Handbag designer Tamara Salman

Tamara Salman, 41, worked for romeo Gigli and Prada and was creative director at liberty. While on maternity leave, she devised her own luxury handbag collection. She lives in london with husband Stephen, a costume designer, and her son, four.

AFTER having my son, I knew I didn’t want to go back to working for a big fashion label. When I was at Liberty, I would often get home at midnight.

My lightbulb moment, however, was realising that I wasn’t losing something by leaving my job, but simply bringing my big plan forward. I’d always dreamed of launching my own label — having a child just made me do it sooner.

With hindsight, I was probably naive. I thought: ‘Dead easy. Baby will sleep under the table.’ My sister did look at me at the time and go: ‘Hmmm.’

My baby never slept, and was not interested in sleeping at all. So I was doing all sorts of weird hours in the middle of the night. It’s easier now he goes to nursery, but Stephen or I often go back to work at 7pm.

People ask me if becoming a mother has changed me as a designer. The answer is yes and no. Mine is a luxury collection [bags start from £ 495, tamara

salman.com], so I’m still as much of a perfectionist as ever. I once had to rush out to Italy because I had miscalculated a laser-cut design by a few millimetres — the artisans we use are so precise that such a small thing can cause major problems.

I’ve also always insisted on the top leathers, so we get all ours from the workshops used by Prada and Dior.

What has changed is that I have a better understanding of how working mothers live. We have to carry everything with us — laptops, spare shoes, make-up.

There’s no fat on the schedule, so no popping home if you’ve forgotten something. So I do a range of roomy ‘mummy bags’, as I like to call them.

While I’m not prepared to compromise on design, I have had to make personal compromises — everything I earn goes into the business. I haven’t been shopping for five years. And my hair is so long because I haven’t had time to get it trimmed! But that’s OK — I’m quite a practical person, not a fluffy designer in a tower.

What’s next? At Liberty, I worked with Ronnie Wood on a fashion collection decorated with his paintings. I really want to collaborate with him again.

Looking further ahead, I hope my brand has longevity — and that, one day, my son will take over.

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