Nicola, tell us about the perfect breakfast.

I'm a creature of habit when it comes to my daily breakfast: I make overnight oats, mixing things up every evening before I go to bed. Oats, frozen fruit, nuts, honey, chia seeds, peanut butter, Greek yoghurt and soya milk. I've been eating it for years and it's often my favourite meal of the day. I'm usually up and out of bed between 6.30–6.45am, and I enjoy my coffee before the house wakes up and the chaos begins! If I eat breakfast out, I tend to go for pancakes. I love fluffy American-style pancakes, usually topped with fruit and maple syrup or a dollop of something sweet, and eating outside in the sunshine would be the ideal setting for me. We're lucky in Brighton to have so many beautiful places to eat breakfast, but if I could pick, it would probably be the Reading Room, looking out to sea, listening to the waves. One of my favourite things is to just sit and look out to sea, shimmering like lost pirate treasure as far as the eye can see. I feel calm, at peace and able to think there.

The name of the company and of the scents, clearly shows a real love for Brighton. Is it the place that inspired you the most?

I love the beach and am grateful to live within a five-minute walk of Brighton seafront. I love the sunrise, the sunset, a stroll on the pebbles, or even just a glimpse of the sea in my short lunch break when I work from home. A lot of the inspiration for Kemptown Provisions has come from my love of the place I live, its history and its people. The pebbles on the beach helped shape the colour palette for each bar; the soap names are all connected to Brighton's places, its people, its history. I love Queens Park, which is at the other end of our road (the sea is at the other). Queens Park has a little café and our son is obsessed with the bread they bake! But the beauty of Queens Park is what I love: the blossoms on the trees in spring, the baby swans on the pond, the Sunday parkrun, just sitting and watching football or table tennis and people-watching, everyone enjoying the beauty of the park.

Is there a person that has had a lasting impact on you?

This would be our daughter, Betsy. Betsy is 12, but her life has inspired me to never give up: never give up hope of getting to where you want to be, of bringing happiness and joy, and of fulfilling a dream. Betsy was born with congenital heart disease, a condition called tetralogy of Fallot, and developmental dysplasia of the left hip. Betsy has been through more than most adults would ever encounter: open-heart surgery twice, and a big operation to rebuild her hip. The determination and strength we all had to find during those early years made us stronger, helping us survive some of the darkest times on the slimmest glimmers of hope. Betsy helped us trust the process, slow down, and have compassion and empathy, but also a deep grit and determination to keep going. It’s a lasting impression watching her grow, and a daily reminder that life is fragile. It’s not always the perfect road, and sometimes you have to believe, dream and work hard if you truly want something.

And a book that has stayed with you?

I'm trying to read more and have joined a book club. I'm slow, but I want to make it more of a daily habit. A book I remember, and one I will definitely read again, is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I'm a firm believer in following your dreams, manifesting the things that make you happy, and believing that if you want something enough and work hard, those dreams will come true. I sometimes put pictures or reminders around the house to keep my mind focused on them every day.

How about a stroke of luck?

Back in 2020, I was made redundant from a full-time job in London. I'd been dreaming of this happening for a few years, wanting it to happen so I could financially afford to take a more local job and scale back my hours to launch Kemptown Provisions. I was lucky enough to take redundancy and find a job immediately, working for the NHS in Sussex. This change of pace gave me time to work on the brand alongside a part-time job in the public sector, and helped launch the business into what it is today. After a year, I moved full-time with the NHS and ran the business alongside it. I'm still doing that to this day, but I'm hoping and dreaming that early retirement will come soon so I can scale back again and focus on Kemptown Provisions, giving it the time and energy it deserves.

Brighton is a very playful place. What does play mean to you?

Work hard, play harder! For me, play is all about exercise. I need that escape more than I sometimes realise, and I always try to stick to my routine. Even when it's tough and I don't want to go, I always feel amazing afterwards, and I'm truly grateful to my body for being able to do what it does. Do the thing. Why wait for tomorrow?

You have been running the business for a few years now: what is your revelation about commerce?

Starting out with a small business, I’ve learnt a lot along the way, and some of it falls under “what not to do next time.” Saying “yes” to things I probably should have said “no” to is one thing I’m definitely getting better at: trusting my instinct and not trying to do everything. Even some of the poor decisions on market venues or pop-ups have helped me make better choices going forward, right down to the point-of-sale equipment I need. How can I make this work if it’s just me attending? What are the bare essentials I need to make it a success, that I can realistically manage on my own, but that still represent the love of my brand? Being forward-thinking and organised, and making sure I have a plan, are the key things I’ve learnt. Plan, get it in the diary, and get it done!

And what is your hope for the future?

I have a short-term dream with a long-term goal. My short-term plan, which I'm actively exploring, is taking early retirement. This will give me time: time to focus on the business, and time to grow the brand. Its success to date has been slow but organic, and I'm truly grateful to everyone who has bought our soap, stopped to chat at makers' fairs, or given feedback on our branding and packaging, and to all the lovely makers I've met along the way. It's opened up a whole new world for me, one I'm excited to be more present for in the coming years. This isn't going to happen immediately. It's a realistic 3-5-year plan, and a hope for the future that I intend to bring to fruition.

kemptownprovisions.com

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And so, today, a brief moment to consider originality. And a chance to celebrate all of you who are, I am certain, doing all that you can to strive toward that accolade.

And to explore this with us is Emily Forgot. Emily is a designer and visual artist and one who embraces colour, texture, 3D, spaces. Her work includes collage, sculpture, assemblages and spatial design. She has worked with the V&A, Carl Hansen, Very Good and Proper, the Wander Art Trail and Selfridges to name but a few from a very long list.

I have long admired her work and, increasingly, her process. She shares visual delights on her social media and most excellent substack, Soft Fascination, and appears to have a gift of showing and sharing things others haven’t spotted or seen or celebrated. Details, colour palettes, historical references, combinations. I am delighted and grateful for her eye and ability to communicate. So when it came to considering this topic, I was pleased as punch that Emily agreed to join me!

And so, originality. What does it mean? Why is it important? How can we pursue it? Who and what and where can help us? How do we put the blinkers on? How can we check and test our thinking?

And so welcome to Up With The Lark And Emily Forgot on the Pursuit of Originality.

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As Head Gardener at The Knepp Estate, Charlie champions the Walled Garden. A visionary experiment in maximising biodiversity, in rewilding, in allowing nature to flourish. What started as a croquet lawn is now a mosaic of treasures, enticing the bees, the dragonflies, the turtledoves and our attention.

And so today, we are more than lucky to steal Charlie away from the outdoors to ask about his story, what and who has influenced him and, of course, the perfect breakfast.

And so, we begin with the perfect breakfast…

For Charlie, breakfast is the first reward of the day having worked for it. Whatever the weather, it is an offering enjoyed after the first rounds of the garden and offers a moment to reflect. This is someone who eats what he grows. Not exclusively, of course, but seasonality is a significant voice in what lands on the breakfast table whether at home or at work. It might just be a garnish, but it plays its part.

Charlie is clearly an ambassador for a movement and a way of thinking. And so, I am keen to ask, who has been a significant influence?

Charlie’s list offers up an almost utopian community of curious and experimental minds, sharing ideas and insights and information. He is clearly inspired by many of those working in a similar arena with specific areas of knowledge. Isabella Tree, owner of Knepp and author of Wilding, has clearly been important. But there are many others. They use a lot of recycled building materials at Knepp - John Little, a gardener based in Essex, is a real leader in that area and Charlie has learnt a great deal from him.

“He has really filled me with confidence to experiment with different materials for plants and wildlife”, explains Charlie, ‘and so has Swedish gardener Peter Korn who has really impacted my thinking on resilient plants based in sand”.

When I ask whether there have been important places that have influenced Charlie, I am delighted to hear a long list of treasured gardens.

Alongside this list, Charlie admits that there have been so many places that he previously wrote off as a wasteland but now he can see the potential within. He is now much better at seeing what an opportunity there might be. He also loves mountains and the pockets of rainforests in the UK on the Cornish coast: “I like seeing the whole system,” he says, “playing out and how everything is interconnected.”

Great Dixter has also been a tremendous influence on a lot of people for the betterment of horticulture: “they have a truly experimental and playful spirit that is really important.”

Names and places tumble out. Each and every one appears a celebration of curiosity. And so, I had to ask how he kept finding more and more treasures. It is too easy to become complacent and turn to the same people, places, references. His answer? Conversation:

“There is no substitute to a real face to face conversation with someone. It so often ends up with someone making a suggestion, sharing an idea, offering a connection. We are also really lucky at Knepp that great people come to visit us. It’s an unusual project so it attracts interesting people. It might be a DM on Instagram saying ‘I am just passing, can I pop in’?”

Symposia, events, gatherings are also great tools for developing your thinking, Charlie admits that “the gardening community is very good at a conference”. Earlier this year the Wilding Gardens Conference - a gathering of thinkers and doers - was an interesting experience.

Wisely, he warns against such gatherings becoming an echo chamber. He makes clear that you need someone to bring debate and shares examples:

“You need someone to consider glyphosate in an anti-chemical community. Someone who explores the working conditions in public gardens which can be problematic. You need differing opinions. You need honesty. You need something unexpected. A shake up. There is not a simple right and a simple wrong, that is not how natural ecosystems function. Sadly there can be people who get militant and get themselves embroiled in social media comment sections. I am not keen on confrontation so I stay well clear! Each garden and setting is different, unique and so you can’t compare. You cannot be completely sure of something. Often I find that the answer to the question is come and visit us, come and see what we are doing here and let’s talk.”

Instagram is also a great tool. He reads as much as he can but social media is a great resource too. There are some well thumbed classics in his collection that he continually comes back to. For example, the Well-Tempered Garden by Christopher Lloyd. One of his real favourites is the WJ Bean ‘Trees and Shrubs’ books. It is an epic library and such a beautiful collection of books:

“It is that sort of thing that reminds me of the core purpose in it all,” says Charlie.

The Vision is abundantly clear. But what about the business element in amongst the wild carrot and the echinacea?

Charlie muses that there are certainly different elements to navigate and it’s baffling when people don’t consider them all together. The Knepp project is an inspiring one but only if it truly brings about change and if it is something that is able to fund itself. It has to be something that can be emulated elsewhere and make financial and ecological sense. It has to have longevity to it.

It is an engaging idea that the visionary and the commercial have been placed hand in hand and make sense together. It’s not just a vanity project, it’s not just a passion project. But it is not always easy to maintain the balance.

“You can’t afford to let anything take a backseat. It’s vital to think about the cafe and the car park, generate content but also to be a plant nerd and grow interesting and weird things. Every time I take a tour round, I see all the things that I want to change and try and work on. The whole approach for us is about dynamism and quality. I think, for me, it is about making sure that I feel like a gardener first and foremost. That is what keeps the play at the heart of things, keeps us taking risks and keeps us experimenting”.

Have there been penny drop moments to make that blend and balance possible?

Charlie’s answer is spot on, especially when you are leading a team, playing a critical role but your name is not the one above the door.

“Saying ‘no’. Historically, I always said ‘yes’ to everything. But I am learning that, to do things well, to develop your expertise, you have to say no sometimes. Sometimes you aren’t the best person. Sometimes it isn’t the right time. Sometimes there is not enough time to do something justice. It means that when I do say ‘yes’, I can do so with full commitment and confidence”.

And what is your relationship with digital? How does it impact your working life? Is AI a useful tool or a distraction or noise?

Charlie is honest that in many ways, he and the team are shielded from that. Gardening is emotional and intuitive so he’s not sure that a robot gardener is possible yet. Ultimately, with gardens, the uncertainty is the magic.

Saying that, Charlie clearly has a very very ordered mind. He likes spreadsheets and diagrams because they provide order. He even has a spreadsheet that records the amount of time that he spends in each part of the garden. So he can tell in what bed and what soil type, how many minutes per square metre they spend managing that area. So data collection is a really critical part of it. AI tools are very helpful in providing and analysing data around the garden. Success measures are both scientific and beauty driven - a wonderful example of the power of the combination.

What can we look forward to?

More magic and better vegetables, Charlie tells me. And I believe him.

I’ve mused on this idea of rewilding and its application to whatever industry you find yourself in whether food or fashion or furniture. Perhaps it is about the interaction with those who purchase from you - how they style the dress or where they put the lamp or how they enjoy the bread - rather than seeing the transaction as the end. Maybe it’s about taking down the fences and allowing other people’s ideas in. What might happen if it was messier? What could flourish if you released control? How might the culture shift if freedom was at the heart of it?

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We feel we know her. We have enjoyed seeing her beautiful, whimsical, Brambly Hedge, modern day Charleston work of art of a home. We marvel at her delightful trio of children bedecked in nighties and wellies. We admire, in awe, the commitment and hard work Tess clearly puts in. But there is always so much more to a creative enterprise than meets the eye. I suspect Tess of being an iceberg and I look forward to exploring the depths today.

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And what will we be ruminating on? The ‘build the aeroplane as you fly the aeroplane’ life that is that of the maker or artist turned entrepreneur. So many talented makers and artists across fabric, paint, wood, metal, mosaic, ceramics then find themselves running businesses. And with it, an arduous and rewarding adventure with its own specific set of challenges.

