The journey of a small business - no fast fashion here!
In 2017 I found my Grandmas scarf from the 1950s. The scarf was brown, moth-eaten, full of holes - but I loved the idea that the scarf she had chosen represented who she was.
I thought about wearing her scarf, super slow, vintage fashion - always a bonus. However brown isn't my colour & to be honest the design was too sensible for me, it was a little decrepit-looking and really wasn't my personality - so I decided to make my own. I didn't think about searching around shops - my immediate thought was to create some designs to suit my personality and see what I could create. In defiance to what was already around, I captured the 'make do' attitude of the family matriarch, and created my first 8 designs.
Back then (2017) there were no scarves in shops like there are now. Discovering my Grandma's scarf really underlined the belief in me that dressing in a way that was true to oneself and character, was an outward way of investing in oneself in a smart, savvy and creative way. My first 8 designs were a statement of invention, a bold and uncompromising, colour confident invention. They were fun, playful and characterful. Fun was the key. They were abstracts of which I hadn't seen anything like before. What I created were a stamp of approval - that I could create my own style. I wasn't particularly worried if anyone else liked them because I never intended or expected them to sell!
I found a digital printing website ( maake.com, for all you budding designers), purchased the cheapest fabric I could, and waited with for the swatches to arrive. Then, manned with a hot glue gun and scissors in hand, I created my first prototype in the quickest way possible - I just wanted to see if this could be something that would work (I still have some of the original ones).
After growing in confidence a little, I decided to make a really nice scarf and go all-out investing in a quality fabric (that I still use to this day)! My first design on the new fabric was 'City Wrap' - a black and white design with neon yellow. A bold, unique statement that was totally 'me'.
Wearing the scarf out to my hairdressers one morning, I was surprised when she exclaimed that she loved my scarf and wondered where she could get one. I rather sheepishly told her that I had made it, to which she promptly purchased one for £14. This was a confidence-boosting, significant moment for me, in putting myself out there as a designer.
From the first week of September in 2017, I sold 6 scarves in 8 weeks. It was a fun experiment at the time. By the end of that 8-week period, a company had noticed my designs on instagram and wanted to purchase my biggest order of 18 scarves as a bespoke pattern for their staff Christmas gifts. After that investment I really started to believe that people loved my designs and that there was something there that was really unique that people would like, and the Kate Whyley Designs brand was created.
The the joy that I experience in creating things, and seeing the excitement thrive in others because of that is part of the root and rationale for creating products that display the individual innovation of colour and character. I think Grandma would be pretty chuffed she'd inspired me, she would be overjoyed it was in a 'respectable' area of fashion - and glad to hear that one of the key principles is to make good quality, treasured pieces, which will inspire others in years to come.