As part of our trip to London we got the chance to interview a lovely lady who has started up a business and got got to ask her lots of questions. Due to the meeting being around an hour long, I've had to split the questions and answers into 2 posts. I didn't want to get rid of loads of it because its all really useful information for this project as well as the future.
'Do you do pattern cutting for bags?'
Yeah, I've just started but I'm trying to specialise in bags though
'Oh my god maybe you could help me, I can't pattern cut at all'
Do you make the bags yourself?
'I kind of just do it, they are quite simple shapes, you know the ones on my website, really simple because i didn't study fashion'
I read that you started with graphic design?
'Yeah and then i didn't even do that and then i did interior design. A girl who has an interior boutique, she's called Abigail Hern, I don't know if you've heard of her but i worked for her and made cushions and it kind of evolved from there. So yeah i advent actually studied fashion, i just make it up as i go along.
And the bigger shopper bags, i got one, took it apart and took it from there and just unpick stuff. I want to keep it simple anyway with my designs but i don't want to bring in some other new stuff, like backpacks and things like that, i might need you help.
The guys that make them for me, because when i use a thick leather i get them stitched over in east London so they need patterns and they get a bit impatient with me and they just do the patterns for me but they keep them because they use them all the time - i just give them the leather and they cut them'
So you started with interior and i read you made cushions and they were leather?
'In between working for Abigail Hern, i worked for another company. They make really high end leather sofas and they have a huge store on Finchley road, I worked there and had to know everything about leather. I had to know different types of cow, which country the cow came from, the different grades of leather and if its coated in something or if its a hide. I learnt a lot about leather from them.
Then when i was still doing the cushions for Abigail, even though i left working for her, i carried on making the cushions for her and still do get orders from her now and because they're awkward shaped i used the off cuts to make some little purses, gave one to my sister and some to my friends and then they started putting in orders.
And then it just evolved, Its taken me a long time because i started from scratch and i don't know anything about the fashion industry or where to go or really anything about it. Ive just made my way along and found one guy to make some bags and he wasn't quite good enough and then i found someone else and tried out different people and now I've sorted it. I make a few bits, i get some stuff made at this little workshop where i can use the machines and equipment. I don't have to have it all myself, i can just go in there and hire the machines and get others to make bits and bobs'
How long have you been doing bags for?
'I'd say about 2 years, maybe a bit longer but its been quite a slow process. It wasn't like i set to do it, it evolved'
Do you enjoy it more than making cushions?
'Yeah, no i still make cushions they're on my website. When i get an order i make it and post it out so its fine to do both of them, i obviously like interiors because i worked in interiors for so long. The cushions are made from some of the same leather as the bags, they're metallic, shiny and bright so they all kinda of tie in. I left the interior behind and just focusing on the bags'
When you started university did you ever consider doing fashion?
'no, because i was at UCA and half the uni was fashion. I never really considered it because i wasn't really interested. Well i liked it, i just wasn't interested in studying it. And then i did a course at UCL and did interior design there. Then i still didn't really study fashion but a lot of my friends did and a lot of them work in it so I've figured it out as I've gone along'
I've seen on your website about press, Did they approach you or did you approach them?
'A lot of whats on my website was by luck but I've just employed someone to do PR for me so she's just brilliant, so i've got new press. I was in you magazine, the one that comes with the daily mail. Its good because she's really pushing me, its helping me to be more organised'
Is it just you and one other person or do you have other people?
'Its just me at the moment, but before christmas i had a girl studying fashion in london and she's been working for me for a few days a week to help me and she's going to come back for a few days soon. Another friend of mine, who's not working at the moment, I'm going to employ her for a couple days a week because i need to organised a photoshoot and collections'
Have you had celebrities wear your bags?
'No i haven't but i do need to send some stuff out to people'
Ferne Cotton? I love her
'I would do but then she's got her own range, it would be luck if i could get her to wear it'
Or bloggers?
'No I've sent bags to bloggers as gifts, I've sent bags to journalists and gifted them with a bag or asked them to choose one. Ive just sent a press loan to Fabulous magazine, the one that goes with the Sun. So hopefully they'll be shot now and be in next months issue. I've just sent them 3 bags, they put them in their photoshoot and then send them back to me. So id don't always have to give them away'
My friends cousin is a fashion blogger and that works really well
'Yeah and they would get it as a gift
Yeah and all she has to do is post a photo
'Its a good job isn't it'
When you started up the business, did you finance it or did you have to have financial banking?
'Ive managed to scrape through without getting a loan so far but i think i probably will need to because I'm still not really making much money. Each time i expand the business its one step back on the money front but i have to do it to make the business better.