Firstly, do you know that you suit the life of a maker or artist? When can you tell that there is enough demand to start a business? What is the key to building a successful brand alongside that business? How can you set the culture as you build a team? And, most importantly, how do you protect, nurture and evolve your creative self?

So welcome to Up With The Lark And Tess Newall. I wonder if we might find ourselves eyeing up which surface in our home requires a mural and reassured by Tess’ honesty and insights.

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Lora Avedian was a child and a teenager who knew exactly where she was headed. At age 12, sitting on a London bus with her father, the pair passed Central Saint Martins: “You’ll go there one day,” her father said, matter-of-factly. This story is one of belief. If yours is ever uncertain, this is the story to read.

Raised by creators and makers, Lora grew up with the value of creativity proclaimed from the beginning. Her parents met at Chelsea College of Art, and whilst the realities of life meant that paying the bills trumped creative pursuits, the hope and belief in artistic life were planted early.

Her work today heralds the sun; embroidered blooms look to the light. Lora, though, is not a morning person. Instead she works late into the night. It feels like every great art school imagining: the sewing machine working away while the moon hangs overhead, observing. Rather than breakfast, a morning Yorkshire tea, strong and milky, offers the start she needs.

When it comes to people of influence, Lora’s stories are broad-ranging but always come back to textiles, to fabric and thread, and their potential to tell stories.

A vivacious art teacher at school shared Talking Heads music videos (with those excellent suits) alongside equal regard for Picasso, still lifes, and the classics. A family friend who worked at The Polka Theatre introduced her to the world of costume making.

Time spent with the textile artist Karen Nicol and her husband, the artist Peter Clark, showed what was possible in mixed-media textiles, in collage and layers.

Working at Aquascutum creating Christmas window displays offered yet another chance to see the potential in fabric.

This is an onion-layer story: layer after layer opened to reveal possibility in material, thread, machines, technique, fashion, theatre, home. Possibility and application carry equal weight here. Making matters as much as use.

When it comes to important places, Lora expresses a need that I think many creatives share. She needs a variety of inputs into her work. It is that variety of visual references that allows her to keep developing her work. Pouring in plenty of references enables better work.

The themes of nature, of fabric and patterns plait together in the references that Lora shares. It will be no surprise that nature and wildflower meadows are critical. Metalwork is an important reference, offering pattern and repeats that we can see in Lora’s work, particularly the Looping Forms collection. Lora’s Armenian heritage is significant too. A recent trip to a museum in Yerevan involved many hours looking at pots and ceramics.

Lora prefers podcasts and audiobooks to reading and cites Why Women Grow, hosted by the talent that is Alice Vincent, as something that moved her and influenced her thinking. “I really enjoyed the exploring of understanding yourself through growing things and making things,” she says. “Learning by doing.” I think many will concur.

When I ask Lora about what she thinks about luck. Her answer is characteristically honest. “I feel lucky to have Instagram. It has been a big part of being able to share my work. It has helped me to build my network.”

We delve into the notion of the maker’s life without Instagram as a tool. It takes Lora back to her BA days, when putting on exhibitions was key, as was getting work into magazines, and networking in person with real intent. Whilst it is easy to worry or complain about social media, and not without reason, it is good also to consider the truth of its value.

Another stroke of luck came when Lora was asked to do a residency at Howe on Pimlico Road for London Craft Week.

“Emily from Howe had seen my work and gave me that great opportunity. It showed me a whole new world, interior design,” explains Lora.

Lora’s honesty extends to the commercial side of things too. It was only later in her career that the commercial side of things opened up to her. “It was a real switch to thinking about how I was going to feed myself”. More recently, she has learnt a “lot about confidence and standing by the value of my work.”

You won’t be surprised to hear that Lora is someone who has not stopped playing. Habits from her art school days have remained. Even the pressure of running a business and motherhood has not dulled the flame.

I was struck by her idea that “When you are a creator, nothing can stop you in the end, you just have to make in some way. There is a yearning to make inside you. It is not really optional. Sometimes you might be only just holding on but you find a way.”

It is clear that materials are vital for Lora to play, and I imagine stacks and piles around her studio. Any dip in work or any quiet week becomes the chance to play. It seems that ideas are always brewing, and Lora takes any chance she can to act on them.

“Rather than collapsing into quieter times, I just spend as much time as I can making and experimenting. I grasp it and get going on my ideas. Doing things in practice is more effective for me than thinking in theory. Does the clay bend? Does the fabric work in this way? I’m not a thinker as much as I am an instinctive maker.”

When it comes to the future, Lora is hopeful.

“I hope that handmade things are going to be increasingly valued. It seems to me that more and more craftspeople are being put in the spotlight. Craft is being celebrated in exhibitions and fashion houses. I used to work for JW Anderson. It was a bonkers time but his collections are craft related. He has real integrity about celebrating British craft. It’s why I wanted to work for him. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t also have to do the ‘commercial’ thing as well! But people like him make me feel hopeful.” I agree.

I hope that we will find ourselves knowing the person who made our plates and jumpers. Perhaps we will have shaken the hands that made them.

More personally, Lora is working on a new curtain collection and will be exhibiting her work very soon.

What is interesting to me is that, in amongst all of this, it is Lora’s deep foundational belief that sits with me, stays with me, lights the way. What a gift to be given and to share. Belief and hope are diamonds. That belief is precious.

Loraavedian.com

So in this episode, I am delighted to be able to meet two talented and determined souls who are doing just that. Alice Robinson and Sara Grady are the co-founders of British Pasture Leather. They offer a new model for leather production and work to redefine leather as it truly is: an agricultural product shaped by land stewardship.

We are going to explore assumptions made about leather, the narrative that they are working to change, setting the course for a vision and the nitty-gritty of following it through, what success looks like when you are working on change and not just profit, a fantastic recent project with Mulberry and what the future holds.

So welcome to UWTLA and British Pasture Leather and Material Perception.

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To explore this conundrum is Rob Abrahms co-founder of Coat Paint. I am sure that you are familiar with their open, straightforward, practical and cheering approach to paint and colour. Everyone is welcome. Every style is welcome. Every architectural era is welcome. Every story is welcome. It seems a great business from which to consider this. Every paint company must need to explore new colours, new finishes, fashions and trends espeically as paint so easily tranforms spaces and places and colour changes how we live and feel in our environment.

So why is newness so powerful? When does the endless colour list go too far? How can we listen to customers and feedback effectively? When do we need to slow down? What impact does BCorp status have? And how can we all re-evaluate ’newness’ and its value in our own enterprises?

Coat Paints

Next Episode: Tess Newall || Creator To Founder on 28th May 2026

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Entrepreneurs are driven. They want to do better, push things on, develop, learn, explore the next material or the next nation, they want to know their audience better and offer them more. But does this inhibit a critical element of celebration and reflection? Does the drive it takes to run a business reduce fulfilment or satisfaction of the experience, the process, the adventure? Life’s moments of celebration are far more closely observed. The wedding industry and children’s birthday parties show us this in bright technicolour. But what about in business. How can we celebrate? How can we review, critique, evolve but also pat ourselves on the back along the way? The first year, the first hire, the first VAT return, the first big turnover number, the first time you are able to pay yourself properly.

Tabi Jackson Gee is a gardening polymath. She is a garden designer, writer and now founder of Them Outdoors, An online gallery of garden furniture, bringing together a carefully selected group of creatives working in an exciting variety of crafts and materials. And it is Them Outdoors that we will explore today. Recently celebrating its first birthday, it struck me as a wonderful opportunity to consider that balance of critique and celebration, striving and satisfaction. We will hear about the idea, getting it to launch, the blend of different disciplines and what the second year might hold.

Them Outdoors

Them Outdoors at The Garden Museum

For me, being “Up With The Lark” is all about starting a new day well. My approach to creative entrepreneurship is to embrace new ideas, new beginnings, new growth, new plans and new perspectives. And so as an early riser and lover of breakfast, I offer this series entitled ‘Breakfast With’. It an opportunity to start your day alongside creatives I admire and consider to be ‘up with the lark’ sharing their thought for the day. We will explore ideas about important teachers, places that inspire, the role of luck, originality and business lessons learnt over the perfect breakfast.

Today, we are joined by Imogen Royal co-founder of Northern Pasta Co. Their story acts as a case study for many of my favourite themes. The first is that it is a tale of doing simple things well, really really well. Secondly, it’s about seeing and understanding a gap in the market and dancing your way into it. And finally, joyfully, packaging. Oh how I love excellent packaging. Imogen has wonderful wisdom to share. I do hope that you enjoy it.

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Next Edition: Charlie Harpur, Head Gardener at Knepp

What do you consider to be the perfect breakfast?

Breakfast is by far my most sacred part of the day. We eat the exact same thing every day (soft boiled eggs on toast and a coffee) and our morning routine moves like a well rehearsed dance, the same, every single day. I drink my coffee from the same mug made by a friend and eat breakfast from my favourite plate.

I think that there is such a calm beauty in this. I love the habit, the ritual. I make a coffee, light incense and sit with it at the kitchen window, looking out at the garden long after I have finished breakfast. It is a time to gather my thoughts, chat to my husband or aimlessly watch the world go by.

Place is clearly such a significant part of your work and designs. Tell us about a place that has inspired, changed or influenced you.

I have been lucky in my life to live in some amazing places - London, New York, Central America and now Cornwall. My twenties were spent (as many peoples are) in a sort of transient chaos, very fun but I was always lusting over the next adventure, scratching the itch - buzzier, louder, faster…But then there was always the sea. And that big expanse of water, always drew me back to a really calm, grounded sense of wonder.

And I don’t think that it gets better than here at home in Cornwall. There are a couple of spots that I go to most days if I can, a walk to the sea. There is a magic in seeing the same place every day, watching the seasons change in the hedgerows and the light of the day. On a Baltic day in January when the wind is whipping you in the face, it is hard to imagine that six months from here, you will be stretched out on a rock, swimming before breakfast.

I think that I have had some of my most important conversations with the universe, by the sea. Made the biggest decisions, taken some big leaps, conjured up plans and ideas, cried a lot of tears and celebrated some wins. There is something about letting the weight of whatever is going on just filter through the layers, as you watch the water, letting it all come to you. I love that she gives us her all, and makes you feel like you really have to open your eyes and draw a deep breath to take it all in.

I think that place is the key driver in how I design - the fluidity and the power of being by the sea shapes the pieces that I create. The Doyenne Suit, for example, was a suit I created to harness the power of the female, of mother nature. The word Doyenne means to be the most respected or prominent woman in a particular field and this really resonated with the beauty and power in growing older. What an incredible thing wisdom is. This suit has gone on to be our most popular shape, for men and women.

And when it comes to the evolution of the business, have there been moments on luck along the way? A chance encounter?

Luck, that’s a tough one. I do believe that you make your own. I am a strong believer in recieving what you put out into the universe. I think that the luck elements can come from ‘right place, right time’ school of thought but that is also driven by our own actions. To strike up a conversation, push a new idea, make that move.

For Marazul, I think that the ‘luck’ elements honestly comes down to the people that I have been fortunate enough to meet. It is one of the things I am most grateful for. Whether this is the serendipitous crossing of paths with someone who I admire greatly and who helps push you a little further or inspires you to go a little deeper. Or it’s the ‘making your own luck’ and striking up a conversation with someone, taking that little breath in before doing something that scares you.

The people I get to shoot with, the stories I get to tell, the people I get to work with, they are my luckiest actions, as without them I wouldn’t be where I am, or inspired in the way that I am.

I have often spoken about the importance of play. Too often left in childhood when creativity needs us to keep it at the heart of our days. How do you incorporate the mess, the risk, the waste of time into your work? How can we all be more playful?

I would say lean more into the importance of day dreaming! I am a real day dreamer. I think there is such value in letting your mind wander, allowing yourself the space and time to essentially do nothing – in a world where we have a way to engage our brains every second, of every day, it is a forgotten luxury to let your thoughts ramble.

The brain is just incredible, particularly our imaginations and if we don’t give our imagination space to wander, then surely we are only feeding ourselves other peoples thoughts and ideas. I think I come up with my best ideas (and sometimes most obscure) from just letting those brain waves saunter around. I can sit and stare out the window, or walk alone for hours and this is when my best ideas come to me.

I come up with designs, think about ways I want to tell the stories of the pieces from day dreaming. I also solve problems or make big decisions by letting those thoughts have the time to filter through the layers. Its about not feeling like sitting doing ‘nothing’ is a waste of time.

What a luxury, to give ourselves space and time with no agenda, to just day dream.

I always write or sketch these down, my notebook is filled with scribbles and notes. I spend an inordinate amount of time with fabrics, sourcing and searching for them – I am fascinated by antique textiles, by the stories they tell or the lives of them that have gone before us – of the craftsmanship and stories woven into these pieces. I remember going to an incredible exhibition at The Barbican a couple of years ago on textiles, there was a room that was dedicated to quilts and tapestries that had been created at a poignant time in personal history – quilts that had been sewn by a community who had lost a son due to racial violence for example. It was so incredibly moving, that these pieces quite literally had the emotion and stories of this heartbreak, woven into them. I think this speaks volumes of the power (and healing power) of craft.

I can sit with pieces of fabric and dream up the design that will follow, often the fabric comes first – its why we do so many one offs, I get caught up in a single piece and I am guided by the fabric as to how it will work in a piece. Its probably the worst way to run a business (!) but so be it!

