BRAND MAKER ANYA HINDMARCH
The striking thing about Anya Hindmarch, managing director of the hot
accessories brand, is how relaxed she is. While she chats about the joys of
Topshop and sloping off for a massage, it’s easy to forget that this mother
of five – yes, five – commands an empire of 35 shops, turns out It bags from
Chelsea to China and is the woman behind the “I’m Not a Plastic Bag” ethical
shopper, a bag so desirable that, in Taiwan, 30 people were hospitalised
after they were caught in the scrum to buy one. And it was all achieved from
humble beginnings at a shop on Walton Street back in 1993.
For Hindmarch, success comes down to self-belief and determination. “Whether
you’re talking about design or the way you choose your headed paper, you
must have a vision and see it through. I was asked to judge a competition
recently: only one student had finished their collection; six others were
half finished. The winner was the one who made the date.”
She believes that mentoring is vital for anybody who wants to make it in
fashion. “You need someone who is objective and can guide you. I would love
to be able to do that for people.” She recalls the value of her own learning
curve: “I remember hitting brick walls – manufacturers, leather problems –
and having to think, somehow I'll scale them. And the walls do get easier to
climb.”
This upfront attitude towards her business extends to her views on family.
“Never compromise,” she says. “When you’re at home, you’re at home, and when
you’re at work, be at work. We all work evenings and weekends these days,
but you can do it intelligently – you can go to a school play, and call
meetings when they suit you. I had brilliant advice from my mother-in-law,
who said, ‘You must do what’s right for you if you’re going to make this
work.’ With children, it’s about communicating what you’re doing and why,
about explaining that I’m not just neglecting them. I took my son to Tokyo
recently and he was fascinated by it. I think you’re a good role model if
they see that you work hard and are excited by what you do.”
INTERNET QUEEN NATALIE MASSENET
Natalie Massenet puts her success down to something called “the magic”. “The
idea is that anything can happen as long as you visualise it,” she says.
“The only limits you have in life are those you put on yourself. And there’s
enough happiness and success to go round.” In Massenet’s case, the magic
seems to be working. She is the founder of fashion’s leading shopping
website, Net-a-porter.com, which gets 1m hits a month and sells to 170
countries.
Massenet started as a fashion editor at WWD, later moving to Tatler. It was
hardly preparation for a career in e-commerce, but her lack of business
experience allowed her to be hugely ambitious, almost out of naivety. “We’ve
always punched above our weight with our service,” she says. “It’s only in
the past couple of years that we’ve caught up in terms of scale.”
Obviously, there have been sacrifices along the way. “My social life is
nonexistent,” she says. “I feel guilty, and spread myself too thin, but I
love what I do and I’m just trying to get better every day.” And the bigger
the business gets, the easier it becomes. “Our success is now in the hands
of 330 people.”
Massenet’s confidence is almost overwhelming. “You will achieve the plans you
make for yourself. It just so happens that the goals we have are very
ambitious.” And when the going gets tough? “There are three things we always
say in the office: if it was easy, everyone would be doing it; the harder we
work, the luckier we get; and I’ll sleep next week.”
HIGH STREET PRIESTESS KATE BOSTOCK
What Kate Bostock doesn’t know about high-street fashion isn’t worth knowing.
She has revamped Next, has boosted the sales at George at Asda and is the
woman credited with Marks & Spencer’s new-found fashion credibility.
She’s businesslike, no-nonsense and highly motivated, and her dedication to
the job is terrifying. On joining M&S, she upped sticks from
Leicestershire, leaving her husband and sons behind (she now sees them at
weekends), and moved into a flat near her London office. “I describe my job
as an absolute lifestyle. It is about being absolutely committed.” Her sons,
now 16 and 23, had nannies and went to boarding school, but she says she
doesn’t regret any of it. “I always say, just sort it so you’re supported
and decide what you really want to do. It can be done, but you’ve got to
make commitments. Don’t underestimate what is involved.” And that is serious
hours. She spends weekends checking out the competition, keeping a note of
shops, which she visits in rotation. “The people who do the best jobs never
switch off. I am 100% obsessed with what I do, but I don’t find it hard.
It’s a fabulous job and I love it.
“You’ve got to have ambition,” Bostock continues, “but the most important
thing is that you enjoy what you do and that it feels right. You are in
charge of your own destiny, and if it doesn’t feel right, just move on.”
