MY LIGHT BULB MOMENT
Former headhunter rosie van Cutsem, 36, founded women’s country outerwear company TroY London — worn by the Duchess of Cambridge — with her sister Lucia. She lives in Norfolk with her husband William and their two young sons.
I’D RECENTLY moved from London to Norfolk when my younger sister Lucia and some friends came to stay. We were walking across the field near my new home and had both flung on big, shapeless coats to keep us warm and dry — I was wearing one of my husband’s jackets and Lucia one of our father’s old coats.
It made us laugh that we thought of ourselves as fashionable, but in the country had nothing to wear. It was hard to find a waterproof coat that was even vaguely feminine.
That was our light bulb moment. We decided to make stylish warm coats that worked as well in the country as they did in the city.
Neither of us had a design background — I was a headhunter while Lucia was working in a risk advisory firm — but we felt that what we didn’t know we could learn if we
Wrapped up: troylondon.com took the right advice and were prepared to work hard.
Lucia designed our first winter coat, the signature Troy parka, at about midnight at her kitchen table after a long day at work.
We have a team of fantastic pattern-cutters in London, a design consultant in Newcastle and a nonexecutive director who specialises in supply and sourcing in Glasgow.
I left my job in 2015 to launch our parkas along with a capsule of designs including a wool and leather jacket inspired by sidesaddle riding, called the Habit Coat, and some chic leather trousers. We used our personal savings to launch the business and tested our first designs at small Christmas fairs and trunk shows.
The day we launched our website, we were driving to London, squashed into a van to attend a Christmas sale, when our apps all chimed — our very first sale!
Since then we have grown a skilled team in Norfolk, from where our designs are shipped all over the globe. And we’ve just launched our first men’s jacket.
Everyone told us we wouldn’t be able to keep our manufacturing in the UK due to the costs, but we have proved it possible. Now we have a healthy impatience to become the next big thing in outerwear. Move aside, Barbour!