And your hope for the future? What is your hope for Marazul and for the future of creativity in this digital age?

Hope, well I hope we can all live calmer, quieter lives rooted in our connection back to the land the pattern of seasons it follows. I hope we can live in a way that we consume so much less, to spend wisely and to invest in our clothes in a long term, cyclical way.

And I think this is the response to AI and social media, to learn from what we already have – whether this is to re use textiles, to use more natural fabrics – I don’t believe this is something AI can take from us. To truly understand the story and value in pieces that have had a life before they come into our hands. To be honest though, I am areal analogue dinosaur so I am not sure my understanding of how we navigate AI is a very well researched one!

I look forward to new projects, getting excited by new ideas – we are working with some incredible fabrics for winter suits – Italian wool, velvet pinstripe and cotton silks .

I am continuing to work on uniform projects for clients too. There is a book I got given a few years ago called ‘Eating With Chefs’ it documents in photographs, the shared meal between staff before service, from all over the world – from big names to small neighbourhood restaurants. It’s a really quiet observation of this world in the calm before the storm – simple meals shared at a table in the restaurant or snatched sat on a beer barrel out the back, shirt open, apron cast aside. It made me really fall in love with the details of their uniforms. It felt like those moments before you ‘step into character’ – finish your meal, pop your jacket on or button up your shirt and the show starts.

Its what spurred the decision to create uniforms for restaurants, its something I absolutely love to do - to understand how they need their uniform to work for them. The effortlessness of a jacket but it has been so well thought out – where the pocket sits, how long the sleeves are. These details are so subtle yet so important. The pieces should also look good unbuttoned, rolled up, on the hook, cast to the side. Its all part of the beauty of it all.

I feel infinitely more at peace after hearing Harriet’s story and I will certainly find a moment to daydream today. Even just a moment or two might alight my mind to something wonderful.

Image Credits: Marazul / Lottie Hampson / Lucy Laucht

Next Edition: Northern Pasta Co

I wonder if Leonie Branston, founder of Ferian, might agree.

Ferian captured my attention some time ago when I discovered their jasperware collection of cameo rings. Here was clearly someone with a strong vision both creatively and commercially and one that focused on the work, the pieces, the craft rather than the founder. This inevitably led me to want to find out more. And so, I am very fortunate to sit down for breakfast with Leonie Branston, founder of Ferian.

Leonie is picky about her coffee. It is ground at home, consumed first thing and the beans must come from The Algerian Coffee House on Old Compton Street. Just one coffee a day. Served with homemade granola made in weekly batches. Always the same. Every day. That clarity, specificity and restraint are themes through the Ferian story. I am glad to discover that they find expression in Leonie’s morning rituals.

This fuel allows teenagers to be ushered out of the house and the kitchen tidied. We are in the presence of a pragmatic doer. Leonie tells me that ‘there’s a lot of tandem action going on. I am looking at work things while tidying up and getting ready and drinking coffee. I like to front load the day and achieve quite a lot in the morning. It means that if things go wrong over the day, at least I have got some things done.’

Leonie works full time as a freelance fashion designer with the names of her CV a smorgesboard of talent and style - McQueen, JCrew, Margaret Howell to name a few. She has recently worked for Liberty on their line of ready-to-wear clothes. She also continues to work on styling for Margaret Howell (having worked there for very many years) and recently designed the uniforms for Toklas.

It is really valuable to have the chance to sit down with someone still in the midst of the ‘full time work and running their own business’ season. Leonie’s pragmatism is evident throughout our conversation: I am good at using my time. I started Ferian while I was working full time at Margaret Howell and would work on it first thing in the morning and in the evenings and weekends. In truth, it is not vey easy. I find that I am doing a lot of things that I am inexperienced at which makes things slow.

This candour is refreshing. Neither dismay nor false optimism exists here. Instead, she is level, measured, realistic, real.

It is very interesting to hear that the leadership at ‘Margaret Howell was keen on having creatively agile people in a very consistent environment’. It seems that working on projects outside of work was encouraged. I take careful note to remind clients of this. It seems to me that such every company culture should champion independent creativity both for its inherent and evident value.

I want to understand more about what holds Howell, McQueen, JCrew and Liberty all together and what influence that varied and impactful raft of creatives has had on her and her work with Ferian. Are these the teachers, the influential people in her creative story? It seems to me that it is the breadth and depth of her experience working with all these different talents and companies that offers a confidence and certainty in her own view, sense of beauty and style.

‘What is the thread?’ she muses, ‘For me, there is a framing of classicism. There is quality thinking and quality design...They have a longevity to them. And sometimes those things don’t speak so loudly to the current fashion moment. But they will be worn beyond something that has been made just for the moment.’

This takes us without hesitation into an odyssey about the meaning of jewellery. We agree that it is distinct from fashion. It seems to hold something relational within it. It carries sentiment. It is often a gift. And, even more so, used to commemorate moments and people and memories. The materials are expensive and last through the ages. They can hold so much within each piece. It is about ritual and the marking of moments. It feels that we could have spent an inordinate amount of time debating the meaning of jewellery but I eventually bring things round to Ferian itself and what Leonie is trying to achieve: I am interested in trying to make something ephemeral and fleeting, tangible. Jewellery is so tiny but has capacity to hold my design, the life of the maker, all imbibed into the piece. I find myself moved by this truth and catch myself spinning my engagement ring absent-mindedly. Each and every piece of jewellery I own holds a story and - because I am a cliche British woman - mostly gifted.

Leonie is not, nor claims to be, a trained jewellery designer. She works closely with her maker, George, to bring everything to fruition. She is animated when she explains her fascination with all things mechanical. Watches, clocks, bicycles all play a significant part. ‘I think that I would like to have been a watch maker’, she says. ‘I like to look at a lot of other objects to create my objects. I like micro-mechanics and engineering - the clocks in The Hermitage run by a key not a battery.’ What a joy it is to understand the intersections of creative reference. This is a momentary glimpse but one that I cherish.

It seems that objects, more than people or places perhaps, have been the great influence on Leonie. The symbols - ships and flowers, animals and mythology - have been heavily influenced by Wedgewood: Wedgewood is someone that I have a lot of admiration for as a person and a pioneer; a modern man. He had incredible drive. He had such vision, intent and purpose with Jasperware. I am keenly aware of how long it takes to achieve a skill - hence my The Hours project. This is someone focused on longevity.

Drawing, making, exploring are instinctive and habitual. We wonder if the pervading times and the power of the internet are making it easier or harder to create. Leonie admits that she ‘misses those incidental creative moments’ that were a feature of the pre-internet age and then goes on to share an excellent anecdote about Picasso which I will no doubt quote endlessly at friends, clients and even my children. It is said that Picasso was enjoying a museum one day but then took a wrong turn. In doing so, he discovered the power of a collection of African masks. They were hugely influential upon him and he ended up making many works connected to that accidental discovery. This is an excellent reminder to avoid the direct route all the time and to try to give yourself time to take a wrong turn. Time rises up once again as the holy grail. Time to take the wrong turn, to get lost for a moment, to happen upon something unexpected.

Leonie admits to being a gatherer of things. She is a collector of objects. ‘Ideally’, she explains, ‘I would move right into the John Soane Museum’. Her bookshelves are heaving with tomes ranging from ‘Killing Thatcher’ by Rory Carroll, ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison, a book on Wedgewood (of course) and ‘The Evolutionary Psychology of Women’. Books piled high. The creative methodology, the marathon of making and exploring, the steady sense of progress all seems to be Leonie’s real strength.

And so I am interested to consider the more commercial side of things. Was there a lucky break, a breakthrough, a breakdown, a breaking into the industry? ‘Seeing someone wearing something of mine is always exciting. It is a real honour that someone has chosen to buy something from me.’ She is clearly grateful too that the press have been very supportive with Ferian featured in publications including Vogue, the Sunday Times and How To Spend It to name a few. She also had a lucky moment when the MD of Tate, Carmel Allen, purchased a ring from her and then went on to suggest a project. Leonie’s special collection for Tate is exclusively for them and features the Tate’s own hallmark.

It appears, though, that despite the acclaim of her peers and the press, it really is whether or not something sells that matters most to her - who is buying it and is it who you want to buy it? I like this view. It has an incisive clarity and honesty.

There is honesty too in how pragmatic Leonie is about running a small business. Whilst she likes the fact that every piece is checked by her, cycled to the hallmarker and packed and posted by her, there are restraints too. There seems to be a genuine desire to have held and handled each and every piece. But with that size come challenge. It is difficult to remain visible. It is, as we would all agree, difficult to sell an expensive product online and the business doesn’t move at the pace Leonie would like; In truth, it is not vey easy. I find that I am doing a lot of things that I am inexperienced at which makes things slow…I have set very low expectations. Things are slower and take longer [than they would in a large business]. I can’t expect things to be done quickly…Ideas are never a problem. The fulfilment of those takes a long time.

There is also the pressure to keep producing new things in order to retain that visibility. Leonie appears brilliantly unperturbed by this pressure and instead only designs things when she is interested in an idea and wants to do so. Her years at Margaret Howell encouraged her to put the breaks on things. Margaret would often challenge the need for new designs and always wanted a clear purpose for each piece.

When prompted to consider the future, it is the idea of collaborating with a perfume house that arises without hesitation. Once again the idea of the tangible and the intangible, the visible and the invisible comes to the fore. Memory and sentiment. Something that transports us. ‘It is conceptually interesting to me and I also have ideas of how I would want to shoot it’, explains Leonie. Long on vision and short on time, I long to be able to offer a magical and secret extra day in the week to allow all these ideas to find fruition. Partly for Leonie, partly to see what she could create.

The rapid technological advance of our day does not perturb Leonie in a business sense as, in practice, she uses AI all the time and finds it very useful when it comes to spelling and website coding, for example. She does, however, sound a note of caution: I will be pretty cheesed off when the machine can copy something that I have worked on that is handmade. I think we are going to have more primary thoughts and do more research and be more curious. Those who are taking the algorithm pathway are going to end up poorer for it. I wonder if in the end it will just end up showing us the same things. Creative and critical thinking are going to continue to matter.

I don’t doubt that Leonie and Josiah Wedgewood would have a great deal to discuss about craftsmanship, quality, longevity and sincerity. My time with Leonie has offered a steady heart-beat, an integrity and story that has little to do with a PR machine and everything to do with the life and career of a designer and maker. A certainty of style. A certainty of self. A certainty of self expression. And most importantly of all, for me, a reminder about the inherent value of time both as a tool and a marker of progress. To use it well, yes, but also not to fight the pace your business offers you whether fast or slow.

In a conversation peppered with wisdom and salted with the truth of what it really takes to run your own business, it has been wonderful to be reminded that a great deal can be achieved with experience, patience, a pile of books and a single cup of coffee.

See more of Ferian.

Next Edition of Breakfast With || Marazul || 21st November 2025

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This morning, we are joined by Alexander Griffin. Alexander is a plaster artist based in Cambridgeshire. His work is quietly captivating. I first came across his plaster works in Berdoulat in Bath and was ensnared. I walked round and round the mezzanine gallery unable to peel myself away. I still hanker for a John The Baptist piece which seems inexplicably both delicate and fragile but also likely to take all the light and oxygen in the room that it inhabits. Alexander also designs lamp bases and mirror surrounds but I will let him tell you all about that.

Alexander is the antithesis to the digital haze and hurry of today. This is an act of mastery, of learning a craft. Alexander’s practice offers a modern day model of patience and focus alongside a tangible connection with the past. We discuss family, geometry, gardens, a broad sense of ‘new’, the luck of this very time and place and the value of people and modern day patronage.

Alexander is someone who reads and debates, makes connections across creative disciplines and threads the past and the future together with ease. There is a great deal of wisdom and food for thought to be found over breakfast today.

Alexander Griffin: www.alexander-griffin.com

Next Edition || 10th November || Ferian

Joining us today is Sarah de Vere-Drummond, co-founder of Kip Hideaways. Kip offers a considered edit of thoughtful, beautiful, magical holiday lets. No more trawling, just treasure. Whether you want to escape alone to the wilds of Wales, or explore a new place with your family, whether it’s a Christmastime celebration or a mid-summer pause, there will be somewhere perfect for you. I recently had the good fortune of meeting Sarah and was interested not only in the idea and business model but Sarah’s experience as a founder. She is unpretentious, aglow with warmth and a lover of adventure.

To set the scene of the perfect breakfast, Sarah insists it must be outside. Even just grabbing a coffee and a piece of toast and sitting at the garden table at home will suffice. As someone who travels so much, she finds an endless list of new favourite spots. Currently, it seems that Scotland is high on the agenda. Breakfast set in epic Scottish scenery. Perhaps on a tiny island, she muses.

When asked about the impact of a significant teacher, her answer is cheering. It’s her co-founder, LIz. ‘We are really different people with very different skill sets and personalities. That has worked so well in terms of our partnership. It is like having a really great sounding board with a different perspective. It has been great to have someone challenge you. I am prone to be quite gung-ho. It can serve me well but great to have someone thoughtful and detailed alongside me. That relationship has taught me so much about working with and alongside someone else.’