In the beginning i was doing interior which was just me selling my interior design services so all the money i made in that went to making the bags. The thing is with the bags is that its a lot of money up front, you've got to buy all the leathers, then you've got to get them made, photoshoots done and you've got to get the website done, so you've got all this stuff to do before you sell anything'
Do you make a lot at a time then or do you make them for people?
'It depends i've got a collection which i sell all the time and make a bit of stock. If i know its going to be christmas or if its going into the sale or in a magazine i'll have loads made up ready'
How many do you get made up?
'It depends, if its going into a magazine I'd probably get 10 - 20 made up and for general stock, i try to have a few of each and when they get low, i try to get more in. I've built up a pretty good relationship with the guy who makes them so if i do need one and its not in stock, he's pretty good at doing that but its a bit of running around for me because i have to keep going to pick them up. At the moment before i can afford to have massive stock, thats the only way for me to do it really'
You know your website, did you do that yourself?
'Its actually a big cartel website, you get the standard ones but i did have a girl help me set it up and she put the carousel of pictures on and did some more of the complicated bits and now its easy i just upload everything myself and you just pay 20 dollars a month which is about £12.
We made a few sales off the website and then at christmas time theres loads of christmas fairs, in London theres so many things like that going on all over the place. I did loads of christmas fairs and pop up shops, I had a little portable card reader you could take with you so i used that'
How do you organise a pop up shop, how do you go about it?
'I did one here actually (islington) and that was through a friend of a friend who knew the guy that owned the building so he managed to get into contact with him and say look theres this empty building can we use it and he was really kinda and let us use it. It looks better if theres something going on in there instead of being just an empty space. It was a bit of a shell though, there was nothing in it, it was quite hard work to get it set up. And another one, she's actually one of the mums from my daughters school, she has a littler gallery space near where i live so me and some of the other mums who make stuff got together and did a little pop up shop near where i live and that was the best one'
So its all contacts?
'Yeah, theres not a lot going on round where we live, its quite a quiet residential area, that worked really well because everyone was really excited about it an everyone knew everyone who was involved in it. Where as here theres so much going on, so many nice shops to compete with on upper street it didn't really work as well as a quiet little residential street which is weird but thats how it worked'
Do you do your business full time or do you still do interiors?
'Not really, some friends of ours have bars and i sometimes help them out with a few bits and nick my other half has got a building contracting business, he had a restaurant to do up from scratch and i did the interiors for that project, so if I'm low on cash i have to do that'
Did you say you have children?
'Yeah one little girl'
Do you find running a business with a daughter hard?
'no it is hard because childcare in the beginning childcare was really expensive but not she's at school full time so the childcare costs have cut down but at the moment its good. But if i had another one it would be tricky, thats why i haven't had another one but its difficult like she's coming round with me to all the leather merchants and everything, they all know her so they ask for her all the time'
Do you get all your leather locally?
'Yeah'
And are they ethical/buy products?
'They're all full hides straight from Italy, i know you can get certain farming'
At uni we're encouraged to go for a certain company because they're which buy products so they've been killed for meat anyway
'Oh i see, I need to check. I get smaller ones that are sheep, i don't know if they are but i don't know i haven't asked about those ones. But i can imagine they're just killed for their skins'
Our technician Gill is really into leather and she encourages us to use GH Leathers
'Thats a good point tho, i should look into that more, even if its a bit more expensive its a good selling point. The thing is the leather merchants, they change their stock so often and because their buying it from other tanneries, they usually buy it from tanneries in Italy which has minimum order so i can't go directly to the tanneries because i can't do a minimum order. so i have to buy it from them, so if i buy 10 skins its going to cost me. Sometimes it costs me £250 for a skin,
Id like to look at that place whats it called?'
GH Leathers
'And where are they based?'
Local to us but i can't remember but they are good though and quite reasonable - Is that one of your bags? (wearing it and show it to us)
' yeah, that hide there is really soft and quite thick as well so its really good for bags. They are massive cow hides and i pay about £250 for that but its massive. Im actually just doing a collaboration with a mum from school, she designs patterns. She does liberty style patterns, that sort of thing so she's going to do the lining. They'll be some really nice stuff for summer'
Do you have your own studio or do you just work from home?
'I do have a bit of a studio and the only reason i manage to afford a studio is because Nick my other half has a building company and he has an office space, so I've got a section of that. Thats his office for his business, I've been using that for the moment. I was working from home but its better to get out the house but i need a bigger studio and we are actually looking for somewhere at the moment but its just so expensive'
So are you Islington based?
'No our studio is about 10 minutes away from here, we are North London based. And most of the leather i buy and where i get them stitched is in East London so I'm always between the two.
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