My business devenir la mode, which is French for come into fashion, was born this year. It has been developed through my many mishaps and ups and downs trying to find something that would fit around my now 4 year old.
I knew that when I had my daughter 4 (and a bit) years ago that working as I had been in Selfridges, sometimes until 9pm, would be a challenge. Then she arrived and turned my world upside down, as children do, I knew that I had to find something that would fit around her, her needs and my needs as a mother. Whilst working part time I had family to help out with childcare as paying for it would make going back to work pointless but I still hated it and didn’t like leaving my 9 month old baby with other people.
I left my job at Selfridges and thought it would be a good idea to train as a teaching assistant as the hours were ‘normal’, I had weekends off and once she started school I would have a job that fitted around her. After a while of this, I realised in some ways it was more demanding and I missed fashion and working with people, I also knew I couldn’t go and work in a shop as I had before, with their unfriendly family hours. So my vintage boutique was born, I did this for a year, made some money, met some great people but it wasn’t enough. I wanted more, more for me, more for my daughter and more for the future.
In December last year myself and my daughter’s father split and I had to move back into my mums with my little girl. My whole world had been turned upside down, as had hers. I was on my own now and I knew that my business had to be sufficient enough to pay our bills and more but I also wanted to love what I was doing. Through some coaching and working with a fantastic money mentor who helped me to come up with my idea for the business, devenir la mode was born.
I knew I wanted to do something that was fashion ordinated and I came up with style and imagery but as the months have gone by my business has changed into something that combines image and style but making it accessible to ALL women, of ALL ages and ALL sizes. I spoke to a lot of people, carried out some research and realised there were a lot of women out there who felt misrepresented by the high street and what it has to offer and that some women can find it hard to dress their body shape especially as their bodies change though their lives.
Fashion and the high street can seem a bit of a mine field so my aim is to help women create a capsule wardrobe that suits their everyday needs. We all need our wardrobe to function as something and that is what I help my clients to do, I don’t focus on just one area of their lives, say corporate for example, I explore ALL their needs and help them to build a wardrobe that will not only change as their needs do but will last. They will be given knowledge and understanding of how to dress themselves, their body shape, how to piece together outfits and much, much more gaining confidence along the way using one of my 4 packages starting from a base to build a capsule wardrobe to an intense 3 day course.
My advice to any mums who are wanting to start their own business would be, do plenty of research, learn as much as you can, I had no idea about marketing and realised I had to do something to market my services, I brought a brilliant book (Get Clients Now) that gave me a great platform to start from. Keep going with your idea and let it evolve and change as you do, it must be organic to grow well. My ideas have changed so much over the last 10 months just as my mind set and outlook on life has changed.
If you would like more information on what I do and how I can help then please do not hesitate to get in touch amiesharratt85@gmail.com. I am just about to launch an exciting online course which will run for 4 weeks and will put you in an amazing place and give you the knowledge you need to start building your very own capsule wardrobe.
Amie is running a free webinar on 31st October ‘Three biggest reasons why we waste money on clothes’ to sign up, click here.