Never having had a business partner, I am always intrigued by what makes them work, tick, function to the point of synergy. Sarah offers a very practical insight, ‘We have often found that we work things out not by sitting down at a desk but spending time together travelling and being able to talk things through in a relaxed setting. I am an external processor and verbalise things to understand them fully, so having that conversation has worked so well. You need to spend plenty of time together to make good, interesting or brave decisions. The best decisions have been made over a glass of wine rather than a Zoom call!’ This encourages me to sit down over a glass of wine with those who are the foil to me and debate and churn out loud. As an introverted, internal processor, I wonder if this might usher up different ideas or points of view. I vow more chats over wine, less zooms.

Place has always had a significant hold on Sarah. She grew up in the Caribbean so spent most of her childhood in a tropical climate. She moved to the UK as a teenager and then spent the next decade trying to escape the UK to sunnier climes as she ‘simply didn’t appreciate it at all’. It was taking the time to discover the UK in all its mesmerising breadth and depth that triggered the thoughts of Kip Hideaways. Hunting for places of beauty, discovering the unknown and embracing variety became a fixation; whether coastline or mountaintop.

Sarah laughs as she admits ‘that I have come to love all of the seasons, not just summer. I have even found myself enjoying knitwear these days!’ I wonder if many of us are also guilty of a ‘grass is greener’ outlook about travel, writing off home and always jumping on a plane to escape our island.

Once the concept was fixed, Sarah’s focus was all about the hideaways themselves. Their design, their atmosphere, their look and feel were paramount. It was later that location became a critical part of the hunt. Now often a hidden gem area might drive the search for properties. In it all the critical piece has been the careful edit in a noisy, busy, overwhelmed market. Less is more at Kip.

Throughout the journey, it has seems that Kip’s approach has aligned more and more with what people want and Sarah is quick to express that she feels very lucky that this is the case. ‘We launched a few months before COVID hit. Initially this seemed like the worst luck of all and we thought that was that and it had been a ridiculous time to start a travel business. It was a passion project and so tiny that there was nothing to be lost by continuing. Unexpectedly, even during lockdown, everyone was visiting the site as people were wanting to dream about when they could travel again. We wanted the website to be a really dreamy space; even browsing the site itself needed to be a great experience. It really was lucky timing in a way. When lockdown did eventually lift, it was only really UK travel as an option. Also, I think a lot of people who had been trapped in cities were desperate to get out into nature and escape. All of that certainly propelled Kip’s growth quicker than we had imagined it would.’ Lucky timing indeed.

Given that Sarah isn’t the typical ‘maker’ that I might usually interact with, I am curious as to what play looks like for her. Perhaps it is the people that she interacts with as the owners of these wonderful properties. Or maybe it is spending time in such a wide variety of spaces. It appears both are in the recipe. Sarah’s goal is to visit every single hideaway and meet every single owner. ‘It sounds inefficient or impractical, but for me it is essential. Every single time, I am inspired. If that practice was ever lost, it would kill so much of what Kip is. That is what keeps the work enjoyable for me, it brings in the joy and the fun and the passion.’ It’s a good reminder that as a business grows, it is common for you to find yourself inching away from why you stepped into that business in the first place. As finances, HR, marketing and so on gulp up the days, we have to do all that we can to sit closely to what makes it magic for us. What is vital, what is the lifeblood, often doesn’t translate well onto a spreadsheet or a time management matrix.

When asked about her favourite hideaway, Sarah cites a trio of cabins on an island in the wilds of Scotland. Making a cup of tea requires chopping wood and fire building. It is adventure and escape and clearly what drives Sarah. We debate the importance of escaping and hiding away. Sarah’s insight about our relationship with technology stays with me. She shares her view that as technology is speeding up and filling up our lives, the desire to escape it all is ever stronger. ‘Time is ever more precious to us all and I think we are all increasingly mindful about how we spend it’, she says. ‘Time, control of our time, is the new luxury. We are turning towards the idea that experiences are the new luxury.’

If the Kip story itself has been full of surprises, so has Sarah’s journey as founder. Having always thought of herself as being an ideas person, a creative thinker, she never thought of herself as a leader, someone focused on implementation or a CEO character. She has learnt or developed the skills that she needed in that role. This free spirited beach girl has fallen for website data and tech, finances and her team: the dream has propelled me to need to be better for it. I am quite sure that articulates the sensation you have felt when faced with business areas unknown, feared or disliked. I suspect you have surprised yourself.

When it comes to ideas for the future, Sarah’s hope is that ‘this shift towards AI gives Kip the opportunity to have a stronger presence because so many more people are going to be looking for the personal touch, the personally written reviews from people who have actually slept in the beds’. It seems to me that trust - building and maintaining - is going to be critical for Kip. Sarah and her team are conscious that they ‘don’t really want Kip to grow too large. Instead we want it to a beautifully curated collection’.

As we finish, I wonder about future trends in travel. I learn that adventure is ever higher on the agenda, that the ‘betwixmas’ (the time between Christmas and New Year) mini break is ever more popular and that people want to connect in more with their holiday surroundings in practical ways. It seems to me that these are themes around business in general. Those able to lead an enterprise in these times are certainly adventurers. We all need to find moments of rest, reflection and play. And connection, human connection, is always going to be critical. It will stay with me that Sarah’s ‘best ideas have revealed themselves when I have been at a Kip location’. I find myself scribbling down ‘entrepreneur escapes’ and perusing the calendar; might it be possible to escape to the wilds and contemplate it all? I think perhaps the lesson from today is that I should try at the very least.

Next Edition: Alexander Griffin on 3rd November 2025

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This morning, we are joined by interior designer Sophie Rowell founder of Côte de Folk. She spent the first chapter of her career as Art Director and Fashion Stylist before moving into interior design in 2018. Sophie has a gift that I imagine could have taken her to graphic design or floristry, costume design or ceramics. And that gift is that she is a storyteller.

I think that is at the heart of her magnetism. She tells us stories about creativity and stories about colour, stories about the celebration and the sanctuary of home and stories about what it is to be human.

She is an original. I don’t use that word lightly or without reverence. Sophie is thoughtful and engaging and her choice of breakfast is exemplary. I do hope that you enjoy our conversation and that Sophie’s insights infiltrate your week.

In this special episode we are joined by British painter Emily Ponsonby to explore the importance, the relevance, the power of place; where you work, where you exhibit, where you travel, where your work finds home. Before we go any further, if you aren’t familiar with her work I really would encourage you to take a moment to look her up here so that you can have her work in your mind’s eye.

The work of Emily Ponsonby is an invitation.

It is an invitation to remain still. It is something revealed and something hidden. It is onion layers making your eyes sting, leaving the board littered with skins both crisp and yielding. Once seen, these captures of togetherness remain. I want to pod peas and hear the conversation. I want to be in the picture not stood in front of it, an outsider to its beeswax scrapings. ‘Place’ sings from the canvas and from Emily’s story.

It would be easy to focus on the life of an artist as one about looking and telling stories and truths and one of canvas and paint and technique. We could happily, and fruitfully, spend our time wondering how Emily elicits life from the page but, for me, the commercial side creeps in. Working with galleries, applying for residencies, pricing your work. It all has a part to play. I have known Emily for some time and have watched her navigate both the work itself and the commercial side of things with energy and honesty, with courage and with trepidation. We all have a great deal to learn from her.

And so, let’s explore the settings within her work, her studio space, her travel and explorations, where her work ends up and the importance of exhibitions. If you are quick, you can catch her current exhibition at Gillian Jason Gallery.

Welcome to Up With The Lark And Emily Ponsonby.

A Warm Life Through Butter // Gillian Jason Gallery // 11th September - 18th October // 19 Tichfield Street W1W 8AZ

If someone described me as boring, I genuinely would be mortified - Sarah Corbett-Winder, founder of Kipper

As an early riser and lover of breakfast, I offer a series entitled Breakfast With. It is an opportunity to start your day alongside creatives I admire and consider to be up with the lark, sharing their thoughts for the day. We will explore ideas about important teachers, places that inspire, the role of luck, originality, and business lessons learned over the perfect breakfast. This morning, we sit down with Sarah Corbett-Winder founder of Kipper. She is all energy, zest and joy. This is the double espresso you need this morning.

Sarah is the Pied Piper of confidence, of colour, of celebrating your style, of the joy of experimenting with clothes as a form of self-expression. It strikes me that she takes clothes and tailoring very seriously, but not herself.

Some months ago, I walked past the Kipper suits in Liberty and thought how much I would like to speak to Sarah with her entrepreneur hat (or should I say glasses) on. She is a style guru to thousands but also a women running a business and one who really grasps the nettle of that verb. There’s nothing tentative or hesitant about Sarah Corbett-Winder, she is running.

When I asked Sarah about her perfect breakfast, I imagined a witty joke about kippers. Instead, she offered up a surprising insight into her inner workings: I think that breakfast is a really important in showing yourself how you want your day to start. If it is the weekend, it is about having the kids and dogs around, chaos and pancakes, laughter and loudness. But during the week, I might have an important meeting in town so I want to take a moment to have a coffee with people buzzing around and being inspired by some people watching. I think it's listening to yourself and listening to the day you've got ahead, and putting yourself in that environment that enables you to have the most wonderful and fabulous day.

I find it reassuring that my external perception of Sarah as someone who thrives on variety, change, the new is right. She adds, ‘I don’t think that there is any reason for breakfast to be mundane and the same every day. Even if you just look out of a different window in the kitchen. It’s important to spice it up.’ This chimes as true with me. When running your own business, no two days are the same so I can see that embracing that variety in the start to the day is an excellent thing. Boredom is not on the agenda here.

Having spent over six years at Boden as their in-house stylist, she left at the height of COVID when she was pregnant with her third child. Despite many counselling her to stay, she felt that the time had come. I think every creative feels that tug at some point but it is those that listen to it, and act, that become founders. It isn’t the path for everyone and Sarah is refreshingly honest about those early days. ‘It probably wasn’t the best time, but those wings were coming and I had to go. I think I left thinking everything would fall into place, that it would all be perfect, and my career would take off. I really wanted to focus on being an influencer, although I didn’t quite know what else to call it. That felt like the next step, and I thought it was all going to happen overnight.’ That wasn’t quite what happened - although outsiders may perceive it that way. She was introduced to Carolyn Asome and cites her a highly significant teacher. Carolyn Asome is a writer, editor and brand consultant. I am lucky to have crossed paths with her and found her to be an intelligent, confident, strategic and focused woman. I would describe her as influential rather than an influencer - quietly in the background having a considerable impression on those around her. Sarah agrees and is typically frank and engaging in telling me about their first meeting.

‘She is magical. She’s very wise. She’s been in the fashion industry and interiors for a long time. She’s got a great business brain, but she’s also very creative. I thought: Carolyn’s going to answer everything. My career is going to take off. So we went for an £8.50 green juice on Westbourne Grove. I took a deep breath and thought, she’s going to map out my career path. Her advice? ‘Just be yourself’. And I was slurping my juice thinking, “Really? Is that it?” I left feeling £17 poorer. But that night, it sank in. I woke up the next morning thinking, she’s right. Stop trying to be someone else. I can only be me. And once you accept that, everything becomes original, because it has to be. It’s you. That moment was so pivotal. I thought, I’m just going to embrace who I am. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. But this is me. And I think that allowed me to share my love for fashion even more, because I wasn’t trying to be someone else. It came across as more genuine. It gave me a lot more confidence. It opened doors. And it led me to start Kipper, my suit company. It all fell into place from there.’ Kipper launched in 2023 named after an old-fashioned name for female tailors. Kippers are always sold in pairs and back in the day, “KIPPERS” travelled in said pairs to avoid unwelcome advances from randy male tailors.

Sarah amazes me by explaining that she has the line ‘be you’ inked on her arm. It reminds me of the saying of Rabbi Hillel: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? A necessary reminder in an age where we are bombarded by what others think, believe and consider beautiful. Too often we are overcome by those we work for, those we admire, those we are inspired by.

Given this, I am keen to discover how Sarah shrugged off the cloak of Boden. I often hear of those who have worked with a strong visionary, struggle to remember to ask ‘what do I think’ rather than ‘what would [insert name of creative director] think’ once they go it alone. Sarah’s reply is sincere in acknowledging that she felt a lot of pressure to be likeable but now feels lighter in having discovered that the minute you stop worrying what other people think, everything lightens. I find myself perusing through those I admire creatively and wonder if they all share this train of thought; I suspect they do. I wonder if it isn’t as simple as ‘not caring’ about what others think but more ‘caring more’ about what you yourself think. I am further convinced that Sarah’s contribution to the ‘life of a founder debate’ is one of shoring up confidence and self-assurance. Someone else can share insights into cash flow and tactical recruitment, stock management and marketing models for now, Sarah is here to fan the flame of self-belief. Perhaps that is part of her appeal. We need that now more than ever.

Sarah studied as an artist and that part of her is clearly alive is alive and well. Outfits are compositions and so are homes and so is the Kipper collection. It’s all about building, layering, humour, colour. So when it comes to a significant place in her life, I am glad that Sarah dives straight into the story of her home. Sarah was moving to Wales the week after we spoke and I was glad to her that her new house is every bit as colourful and expressive as her celebrated London home. London clearly holds significant memories when it comes to Kipper. ‘I’d been there for the whole journey. From going freelance to starting Kipper and building something on my own.’

