Dear ‘fashion preneur  Once you get into the ready to wear space you need to start watching your costs like a hawk. Those simple bespoke days are over, you can no longer charge baselessly just because your client is desperate or capable of paying. Now cost truly matter. As a retailer you must protect...

Dear fashion ‘preneur  We have gotten things twisted for way too long. Keep your standards international and your focus local and not the other way around. The quality of your clothes, your service, your fit, your finishing and your designs must be as close to international best practices as you can afford but focus delivering...

Dear fashion ‘preneur  There was so much fuss over the Stella McCartney Ankara Dress sold at Harrods . So much fuss about the price tag. I honestly couldn’t understand the fuss. Did we all just choose to ignore the 2 monster brands represented in that post? Stella McCartney and Harrods !!!! You do know that’s...

Dear fashion ‘preneur  How does it make her feel?, where does she wear it to? how does it make her look? and can she afford it? These are just 4 of the questions my team must answer before a design is approved and released. We ask an average of 12 questions and a design must...

Dear fashion ‘preneur  It doesn’t matter where you are in the price spectrum. You could have a vision to be a mass market brand like Primark selling basic high street fashion at discounted prices or a luxury brand like Channel selling high-end products at justifiably high price points , whatever your vision, you are selling...

  Dear Fashion ‘preneur  So we are trying to think fashion retailing and not just fashion designing. We now know that fashion retail is all about the numbers i.e how many people can you get to buy your pieces. While we love our regular loyal faithful customers we must also deliberately expand our networks to...

Dear fashion ‘preneur  I don’t joke with quality. My designs must be wearable both inside and out. We have a rule Xclamations , if we can’t make it well then we don’t make it at all. So don’t think this is me giving you permission to deliver crappy work. Quality must be assumed, it is...

“Do what you love and you never have to work a day in your life” This quote is the creative entrepreneurs mantra. But I think it is such an unbalanced truth. It doesn’t matter if you love what you do. It is still WORK and you need a break even from great, fun , satisfying...

 Resist the urge to be a loner even though you love your own company. I am most certainly guilty of the loner syndrome. Give me a room, soft music, a pen and a sketch pad and I can be in there for days totally content. Throw in WiFi and you literally have to break the...

 Not every body has the privilege of earning a living from their creativity but that doesn’t make you less a creative. Working your gift is like breathing, you need it to connect with yourself and to feed your joy. So are you a banker who is really a dancer at heart? Join a dance class...

Be true to yourself. I know this sounds cliché. It’s great advice for everyone in general but for the creative it’s EVERYTHING….. It’s our life line. I would even go a step deeper and dare say I WILL RATHER BE TRUE THAN RIGHT!!! Being authentic for a creative is life itself. Deny us this? And...