you to create Susannah Hunter? I’ve always had a love for bags and drawing so when I graduated from St Martins I wanted to be able to combine the two in some way. I’d always noticed that there were lots of ‘pretty’ little bags around but not many you...

Fee Craig

Friday 28th March 2008

What inspired you to create Mama La Mode? It was really from meeting women through Lotus actually. So many pregnant women came in complaining that they had nothing to wear for dinner that night with their husband, on holiday or to a wedding, so we began to buy in styles...

Emmy Scarterfield

Friday 14th March 2008

What inspired you to create Emmy? I’ve always had the greatest love for shoes and design and I was at the age when lots of my friends were getting married and they were always asking me to help them find dreamy wedding shoes. I was really shocked by the...

Judy Bown

Friday 29th February 2008

What inspired you to create Bown? Four years ago I sensed an emerging trend of people wanting to know where and how things were really made and I saw a real niche in the market for honest, understated, well made bags. With so many of the big brands going to China...

Nicola Elliott

Friday 15th February 2008

What inspired you to create Natural Magic? It was a couple of things really. I used to work for glossy magazines so was used to being surrounded by luxury everyday. I wanted to create a luxurious beauty range that people would buy in to but had my sister who works for...

Bec Clarke

Friday 1st February 2008

What inspired you to create Astley Clarke? Well the truth of it is actually a bit boring really. I was working for a venture capitalist fund and watching the likes of Net A Porter and Boden breaking the back of online shopping and I realised I wanted to start...

Annabel Gatward

Friday 18th January 2008

What inspired you to create Glamorous Amorous? I think the very initial thing was that I just couldn’t find any luxurious lingerie labels to buy online, so I decided to look into it a bit more and found the most irresistible niche in the market that was just too exciting to...

Sally Walton

Tuesday 1st January 2008

What inspired you to create Carry-a-Bag? Well it was a couple of things really. Firstly I was getting hugely irritated by the sheer amount of plastic bags that people use and just throw away, and secondly I really wanted something to do! I’ve always been a creative person and thought I...

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