Her approach to home is energetic and ever evolving. ‘It feels like a studio or a piece of art for me. Things are always being added or moving or changing. We have complete freedom in it. I can wake up one day and say ‘let’s paint that wall’ or ‘let’s add stripes’. I love that there is so much possibility. Working from home means it really influences my work, my creativity and even my confidence. There’s something quite magical about that, being able to sit in it, enjoy it, be surrounded by it. When we created this house, we always said we wanted people to walk in and forget everything outside. To come in and just feel like they’ve stepped into our world.’

I have begun to realise that the childlike, unburdened, free part to Sarah is what draws us in. She hates being told what to do. She wants to get lost in the joy of putting an outfit together and whatever you make - whether it’s plates or cakes or engagement rings - I expect you do too. Sarah is keen to distinguish between escapism and creation. She wants to add, to adorn, to embellish, to garnish each element of her life. And to do so just in her very own way. She works had not to look to the left and to the right, to avoid what you’ve seen a thousand times, to write your own story. This is not about escaping reality, it’s about making your reality as magical as it possibly could be.

Sarah’s response to luck and chance is typically upbeat and determined. There is steel beneath the stripes and the gingham. She believes in luck but doesn’t consider it a passive encounter, ‘it works both ways, what you put in, you will get back’, she enthuses. Her example offers up a wonderful insight about the value of community. If you are someone who finds community building, networking, gathering, an intimidating idea, here is a perfect example of how to go about it and why it is important to persevere.

“I recently had an amazing stroke of luck when a friend introduced me to the managing director of a global hotel chain. We exchanged emails and it could have stopped there. But something in me said to nurture it. We met for breakfast, took each other out, chatted, and built a relationship over six or seven months. I remembered Anya Hindmarch once saying, “Meet everyone you can; you never know what it’ll lead to.” Luckily I did nurture the relationship. At first, I thought it would be a suit collaboration with the hotel or a pop-up for Kipper. Then, one day, she asked, “How would you feel about redesigning the hotel’s uniforms?”. I nearly fell off my chair. Kipper is now redesigning uniforms for 550 staff. This will be phenomenal for Kipper and, I believe, will open up a market for uniform design.’

As promised, a case study in perseverance, in openness, in a willingness to try new things. Also a reminder to make introductions. If we were all generous with this, imagine where we might end up. It always sounds so easy and simple after the fact but most great chances happen slowly and take a reframing away from instant outcomes to investing in and developing your network for the long term. Sarah seems to be master of the re-frame - swapping a stressful never ending to do list for a challenge or an adventure. A great reminder for a Monday morning.

It seems almost unnecessary to ask Sarah about ‘play’ as it so clearly sits at the core of what she does - that adjective seems to follow her every move. I’m interested that she explains that she ‘chooses joy’ each day, chooses laughter, chooses perspective. It seems that is what drives her playfulness.

‘I had a moment with Kipper. I was set on launching in September and was waiting for buttons that said ‘Kipper Club’. Of course, there were delays, and the buttons arrived six weeks late, stressful, but manageable. My factory called: “Sarah, they say 'Kipper Glove.’” I thought it was a joke. It felt like the world had fallen apart. I had a real moment. I was upstairs in our bathroom and thought: I have a choice, fall apart or turn it around. I told myself, “This has to become something better.” Luckily, I had a few correct buttons, worked out the numbers, and filled in the gaps with bright blue ones. Now, every suit has a pair of ‘Kipper Club’ buttons and contrasting coloured ones, on the sleeves or the back. That mistake became one of my unique selling points.’ We have to let the play in. Not just on good days. But on bad days. On truly stressful days. Having the ability to adjust and react is the marker of an entrepreneur.

It strikes me that perhaps Sarah is selling confidence in the same quantity as she is selling suits. Her generosity of spirit is infectious. Women look to her for ideas, combinations, for confidence. I’m intrigued as to when it’s Sarah’s turn to take out the next new founder out for a green juice, what her advice will be. This is someone on a steep learning curve and I hope in a decade I might speak to her again. I wonder if ‘be joyful despite the pressure’ might be her offering. Like any new habit, that feels hard in a world that’s on fire and an economy that’s wobbly, but I think it might be a golden ticket.

Her response to my musings about the future and the impact of AI on the creative industries remains consistent and her mantra resurfaces once again like a great blazer or pair of loafers: I really hope that when it comes to originality, we can just focus on remaining true to ourselves. Perhaps what Sarah teaches us is that we need to stop striving for more and strive to be more of ourselves. ‘What are we all scrolling for on our phones? What are we looking for? I honestly have no idea.’ she muses. Sarah’s attraction to tailoring was the big impact that it can have on how the person wearing it feels. She clearly wants women to feel strong and confident.

It seems that her new collection, filled with tartans and stripes, sings out the Kipper DNA once more. Whilst always animated and energetic and witty, it is when speaking about the future of Kipper that she looks really focused and clearly enjoys putting words to the vision: The collection will keep evolving with new shapes. We’ve got an exciting new coat coming, and we’re branching into shirts, which feels inevitable, because it's all part of the tailoring. We’re also introducing a few pieces of jewellery. It’s all expanding, but still rooted in the Kipper tailoring world. It’s all about bringing joy to women, offering something made in England, built to last, beautifully crafted, and versatile. Women really value pieces that work hard in different settings, and we’re aiming to deliver more of that—just ramped up.’

Sarah is someone with a great face, a great amount of energy and a great sense of humour but I discovered that underneath the colour, the stripes, the zing and verve is a heady combination of strong ambition and closely held joy. She is a reminder of how lucky any of us are to throw our hat into the ring of creative entrepreneurship. It is a miracle to make a living from our ideas. So, the choice is yours. Either invest in a stripped or floral suit or invest in your own self belief. I’m not sure that Sarah will mind as long as you are truly being yourself and joy and laughter are on the agenda.

Kipper: www.kipper.club

Up With The Lark: www.upwiththelark.com

Next Breakfast With - Sophie Roswell of Cote de Folk - 20th October 2025

Photographs - Kipper // Portrait Illustration - Rachel McCulloch

Isabel Farchy is made like her textiles. Layered, honest, a woven history; and the light comes in. Her work changes the space that it inhabits and so does her train of thought. Her words are as interesting as her pieces.

Isabel has long been high on my list of people that I wanted to speak with. Her work is interesting in itself and the narrative and thought that sits behind it is a little glint of magic. There are people over the years, many of them women, who have held us by the hand to explore the role of the domestic in the life of a creative. Isabel is one of those voices. Her journey is layered, thoughtful and unexpected. Her work engages and connects with light, with wool, with linens, with natural dyes and with movement. All interwoven with the sense of the studio space as a domestic space.

There have been many chapters and seasons in Isabel’s career. She is an explorer. Exploring materials, possibilities, new opportunities, places and spaces. She follows the messages that the material gives her.

We begin discussing the power of morning light on her works. Isabel admits she is quick to rise and a big fan of breakfast. She tells me of breakfast in the town where her father lives in Italy. The presence of her Italian family has an impact so strong, it’s like there is another person in the room.

‘Where my dad lives, the cafe, called Rodriguez, is where everyone congregates in the morning. Everyone is there including the Doctor, the lady who runs the tours of the local area and they sit separately but together.’ This image sits with me like the opening of a film. The light. The musical score surfaces instantly. Isabel crafts the sensation of this social ritual with ease. She goes on to explain that ‘Roberto the waiter brings you what he knows you like without you even placing an order. Perhaps a cappuccino, fresh orange juice, brioche con la marmellata. The kids run around the square.’ The island of Elba and its inhabitants surfaces throughout our conversation and I feel like I have been let into a secret.

When asked about a significant teacher in her life, Isabel names an actual school teacher. This is not any ordinary teacher. This is Mr G, Isabel’s Steiner School teacher. ‘I went to a Steiner School and that means that you have the same teacher from when you start at Reception age all the way through until you are around fourteen or fifteen. You don’t have different subject teachers. It is all collapsed into one. You might look at sound waves for three weeks and then historical building structures for three weeks and then the Vikings for three weeks and so on. It’s very hands on - lots of gardening and making and sewing. Everything is given equal weight.” Given that everyone I have met who has lived the Steiner experience has an extra ordinarily deep well of confidence and independence and stands as a tall poppy, I am fascinated to know more. It seems that it is a philosophy built on attachment and that the impact of having one person, outside of your family, know you so well and support you throughout those early years, is significant. Isabel took that approach into her own teaching when she did Teach First. Despite the practical constraints of the school day, she would try to get to know her pupils in the way that Mr G had. ‘Mr G really believed in fun and challenged the Steiner rules which can be quite dogmatic. That aligned with me early on. I like to interrogate the system and ask why we do things as we do.’

I asked Isabel if she agreed that so many people are searching for a mentor because we are searching for someone who knows us, to see us to give us input and feedback, just like Mr Gee. ‘I think that might be right. It’s a powerful thing to be known and supported in that way’, she responds.

I want to know more about the places that have been significant to Isabel’s approach to creativity. We find ourselves in Elba and this time, blissfully, a Milanese grandmother joins the throng. ‘My grandmother made everything and did so beautifully. Her home was her life’s work. A lamp from driftwood, stones that she laid in cement on the terrace in shapes of stars and fish and she made all her cushions. She made rubbings of manhole covers. And my dad painted a lot so his paintings are everywhere. It’s rudimentary. The shower is outside. But it feels like home there. We know the kinds of seaweed on the beach and all the trees.’, she explains. “Because it is an island, you are victim to the weather, and suddenly. I am really aware of the power of the weather and nature’s power when I am there. If there’s a storm and the waves are forceful you can’t hide from it. I’ve nearly drowned swimming in stormy weather more than once. The four winds impact the weather and the bakery both. A certain wind makes for better brioche.’

I find myself in strong agreement. I wish we were all making things for our homes. I worry about the uniformity of how we put our homes together. If we were to open up the street you live on, like a doll’s house, would it all look very much the same? It is a disappointing idea. I feel spurred on to step away from the homogenous. If we could all access that part of ourselves, wouldn’t that be wonderful.

Home is an important idea and ideal for Isabel. Having small children certainly changed her approach to her work. Having been the founder and CEO of the Creative Mentor Network, she decided to leave after having her second child. She applied for other CEO jobs but that door appeared closed. ‘My dad says that the best thing in life is to be lucky but I always thought of myself as unlucky person. Looking back, however, I can now see that it was lucky that I didn’t get any of those jobs because it propelled me to do something creative. It was a good thing.’ It seems that a closed door can be a stroke of luck too. That, and the realities of small children close in age, meant much more time at home. She began to feel the influence of the Grandmother’s approach to homemaking and her home became her canvas.

‘I had had studied furniture design but that wasn’t going to be the right fit in our small London flat. I did make a terrible desk but that was it! My son went through a phase of tent building over chairs and clothing dryers. These tents and swathes of fabric led me to spend night feeds searching for a Brother sewing machine on eBay.’ And so, a new season began for Isabel. Vintage fabrics, natural materials and dyes, playing with light and colour and form.

We discussed the approach of Enzo Mari (and his retrospective at the Design Museum). I was very impacted by the interviews of him speaking about making and creating with small children playing under the table. It was all so much more domestic and familial than I had realised. Isabel’s son’s tents usher up this vision. Makers and parents, parents and makers.

Isabel admits that “initially, I put a lot of pressure on myself but eventually I gave myself the chance to relax. I worked through a lot in my mind during that time and I came to realise that too much internal pressure stifles creativity. So, I tried to take the panic away. My partner has been incredibly supportive but the guilt of ‘playing’ lingers. But I know that without that time, the ideas don’t come.’

I am struck by the transition in identity - from CEO to maker. It can be tricky to be a beginner but the Steiner approach of life long learner resurfaces: Textiles are very forgiving. You can unpick and start again. it has allowed me to be far more creative than I could be with other materials. I am also highly suggestible as a person. I am not focused on one particular goal but I like the idea of working things out over time.

When asked about her critical learnings so far, she offers something that every entrepreneur, every maker, every designer should hold dear, print out above their desk, wear on a t-shirt, tattoo on your hand: Some days, I think that my work is amazing and I am excited. Other days I hate what I do and I am completely embarrassed. I think that it is important to allow yourself to feel both those things. Allow the excitement in, don’t pull yourself down to reality. And when you are embarrassed, keep pushing through. Keep continuing. Know that the embarrassment ends and the next wave of excitement will come.

My perception is that her years as a CEO leave echos of bigger vision and bigger picture thinking. Her ability to stretch from a single stitch, a single piece through to a clear aspiration to build something larger and beyond herself is fascinating. We debate the impact of culture, of how things are done not just what, of the part that character has to play in a team. Isabel is adamant that surrounding yourself with people with a shared vision and approach is the key to building a great organisation.

Whether it’s the textiles themselves, the practice of making them or the dreams beyond them, Isabel has an enviable quality of bringing things together. The contrast balanced, playful and serious all at once. Perhaps who we invite into the coffee shop is as important as the work that we do. She values the pursuit of connection - with Mr G, as a teacher, a CEO, a parent and now a maker, sings blackbird clear.