TALENT SPOTTER LULU KENNEDY
Fashion and altruism aren’t two words that often go together, but as director
of Fashion East, this is Lulu Kennedy’s mission. Her company, founded in
2000, is a not-for-profit organisation that, each season, takes three
unknown designers, picked by her panel of experts, and gives them a show at
London Fashion Week. With luminaries such as Jonathan Saunders, Gareth Pugh
and Richard Nicoll all from her stable, it’s clearly quite a start.
Kennedy didn’t have a bulging address book – “The only people I
knew were Giles [Deacon] and Hussein [Chalayan]”– or a fashion
background. But with production experience gained organising raves in Italy,
she returned to work at the Old Truman Brewery and found herself in the
right place at the right time.
How has she built such a successful organisation? “It’s so obvious it sounds
stupid, but you’ve got to put in the work. Some people think you can click
your fingers and be fabulous, but you’ve got to build up credibility and
hone your own aesthetic.”
Her advice for those seeking sponsorship is simple. “You’ve got to be
super-clear and super-bright,” she says. “Edit down – why
show 20 okay looks when you can show 10 killer ones? And do your research –
give a damn good reason why we should work with you.”
Kennedy is now one of the most respected names in the business. “I feel so
lucky,” she says. “I do see other people with great jobs who might be better
paid, but I really enjoy my life. My mum says I’ve found the perfect job:
when I was a kid, I would have dolls’ parties and dress them up and put on a
show – the little event producer.”
Now Kennedy’s all grown up, she’s doing the adult version.
SHOPPING PIONEER ALANNAH WESTON
“I've always worked for really strong women, women who were turning something
around,” says Alannah Weston, the creative director of Selfridges. It’s a
description that could easily apply to her. Her family bought the chain in
2003 and set about reviving its fortunes, with Weston delivering what is now
seen as the hippest department store in the capital.
Retail, she says, is a great place to be right now. It’s moving fast –
“We don’t have two seasons any more; we have five or six” –
and customers are demanding a complex mix of the disposable and the
valuable. “Somebody once said, ‘I drink champagne, but I also drink
Coca-Cola,’” she explains. ”And there is no reason we should divide people
up – we all do both.”
Weston’s business style, meanwhile, straddles the organised and the artistic.
“I try to be as organised as I can, then leave space for chaos and
inspiration. I’ve learnt to trust the people around me – they’re
the experts, and if you surround yourself with experts, you can take the
long view. ”
Building a career in fashion, she says, is about learning from the best people
you can.
“It doesn’t matter if that means you have to pack boxes or work in the shoe
cupboard.”
And if you’re looking for a job with her? “You’ve got to like pace. I like to
hire people who have been waitresses or something like that – they’re
quick. And have intelligence – being able to read a newspaper or a
magazine and just get it. That’s what I look for when I hire young people.
And good spelling.”
DESIGN GURU SAMANTHA CAMERON
“As a teenager, I was desperate to be a fashion designer,” says Samantha
Cameron, creative director of the luxury-goods firm Smythson. “I would never
have dreamt I’d end up doing this.” Her path to the top has been somewhat
organic – she started out doing fine art, then set up a design
consultancy, doing “a bit of interiors, a bit of furniture design: I used to
love doing kitchens”.
Then, 10 years ago, she found herself at Smythson, ready to inject an eye for
fashion into the brand’s line of stationery and accessories. “I don’t think
it necessarily matters what you are trained in,” she says. “If you
experience things visually and have a sense of design, you can move between
different disciplines. I think letting things happen and being brave about
opportunities is definitely a positive thing.”
But then, design runs in the family – her mother used to have a jewellery
business and now runs the furniture company Oka. “My mum has always worked,”
Cameron says, “and she has been incredibly encouraging.”
She has a personal life to rival the most frantic mother – her husband is
leader of the Conservative party, and she has three children under six, one
of whom has cerebral palsy. “Having a family is a huge challenge,” she says.
“I want to be a great mum and be really good at my job, but it’s difficult
to strike a balance. You have to set yourself rules, and you can’t keep
everyone happy all the time. I am strict about the hours I work [she does a
four-day week] and how much I’m prepared to travel. I’ve become very good at
compartmentalising my life.”
Rules and order are helpful in the job, too. “I think that sometimes the best
designs come out of a certain amount of constraint,” she explains. “A blank
page can often be more difficult to design out of than a box you can bounce
ideas off. Design is about solving problems and working with a brief.”
