MY LIGHT BULB MOMENT
ANNIE POLLET, 45, co-founded fashion boutique Iris in 2004. She has three children, 17-year-old twins and a two-year-old girl, and lives with her husband Adam, a restaurateur. I BUMPED into Iris co-founder Sarah Claassen at a baby massage class. I had twins and she was on maternity leave. We began talking about what our area needed to make it great for young families. It had one pub and not a lot else back then.
My job was selling collections for brands such as Calvin Klein, Nicole Farhi and Earl Jean. I was finding it exhausting travelling with twins for ten days at a stretch. But I was 27 when I had the kids, so I knew I wanted to keep working.
Then I realised, if I was finding it hard to make trips with a double buggy into the city to shop, other women must, too.
I asked Sarah, who was head of production and sales at jeweller David Morris, if she’d like to join me in opening a neighbourhood store selling fashion, kidswear and gifts.
We wanted to cater for the busy, stylish woman who is looking for a mix of classic fashion to go from the school gates to the office, park or dinner. Kids hate shopping, and the idea of Iris is that we edit the clothes for you, to speed up the process.
At first, people thought we were mad to open a store selling designer dresses in an area that had yet to be gentrified. We had to stick the money to open it on our mortgages, but I was young and didn’t really take the risk on board.
Sarah’s ex-husband, who worked in bars and restaurants, had to sign the documents for Iris, as the leaseholders weren’t about to take a punt on two new mums with no track record of running a store.
Our aim was to make Iris friendly and warm. It’s not an intimidating, ‘fashionista’ sort of shop.
But our customers do like being introduced to labels. We were one of the first to stock Danish brands such as Rutzou and Day Birger et Mikkelsen — laid-back, ‘off-duty’ styles. Clothes by French designer Isabel Marant fly out of our stores. And now, we’re doing our own ‘By Iris’ brand.
Today, we have eight shops as well as an online store.
We support our locals and know the names of their kids. Iris has the feel of a village store, which is exactly what we wanted.