I am delighted to hear that Isabel is working on some new projects which will finish in the Autumn. Her face lights up and then the realisation that secrecy might be required brings a furrowed brow. ‘I can’t say too much at this point’, she admits, ‘ I have been in trouble on this front before. But I will say that it is always very special when someone approaches you that has a shared aesthetic or set of values or way of doing things. That is the most exciting thing.’ We shall just have to watch and wait and see. Not long after we speak, I see that Isabel was recently selected as a Partnership Editions Artist Open Call Winner. Given that so much of her work is private commissions, I am delighted that we are able to see more of her work that way.

Talk moved, as it often does, to Isabel’s hopes for the future of the creative arts in a world where AI seems ever noisier. Her thoughts are typically calm and quietly resolute. ‘I am depressed about AI in general but I am hoping that it will mean that we value things made my humans more. Frankly, that is the only positive that I can see from it.’ We agree that we a hope that creativity will be an ever more prized skill. Isabel is working hard to keep that sense of creativity as the heart of her life and that of her family.

I could not agree more. A culture where creativity is a prize, a treasure. And with that, my mind wonders to that cafe in Elba and the wish for Roberto to bring a fresh orange juice and an expresso. And perhaps that is the golden thread and light taken from this conversation that it will be the people, the community, the culture that we create that will be even more beautiful and valuable than the things that we make.

Find out more about Isabel Farchy.

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Next Episode: Breakfast With Sarah Corbett-Winder of Kipper on 13th October

Sarah Peake: When I worked for Alidad, he talked a lot about the invisible hand of the designer. That’s something I’ve always tried to master in my own work.

As an early riser and lover of breakfast, I offer a series entitled Breakfast With. It is an opportunity to start your Monday morning alongside creatives I admire and consider to be ‘up with the lark’, sharing their thoughts for the day. We will explore ideas about important teachers, places that inspire, the role of luck, originality, play and business lessons learned over the perfect breakfast. Here is an exert of my conversation with the talented Sarah Peake, founder of Studio Peake.

Listen To The Podcast Here

This morning, we are joined by interior designer Sarah Peake, founder of Studio Peake. Sarah's creative confidence and courage, independence of thought, work ethic, and grit mean that she is admired far and wide by clients and the industry alike. Every conversation with her entices action. I am sure you will feel the same. So, Sarah, thank you so much for joining us. It’s such a delight to have you with us.

Sarah Peake: Thank you very much. That all sounded very lovely. It’s so nice to be here.

Calandre: So tell us, are you a morning person? Are you too a lover of breakfast?

Sarah: I am a total morning person like you. Honestly, I wake up hungry, even if it’s 4am and we’re rushing for the airport, I will grab something to eat as soon as I am up. I'm a big breakfast girl.

Calandre: Set the scene of the perfect breakfast.

Sarah: My dream breakfast would be a shakshouka with aubergine and a dollop of labneh. It would probably be at a lovely restaurant I like in Marylebone called Jikoni. I have no idea if this is even on their menu, but I like it there. That would be my dream breakfast. My reality breakfast is sitting around the kitchen table with my whole family having a cooked breakfast. I’m big on breakfast eating, but sadly the shakshouka dream doesn’t happen very often!

Calandre: I happen to think both your reality and dream breakfasts sound like an excellent start to the day.

Sarah: I’m glad you said that. It is nice. It’s a good reset with the family before we go off on our crazy days.

Calandre: So let’s dive into all things Sarah Peake. Let’s start with a teacher. So often when I hear people’s stories of how they’ve ended up where they are, there’s a teacher; someone who has given them confidence or enticed them to take a risk, or given them self-belief. Who has been significant for you?

Sarah: I ended up working for an interior designer called Alidad when I first started in the industry. I’d done about a year of work experience at various places. At the same time, I applied to about a thousand jobs. With no qualifications in interior design, I got a job as Alidad’s personal assistant and general studio tidier. Whether he knew it or not, he became a mentor and teacher to me. I think they offered me the job based on very little, other than that they liked my outfit and I had an English Literature degree so I could probably spell.

I spent about three years working extremely hard, watching, absorbing, and doing an awful lot of folding fabrics. Alidad is a real expert. He was the Director of Islamic Art at Sotheby’s before setting up his own studio. He has a deep knowledge of history and traditional craft and created extraordinary rooms, deeply layered and eclectically furnished, with attention to every detail, from the interior architecture to the tiniest final lampshade braid. But somehow, after all that detail, his rooms had a faded beauty, like they had always been there. He talked a lot about the invisible hand of the designer. That’s something I’ve always tried to master in my own work.

There’s nothing worse than something that feels contrived or forced. To be able to design to the nth degree, like he does, and still let all the rooms feel so evolved is, I think, such a vital skill.

Calandre: That’s so interesting. You didn’t have any interior design qualification, and yet you found your way in. To have that be your first experience is such a gift. What you’ve taken from it, attention to detail, is exactly what I observe in you.

Sarah: I feel very lucky that I started there. Even though my style is so different to his, I came into contact with design philosophies that I still carry. He was writing a book at the time, so he was articulating his process. Things like: in smaller rooms, using something oversized will make it feel bigger. Or in a low-ceilinged room, pulling the cornice over the ceiling a bit more than it comes down the wall. A lot of designers know these things, but the way he articulated them, so clearly and so well, at such an early stage in my career, really stuck with me. I was conscious of taking those little nuggets of wisdom with me, and I still hold them quite close now.

Calandre: I can imagine you thinking, “What would Alidad do?” And although your aesthetic style is different, your approach is so clearly aligned.

Sarah: I think that’s true.

Calandre: Let’s move on from that extraordinary start. Is there a special place that has inspired your work?

Sarah: The idea of place is interesting in my childhood. I moved house so much. I think that’s common among interior designers. Starting again and creating a home was part of my childhood. My dad was a rural estate manager, so we moved with his jobs. We lived near some wonderful houses. We were at Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire in a 17th-century gatehouse, then later in the castle rose garden at Castle Howard in Yorkshire.

Looking back, those places where my sister and I explored, running around as children do, discovering passages in the backs of castles and stumbling across a temple in a forest, were things I completely took for granted at the time. But now I realise those early experiences gave me an exposure to beauty, proportion and scale without even realising it.

Calandre: Repeatedly creating a home gives you a sense of what makes a good one. Where did your aesthetic sensibility begin?

Sarah: It’s so hard to articulate because so much seeps into your being without you realising it. Childhood experiences are so formative in your approach to a home. I see my own children studying the detail of a cupboard handle. The way you experience things as a child is so different from as an adult. Maybe John Vanbrugh, the architect of Castle Howard, has influenced me without me even knowing. Perhaps with his really bold Palladian-inspired columns and out-there style of designing Baroque castles. He contrasts those with lots of plain walls, hidden passages, and the mystery of things in woods. Maybe that has seeped into my psyche.

My mum repeatedly decorated new homes. We lived in 14 or 15 houses before I was 18. She made curtains, had fabric swatches, always took us to paint shops. I grew up around making a home-it was always happening.

Calandre: The speed of moving endlessly requires confidence. You can pull together things other people might not-scale, colour, form. There’s real assurance in your work. Studio Peake hasn’t been around that long, and yet you’ve grown and established your name so quickly. Do you think there’s been a stroke of luck?

Sarah: Definitely. I’ve been fortunate in many ways. One that stands out is my early Georgian house project. I was asked by someone I didn’t know very well from university to help decorate their Georgian cottage in Vauxhall.

I’m such a believer in things happening at the right time for a reason, and I do feel really lucky to have found my client, Sarah, and her husband, Rupert, at that formative stage. She had great taste but was incredibly busy, expecting her first baby and working in a demanding job. I’d just finished my own flat and had started to think seriously about exploring my own style and setting up a studio, after years of working for other designers. The project was small, but it had great windows, good proportions, and Sarah was an extremely trusting client.

Calandre: Why do you think she trusted you? In interior design, trust often leads to great projects. What built that trust between you?

Sarah: I think we got on very well. I hadn’t really set up my company yet, so I went over for a drink. We had a glass of wine in the garden and talked about how I might be able to help her. It was just a very natural connection.

We got on really well and liked the same things. I think with any client, trust grows the more you work together. I usually find that things settle in after a few months of working with someone. But with Sarah, it grew really quickly. I think we had an affinity in what we were doing.

Also, she was extremely busy and about to have a baby, so she sort of had to trust me. But it worked really well. Having that project at that time allowed me to explore my own way of doing things and enjoy the process. It wasn’t an unlimited budget. I had to reuse things and give them a new lease of life, rather than start completely from scratch. The space was small, but those constraints helped create something really lovely, creative and personal.

I had to really find out exactly how they wanted to live in that space. Because it was small, and with another little human on the way, those parameters and boundaries, combined with the trust she gave me so early on, were one of the luckiest and most fortuitous things to happen at the beginning of my career.

Calandre: With that project, what felt like your first mark as a designer? What’s something you’d still do now, or a brave move that paid off? Which pieces felt like, “That’s Sarah Peake”?

Sarah: A lot of the joinery detailing, we still use it. In their little son’s bedroom, which had a steeply sloped ceiling and a low window, the space felt tiny. You couldn’t even stand up in half of it.

So I created a little bed nook and leaned into the shape of the room. I placed the bed under the lower side, beneath the window, and used V-groove panelling. I worked with my joiner, Billy, and we made this room without a big budget. There weren’t any drawing packages or anything like that. It was all worked out on site, me and Billy with a measuring tape.

We still use a lot of the detailing we developed back then in the studio now. These days, the team draws it all up impeccably, and it feels much more professional. But that early work, me and Billy figuring it out as we went, it still underpins a lot of what we do.

I still use the lamp in the kitchen. There was a huge, great big plaster lamp, which you’ll always find in a Studio Peake project, a large white lamp somewhere. I love it. Breaking through the colour... and definitely streaks of bright colour and patterned fabrics, which are offset by the traditional Georgian detailing.

I think that play between the old and the new, that contrast, is something we still very much try to achieve in our projects. The balance might be quite different. It might lean more towards the contemporary end, but that interplay between the architecture, the furniture and the shapes is something I started to work out, in quite a formative way, on that project.

Calandre: It’s such a gem of a project, and it ended up on House & Garden online, which so many aspire to. How did that come about?

Sarah: House & Garden have always been a support, from the very beginning. Even my small flats were featured online early on. So I already had a contact there. I did a photoshoot with Alex James, who I’ve been working with since the beginning. Honestly, he's the most wonderful man. He photographed my first flat and the Georgian cottage. I sent the photos to Lizzie Metcalfe at House & Garden, and she was so kind. She showed them to the team. I think they have a regular “houses meeting,” which she told me about. I was literally refreshing my emails… “Have they had the meeting yet?” Tentatively emailing… “Has it happened?”

Finally, they got back to me and said they wanted to feature it. Honestly, I was so excited. It was such a big moment for me to have a client’s home featured on House & Garden online. And then the photos kept getting shared, which was amazing.

Especially that little bedroom nook I mentioned. It was shared on Instagram a lot. I think I was quite fortunate with the timing. Fewer people were on Instagram back then, and the algorithm worked very differently. It got shared a lot, and I got clients off the back of those photographs, much bigger projects and bigger budgets. It all went from there. So yes, definitely a lucky project to find.

Calandre: I think you’re such a wonderful example of the power of play. Even as adults, it’s so important to experiment, make a mess and waste time. What does play look like to you? How do you incorporate that into your work or your routines?

Sarah: I think I’m really lucky in that I see large parts of my work as play. First of all, I’m doing what I love. I find huge amounts of creativity in my working day. But as the demands of the business grow, there’s definitely a danger of being pulled along by the busyness. There can be really stressful times with building projects. They can totally consume you. So I have to be really strict with myself.

I factor large gaps into my diary to make sure I can find time for creativeness and play. That probably sounds really uncreative and boring, but I need to do that. I try to get out of the studio midweek, go to galleries, book an open house tour, pore through design books, or just sit down with my sketchbook to draw. Some of what I’m interested in creatively develops from that. But yes, carving out time to do nothing is so important.

Calandre: You’re absolutely right. When managing a team and a family, you have to be pragmatic and deliberately carve out time for play. It’s encouraging that, despite your big projects and team, you recognise the need to set time aside to do nothing.

Sarah: For the last few years, I’ve carved out time in the summer, not a holiday exactly, but a couple of weeks of “thinking time.” I might stay at home or go somewhere lovely. I don’t always have a framework for what I’ll do. I just see where my thinking takes me. I’ve found that to be quite vital. By the summer each year, I really need it.

Calandre: Too busy not to play, that’s the answer, isn’t it? If you stop playing, the work won’t be as good, you won’t enjoy it as much. The busier you get, the more you have to play.

Sarah: Yes, you do, and you have to keep that part of your brain alive. The Workshop by Studio Peake, which is just my small collection of products, that’s something I use as an outlet for my creativity. It’s not really a commercial thing at all.

As our projects have grown in scale, with so many drawings to review, schedules to do, site meetings, it can feel really uncreative. One project we’re working on won’t be finished for another two years, and we’ve already been on it for three.

So having my own product development, maybe one at a time, with someone I really enjoy working with, gives me that injection of playfulness. And I’ve really enjoyed that over the past few years.

Calandre: Six years into Studio Peake, what have been the key moments of revelation or understanding, creatively or commercially? What’s the real pearl of wisdom you’ve taken from the journey so far?

Sarah: I think the biggest revelation has been realising the impact the studio has had on our work.

Calandre: Do you mean the studio as in the team, or the physical building?

Sarah: The building. We started in my spare room, then moved into a licensed, shared office, perfect for the first few years. Flexible notice periods, space to grow, and not a scary overhead. But it had major downsides: a bright red entrance hall and a hostile receptionist. I’d want to blindfold clients as they arrived and sneak them up to the studio.

Then I found this studio in a Victorian mews, an old bakery in Hammersmith. Great light, lovely windows, and the tubes rumbling past on one side. I immediately loved it. We did a total renovation, and honestly, doing your own studio is so much more stressful than client projects.

I poured so much effort and energy into it, without realising what an impact it would have. It transformed everything, not just client meetings, but also the mood and energy. Me and the team feel inspired working there. Everyone eats lunch together around the table. I’m really big on team and studio, it’s not my name above the door, it’s Studio Peake. It’s all of us, in this beautiful space we built together. It’s been a game changer, and I totally underestimated its impact.

Finally, I’d be remiss not to ask about the future. We’re in a strange time with AI and social media changing everything. How do you feel about the future of Studio Peake, and maybe even interior design as a whole? What are you looking forward to, and how are you navigating this new era?

Sarah: Social media and AI are big things to be aware of. I really do try to limit my personal use, though of course we all fall into the scrolling trap. Instagram has been amazing for my business. I’ve been able to connect with an incredible community and self-promote with no reputation to begin with. I’m very thankful for that. But I do try to keep my creative thoughts unaffected by algorithms. I actively seek out books, magazines, galleries, museums, and travel for inspiration.

I’ve also increasingly tried to keep up hobbies, which is easier said than done with a business and small children. But it’s so important for my relaxation. I’m a big believer in trying new things, drawing, ceramics, photography, anything to keep my brain alive. Time feels so condensed at this stage of life, but it’s how I want to keep my brain thinking, ticking and directing. I don’t want parts of my brain to go quiet. So my big hope is to keep trying new things.

Calandre: I think originality is an overused word but an under-nurtured art. In such a noisy, busy industry, socially, visually, digitally, how do you stay original? How do you resist getting distracted or diluted by everything going on around you?

Sarah: I think you can worry about that too much. If you're listening to the client, how they want to live and the detail of the ins and outs of their family life, I think it is really hard not to be original. You're designing something completely bespoke for them. What's worked for a photograph on Instagram is never going to be the right thing for that family.

Calandre: That’s extraordinarily good advice, Sarah. As we look forward to the future of Studio Peake. What can we expect? Tell us about the fun projects you’re working on.

Sarah: We’ve got lots of lovely things on at the moment. The projects are really varied, which is fun and keeps me interested. I’ve got a new build in Stockholm that we’ve been working on for a few years; it won’t be finished for another two. We’ve just finished a farmhouse in Scotland. We completed the first half of an Arts and Crafts house, and we’re installing the other half in August. We’re also working on a really cool townhouse in Islington, which I just love, it’s such a great project. Plus, there’s a house in Oxfordshire. So, there are lots of varied things going on at the moment, which is really nice and keeps us energised.

Calandre: Sarah Peake, you are, as expected and hoped for, an absolute delight. An excellent choice of breakfast, an excellent choice of career, and a remarkable ability to be self-aware. You take all those threads and strands from your past, draw them into the studio, and deliver absolutely wonderful work that is not only beautiful to those of us who only get to see photographs, but I can only imagine how incredible it must be to live in one of those homes. I imagine these homes will continue to evolve and celebrate the people who live and work in them.

So, I think you’re a very talented soul, and thank you so much for sharing such wonderful insights.

Sarah: Thank you. I've really enjoyed it. That's very kind. Thank you, Calandre.

Studio Peake: www.studiopeake.com

Up With The Lark: www.upwiththelark.com

Portrait Illustration - Rachel McCulloch: www.rachel-mcculloch.com

Today, we are joined by interior designer Sarah Peake, founder of Studio Peake. Sarah’s creative confidence and courage, independence of thought, work ethic, and grit mean that she is admired far and wide by clients and the industry alike. Every conversation with her entices action. I am sure you will feel the same.

Studio Peake: www.studiopeake.com

Sandrine Zhang Ferron:"It's important to be generous and praise people in public. It shows other people what 'good' looks like and reinforces the culture that you want to create."

In this episode, a topic that creeps in to most of the work that I do with founders. It is leadership. Are you a leader? What ‘qualifies’ you to be one? What arena, idea, business or group of people are you leading? What is your leadership style? Is it working? And why does it matter? In the social media age, spend a great deal of time discussing ‘following’ and ‘followers’. But I wonder if we spend enough time considering ‘leading’ and ‘leaders’.

It brings me real joy to say that today we are going to adventure through this very concept with someone more than qualified to do so. Sandrine Zhang Ferron is the founder of Vinterior.

This vintage furniture site is an excellent ‘what if we could…’ put into practice and I can’t imagine you haven’t browsed its pages at some point. It is sustainability as a doing word, a verb rather than a concept or aspiration or guilty niggle. It has purpose and style woven in and Sandrine has big ambitions for its future. We are going to consider what Sandrine learnt from her years working in finance, how she got the idea off the ground, what it means to be a leader in your industry, a leader as a founder and a leader of a team.

Throughout, I would encourage you to consider the part that you play in your industry, in the impact that you are making and your business. How can we all do this better and enjoy it more?

And so welcome to Up With The Lark And Vinterior, which I suspect is going to be spur us all on.

So Sandrine, thank you so much for sharing your time with us. I increasingly think that our eight year old self and our 14 year old self had great intuition for who we really are before the world comes in with too much influence, distraction and dilution. You started your professional life in Finance. Did that seem to be an inevitable professional route for you? Was it a longed for dream? A practical reality? What took you down that route?

Sandrine: Very good question. I think, in terms of my interest, definitely not. But I think in terms of the environment I grew up in, probably yes. I think when I was a kid, I was just asking a lot of "what if" questions, and "why." And I really wanted to become a cosmologist or astrophysicist. I wanted to understand the Big Bang! What is that out there? Are there any aliens? But my parents had very clear ideas and plans for me. My dad is an engineer and researcher so they focused a lot of my education around STEM and going into a proper engineering career. And I think it's probably a bit of a disappointment that I ended up in business rather than in finance or engineering!

In France we have a bit of a different education system. After high school, in order to access higher education, you either go to the university path or to the Grande École path, which is split between business school and engineering school. I just didn't get into my selected school for engineering first time, so that's why I ended up going to business school and going to HEC, which is where I got my master's degree in business and finance.

Calandre: So you then you enter the world of finance. Did you enjoy it? Was it everything the movies tell us it is?

Sandrine: Yes, and I really loved it when I started. When I graduated from my master's and I was specialised in finance, I was on the market side - studying a lot of options and derivatives. I had to do an internship abroad, and I found this internship at a small broker firm in London. So it was an opportunity to obviously get work experience, but also validate my six months abroad.

And I just felt, after one week, I had learned more on the job than in all my years of studying the theoretical. I just found it fascinating to understand how those complex financial products were structured, and apply the theoretical maths to concrete situations. And obviously, you know, getting also the commercial aspect to it.

Because when I started as an intern, after a few weeks, my boss said, "Okay, you're going to develop the Belgian market," and so I had to do prospecting, cold calling, getting lots of rejection from private bankers, asset managers, and manage my own business pipeline. And that was very exciting because I had a lot of ownership.

Calandre: Do you think it gave you a tough skin?

Sandrine: Oh yeah, definitely. Cold calling is tough. I think everyone remembers hanging up on someone like that. That’s what I had to do most of the time — build my own database of asset managers, people managing money who are obviously very busy, and call them to pitch services and products. I had almost no experience. My background was in auditing and marketing, nothing related. And I was a 24, 25-year-old graduate dealing mostly with men in their 40s or 50s. I got a lot of rejection, but I learned not to take it personally. It was just part of the job.

Calandre: And did that shape how you see risk and opportunity? Did it make you feel like anything’s possible, that taking a risk is worth it?

Sandrine: I think maybe before risk, it's more about having the grit. As in, I remember some accounts or clients, maybe I was talking to them every week for months or years before they did a deal. So it just made me think that you just need to trust the process and kind of harass people!

Calandre: Tell us how we move from derivatives markets and 40 year old men in the Financial Times to spotting the opportunity or stumbling across the idea of Vinterior. Where did the idea come from?

Sandrine: It came down to two things: where I was in my career and the challenge of finding vintage furniture when moving home. I had spent about eight or nine years in finance. Four years selling investment products at a broker firm and then moving to the buy side managing money for a family office. I felt I had experienced both sides but found the environments flat. I wasn’t interested in management and didn’t want to spend my life making rich people richer.

At the same time, my husband and I moved from a modern Shoreditch flat to a traditional Victorian terrace. Most of our furniture didn’t fit and finding the right vintage pieces was difficult. For example, I spent three months hunting for a specific yellow vintage armchair before finding it in a small Dalston shop.

After talking with friends and interior designers, I realized many just bought from big stores or local shops because there was no better option. That felt like a missed opportunity to me. So, on a whim, I quit my job and joined a coding boot camp to learn how to build the technology for a new product. All of this happened within about two months.

Calandre: Which part was really driving you: the joy of experimenting, the interiors side, or the e-commerce opportunity? Was there one main driver or was it the combination?

Sandrine: Then it was all about "I want to figure it out." It was a learning experience and figuring out, not necessarily the industry. I didn't know anything about the industry, just felt it was inefficient. But I didn't do so much research. You know, I think recently, someone asked me if I had a business plan. No, no, no. I just felt like my gut told me there is an opportunity. There seem to be a lot of independent shops around here, but it's so very time consuming to find them. I want to figure it out.

And maybe this idea is not going to work out, but I can always pivot. And in any case, if it doesn't work out, I can always find a job in finance. I think I just wanted to have a change.

Calandre: Did you have any sense of what you were trying to get to? How did you know what mattered to begin with?

Sandrine: Planning wasn’t my strength, so I mostly acted on impulse. The coding boot camp lasted three months, and I learned a lot, but after that, there was nothing pushing me to launch. I had savings, no co-founder or investors, so no urgency or deadlines. A friend from boot camp suggested setting artificial deadlines. I agreed and set goals like calling a certain number of sellers daily and launching the website once I had 200 products listed. That deadline was the end of November 2014.

Calandre: And do you think you've retained that way of doing things, that it's not too structured, it's just the next goal. Are you quite goal focused in that way?

Sandrine: I love personality tests and recently took the Kolbe test, which measures cognitive function. One key trait for me is ‘quick start’. I naturally work impulsively and last minute. Even in school, I did assignments overnight and got good results.

My team would say I still work this way. I am trying to manage it better but mostly I focus on using my strengths and relying on others with different skills to bring order to the chaos.

Calandre: Was sustainability always part of it or was it more about the challenge?

Sandrine: It came later. I didn’t start out thinking, “I’m going to save the world, one chair at a time.” It began with scratching my own itch, I wanted good-looking furniture, available immediately, and unique. As the business grew and I built a team, I had to define the company’s vision and mission. This evolved alongside growing global awareness of sustainability. I realised we had a unique chance to support a movement toward more sustainable consumption, not by preaching, but by offering beautiful, durable furniture that feels good to buy because it’s pre-loved, reusable, and won’t end up in landfill. That mission attracts many to our team and is central to our purpose: making pre-loved the first choice for furniture.

Calandre: That circularity language, the focus on style, beauty, and avoiding waste, was different when you started. How has that changed? Are your customers changing and how has that affected you since launch?

Sandrine: It has changed a lot. You know, I had a lot of scepticism when I started. One of my colleagues, Sam, from my first finance job, I remember sent me an email after I resigned and shared my idea, saying, "Oh, this is... it's never gonna work, because..."

Calandre: Shame on you, Sam! But he would have been in the majority. That would have been what a lot of people would have said, I imagine, quietly, maybe not so openly, but they might, as you say, have been sceptical.

Sandrine: Exactly. It wasn’t in a mean way. I think in his mind, I would be going around in town with my van and, you know, moving junk from people's homes. But it's funny saying that a few years ago, Sam sent me an email with a screenshot of his previous email, "This is not going to work." And he said, "Oh, I was wrong. I just realised that my wife just furnished her whole home with Vinterior items."

Calandre: With so many rapid changes, how was it entering a completely new industry? Interiors has its own language and culture. How did you find that transition?

Sandrine: It was all right, because, again, I think I started really from "Okay, I want to solve problems for people like me." And it was not about solving problems for experts, right? So, I mean, I learned a lot, obviously, because I was creating all the listings for the furniture in the first months myself. I learned a lot about different eras, genres, which was quite interesting.

Then the questions was, how can we make those items more accessible? So that it's not only collectors or antique specialists or antique designers who can access them. So I think we helped as well expand the market so that it would really be just people who are in the know who can buy them, and just make it easier for more people.

Calandre: When you were envisaging that community at the beginning, what did you have in your mind's eye, and is that what you've ended up with?

Sandrine: I mean, my initial idea was to allow anyone to also sell on Vinterior because since I had moved from my Shoreditch flat, I also had a couple of bad experiences where I had listed a lamp... I think it ended up being sold at 50p on eBay. But then when the buyer showed up and it was raining, he just kind of cleaned his boots on my my rug. And then picked up the light, gave me the 50p, and then said, "Can I use the toilet?" I'm like, "Yes." And then he stayed locked in the toilet for 15 minutes. I'm like, "Oh my god, that was not worth it."!

I wanted to make it very easy for people to sell as well. But when I first launched, I realised that the logistics and authentication of the items could be a nightmare, and I was a one-person show at the time. So very quickly, I decided to restrict the supply side to professionals only, in order to ensure the consistency of product quality, service delivery, and that really has stayed the same. I think, you know, for us, a great Vinterior seller is a seller who has great quality products, really cares about customer service, so is obviously considerate, answering quickly to inquiries and being able to fulfil orders quickly. But then two years ago now, because we integrated a delivery partner, we reopened the platform to individual sellers as well. So we came back to the original idea.

Calandre: How has that changed it, do you think?

Sandrine: I think that has obviously diversified the type of inventory we have, maybe more pre-loved contemporary designer furniture pieces. So I think that's definitely aligned with our circularity mission, because we can support more items to be re-sold. But it's come with its own challenges. I think professional dealers were not pleased. They're still not pleased at all about that because they have a lot of expertise and have invested a lot of effort right to upgrade quality stock, and they have some concerns that we may allow individuals that will be compared with what they bring. I understand.

Calandre: As a leader with a distinct approach, did you feel welcomed by the industry? How has your relationship been leading this new direction?

Sandrine: It is funny because I think it happened quite organically. In the industry there is the world of antique dealers and then there are interior designers, which is a different ecosystem. But I was really keen to create a platform that felt welcoming to all customers. I didn’t want to recreate experiences where I walked into a prominent designer furniture shop and felt out of place because I didn’t have the right outfit or background. People looked down on me and I got no help from the sales assistant. I wanted a different price point and a more inclusive approach.

In terms of being welcomed in the industry, I think we are now recognised as the main platform in the UK for vintage and antique furniture. We make sure to help dealers sell more online, which establishes us without needing to convince them. Today, most dealers join Vinterior through recommendations, while at first we had to be very proactive with sales pitches. With interior designers, just having the right product and delivering good service has gradually built credibility and trust.

I remember being at Decorex, an interior design event, and asking customers how they heard about Vinterior. Many interior designers said they had always known about us. That was when I realised we had established ourselves in the ecosystem.

Calandre: That sounds exactly right. There is clarity and consistency in what you have done. We touched on your shift from solo entrepreneur to leading a company. Was that a big change from working for someone else? How was it at the start and as your team grew? What’s that experience been like?

Sandrine: It has been constantly changing and that is what keeps me interested. I love learning and change, sometimes unnecessarily. That is my fuel. I never get bored or feel like there is nothing more to get out of the job.

At first, the main challenge was setting deadlines and accountability. But after I got my first pre-seed investment from Seedcamp, things changed. That was just a few months after launch. My first sale was in January 2016 and the investment came in June after applying in May. At that time I was still a solo founder. For the application, I had to create a video of the team, so I got creative and filmed myself playing different roles because they usually do not accept solo founders. That investment gave me the infrastructure to create accountability, learn, and hire support.

Once I started building a team, it was about delegation. Taking ideas from my head and communicating them clearly so what was executed matched the vision.

Calandre: Communication is key, especially as an entrepreneur juggling ideas. With investment comes more accountability, structure, and planning. As a “let’s-just-try-it” person, how did you manage these added layers and needing to consult or explain yourself?

Sandrine: There have been many iterations and it depends on the team around me. Six months after the investment, my friend Leslie joined as co-founder and COO. Until Series A, she was key in translating enthusiasm into actionable plans for the team. We are complementary in that way.

At first, I resisted processes. I thought they were bureaucratic and wanted to just do things. I didn’t have empathy for others operating differently. I assumed everyone was like me and couldn’t understand why others took longer or asked so many questions about process.

Calandre: Did it feel like it was slowing you down?

Sandrine: Yes, it was frustrating. But bureaucracy was necessary. I was inexperienced.

Calandre: How has that changed?

Sandrine: I feel like I am finally getting there.

Calandre: How did having a co-founder change things compared to going solo?

Sandrine: The first six months were about getting started and learning by doing. I was comfortable doing most things myself. My first hire was for customer service and sales, and I did everything else.

When the team grew to four or five people, having my co-founder was great. She brought structure and support. We separated responsibilities clearly. I focused on tech, product, marketing, and fundraising. She handled operations, customer service, finance, legal, and HR. Some people are made for those tasks and others are not.

At Series A after COVID, we raised 8 million pounds. The mandate was to hire an executive team with senior people in key roles. You delegate to them and let them run their areas. I went from doing everything myself to focusing on my area and trusting others.

Calandre: How has your enjoyment changed over those phases?

Sandrine: Managing people has been my biggest high and lowest low, especially with senior execs. I enjoy delegating but the challenge is alignment. You want to give ownership but keep people aligned with the overall goal and avoid office politics.I really hate office politics. It always happens at some point.

Calandre: What is your secret to avoiding that?

Sandrine: One coach told me to break triangles. For example, if someone comes to you with a conflict involving another person, don’t get in the middle. Make them resolve it themselves. Otherwise, you get stuck in those triangles.

Setting culture is an art. Some find it natural, some work hard at it, but no one can take it for granted. Alignment is powerful. Giving autonomy while keeping people accountable and connected is key.

Calandre: How many people are in your team now?

Sandrine: More than five. We are beyond that early stage.

Calandre: When you had four or five people it felt very different. How have you created a culture that balances autonomy with alignment to the vision?

Sandrine: Yeah, I think the culture is probably the thing I’m most proud about, and that’s always come back as a highlight from our internal survey. I think very quickly, we codified our company values, and there have been different iterations, but now they’re the same in spirit. And I think, how do we operationalise them, right? How can we make very visible and reward the good behaviours that we want to see? How do we address behaviours we don’t want to see? How do we manage exits, if needed? And I think not compromising is very important. Something I realised is that sometimes I could have acted quicker to exit something.

Calandre: I agree. Do you think finding good matches in recruitment is crucial to your culture, and have you improved at this over time?

Sandrine: I have made quite a bad recruitment decisions. Sometimes the process has been like a curriculum with seven stages. I think the recruitment process can be refined to ensure competencies and technical skills are really checked, as well as cultural fit. We use questions based on past behaviours for that. But some people just interview well, so it’s important to watch closely during probation and keep asking questions after. There’s a founder saying: if you have a doubt, you have no doubt.

Calandre: What has been your most critical lesson in setting the culture of the people as the founder?

Sandrine: I think just giving feedback, being very explicit with positive behaviour I want to reinforce and quickly addressing behaviours that need to be corrected. And being really generous with praising people in public - public praise is crucial as it shows other people what good looks like at the company. Sometimes values can be a bit vague. Everyone’s going to have a different interpretation. So I’m trying to make my public positive feedback very specific. Like, kudos to this person for doing that because it aligned with this value, and this helped us achieve this goal. And I think with constructive feedback, it’s best to keep it private. I think remove the emotion out of it, which is also something I had to learn over time. Don’t be angry when you deliver negative feedback and don’t do it in public, because then people are going to shut down. But then, I think, don’t wait.

Calandre: Yes, I agree. Giving feedback regularly makes issues feel smaller. Waiting for annual appraisals means mistakes, like a poorly toned email from February, go unaddressed too long when they could have been fixed earlier.

Sandrine: If they don’t know, fix it. Assume the best. They may not be aware, so bring attention to the behaviour and see if it’s coachable. Set a timeline for change; that’s important. Another key point is to criticise the behaviour, not the person. And as you said, don’t wait until you're angry. Address it early, calmly, and objectively. It’ll likely be more effective.

Calandre: How have you navigated your role as founder with investors, customers, and peers? Some founders push themselves forward; others hold back. How has your approach evolved as the business grew?

Sandrine: I’ll do what the job requires, and of course, that depends on the industry. Investors are essential, and my background in finance has really helped me build that relationship through financial literacy.

Calandre: I think what really helped build that relationship was having financial literacy.

Sandrine: Yes, definitely. You speak the same language. I maybe have more understanding than someone who hasn't worked in finance, of the constraints investors face and how they evaluate a business. In my previous job, I handled deals worth hundreds of millions. So I try to talk to investors as peers, and I think that plays to my strengths.

There aren’t many people in the creative industries who’ve come through banking, and someone might think, “Oh gosh, I’m not good at talking about that,” but I bet there’s something else they’re good at. Whether it’s your manner, your knowledge, really playing to your strength is key in those investor relationships. But yes, get yourself as financially literate as you can. It makes a huge difference.

Calandre: Exactly. As inspiring as ambition is, investors are focused on returns. That’s what matters. As a founder, have you found it more important to show your personality? In business, politics and the arts, people want to know the person behind the work. Has that become more important over the last ten years?

Sandrine: Definitely. Our brand team has done an extraordinary job raising the profile of the company. A few years ago, people didn’t know who we were. Now, many do. That is a direct result of the campaigns they have led.

One angle is the founder story. I find that interesting too. I want to know people’s stories. For me, I see it as part of the job, especially as we’re a consumer-facing company. If that’s the story people connect with, I’m happy to do it. But naturally, I’m not someone who loves being in the spotlight.

Calandre: Going after £8 million shows big vision. You clearly have passion. But what parts of being a founder do you find toughest or least enjoyable?

Sandrine: Anything to do with maintaining existing processes. I love challenging the status quo, launching new projects, brainstorming ideas. I might come up with something and pass it to the team to develop. But all the minutiae of planning, the step-by-step execution, that’s not what excites me.

Calandre: So what’s it like for people working under someone who’s so vision-driven but less detail-focused? Do you have a team who loves the detail, and is that key to finding people who balance you out?

Sandrine: Yes, exactly. That’s been a more recent learning. I’ve started identifying who in my team is really good at that, and asking: how can I truly leverage their strengths? Rather than wasting my own energy on things I’m not great at, it’s better to let others shine where they’re strongest.

Calandre: Where do you go to be challenged, encouraged and inspired? Is it people, books or something else that feeds you?

Sandrine: I’m really lucky. I have an incredible support system. I’m part of several peer networks. One is called Founder Coach, it’s for Series A founders and run by a coach who facilitates group coaching. It’s full of shared experiences and cross-learning. I really enjoy sharing what I’ve learned and also picking up what others have done brilliantly and trying to adapt that to our business. I’m also in another group called YPO, which is for founders across completely different industries. It’s a bit more new-age. Not so much about practical advice, but more emotional. And I think that’s important. Most founder-CEOs are high achievers, very rational, but don’t have many spaces to share emotionally. That side matters too.

Calandre: Leaders need places where they can be led, spaces of equality and acceptance. Then they can return to their teams feeling full.

Sandrine: For Founder Coach, I was following Dave Bailey, the founder, on LinkedIn. He was posting great content around coaching. And for YPO, it was our chairman, Simon Calver, who recommended it. Simon is a great part of my support network. He’s outside the day-to-day business, which makes him a valuable person to bounce ideas off. It’s great having someone whose role is just to think with you. I also know other founders from networks like Seedcamp and Google Campus. Any time I’ve spent talking to other founders, I’ve left feeling better. You realise your problems aren’t unique. They’re happening to everyone. So just get on with it.

Calandre: You seem to like having a chairman.

Sandrine: Yes. I was hesitant at first, because I didn’t fully understand the role. It came with our Series A investment. But I’ve been lucky. We’ve built great trust. We can talk through really tough issues. He holds me accountable without getting involved in the execution. He also helps align the board and investor expectations, which used to take up a lot more of my time. Having that support has been hugely helpful.

Calandre: What’s the future for your business? What are you figuring out now?

Sandrine: It’s interesting you say that because we always try to operate from a place of not knowing. One of the earlier questions was about being accepted in the industry. I think being outsiders helped since we had no assumptions and were open to learning and doing things differently.

Now, sometimes we limit ourselves by thinking, “We’ve already tried that” or “That’s not new.” That is why hiring people with a beginner’s mindset helps us reconnect with openness.

Right now, it’s all about technology and AI. We’re asking how to create an incredible customer experience using AI. Can we be the first to get it right? The pace of technology is creating real urgency. We want to help customers find the right products faster and help sellers manage their businesses more easily.

But where to start, and how to choose?

Calandre: As we finish, what would you say has been the most important piece of wisdom you’d pass on to the next founder? Whether it’s leading a team, building a sustainable brand or growing an e-commerce business, what is your biggest discovery?

Sandrine: Trust your gut and back yourself. I’ve spent so much time doubting myself after feedback from investors or others. But if I have conviction, I have to go for it. We know our market and customer best. Maybe we’ll be wrong, but indecision gets you nowhere.

Sometimes, that is the downside of a finance background. Everything is data-driven, so I over-analyse and end up at the same conclusion. I’ve learned that some things can’t be fully measured. Even if you cannot put a number to something, it doesn’t mean it is a worse decision. The belief that only data makes a good decision is flawed.

So yes, trust your gut and communicate well.

Calandre: Sandrine, thank you so much for your time. You are a fantastic example of how to do things and I’ve really enjoyed hearing your story.

The podcast episode is released on Thursday 31st July. Subscribe to receive an alert.

Vinterior: www.vinterior.co

Up With The Lark: www.upwiththelark.com