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The Power of ‘Dressing Like A Mum’
So, as part of @mastersofmany I’m doing a series of interviews with parents where this was the trigger for them in becoming an entrepreneur, and featuring them here as well as on the site. I hope you enjoy! The first of this is with Zoë from @dresslikeamum – an amazing blog to check out if you haven’t already!
I met Zoë initially via an agency I freelanced at. Our paths crossed briefly as she was
This particular meeting was focused on how to use
Tell us about what you’re doing now and how you got here?
I started my career after University at a furniture design company, before deciding that I actually wanted to go into what was effectively ‘cool hunting’. I got a job for GDR, which is a trend research agency. I really wanted to create more digital focus at the agency, but they were a little stuck in their ways and wanted to maintain their focus on the physical side of the business, so I left because they weren’t pushing
I went on to free-lance for Spring Studios, a fashion and luxury communications agency. They had a big pitch for a fashion holding company called Labelux and needed some help. The fashion industry was obviously quite slow on the uptake of digital (this was about 6 or 7 years ago) and I did this huge project that involved an audit of luxury and fashion brands online, ranking them in terms of their digital competence. That allowed me over a
Spring won the pitch and offered me a job working on brands like Bally, as a strategist but also an account director, which was good because it enabled me to learn all about the complications of photography for online etc. I stayed at Spring Studios for 5 years, on maternity for 1 1/12 of those years, split over two periods. After having my second, it wasn’t worth it financially to go back to work. After childcare costs, it equated to little income a day and
During maternity I’d started this Dress like a Mum Campaign. When you’re a mum you’re suddenly an open book– people feel they can make massive assumptions about you and pigeon hole you. It’s changed a lot over the last year, but it still happens. During maternity leave the first time round I got really lazy with what I was wearing, wearing jeans and a t-shirt because I was breast-feeding and I wanted it to be easy. When I went back to work I realised I’d forgotten how much I loved clothes. I had my whole
When I got pregnant again, I decided I wasn’t going to compromise any element of my fashion sense during the pregnancy. People would give me compliments, saying that I dressed well ‘despite’ being pregnant. That was the start of the thought for me, the question of why it would be any other way? I’m still me, just with a bump! People often made comments once I’d had my baby, saying things like “you don’t look like a mum / act like a mum”. There was one
Before I went on maternity leave, I was on a project where a high street brand was launching a baby brand. I studied all of these customer segments, and could see immediately that Mums are a huge audience on facebook, Twitter, and
I started doing research online for terms like ‘dress like a mum’ or ‘what does a mum look like?’ and everything I found was overtly negative. One author in particular (who has since apologised to me!) wrote the piece called ‘Why I’ll never dress like a mum’. I decided this was wrong and that such a dated
I changed my Instagram account to @Dresslikeamum with the aim of turning a negative into a positive. I was also giving women breast-feeding friendly outfit ideas, because that’s what I really struggled with my first baby. I made an announcement on Instagram, because it was my personal account, and said ‘this is what I’m doing, feel free not to follow me if you’re not interested’. It just went from there really.
I got involved with Mothers Meetings, which was really good. I’d just gone back to work after my first
I had a meeting with ASOS, who gave me clothes at the beginning. I quickly realised that when I was saying comments like ‘you could wear dungarees’, people were asking where my dungarees were from. Often I’d bought them a few months ago, and you weren’t able to buy them anymore. One of the Mum’s from Mother’s Meetings had a contact at Topshop and I emailed them and explained that it was detrimental to my brand if
Then women started to email me saying they loved what I was doing, and thanking me, saying that they’d forgotten who they were and that my feed had reminded them – all of these super nice emails. It made me realise I was
Brands started to contact me and give me gift cards to spend in store. I spoke to Mamas and Papas and did a campaign with them. I put a campaign together with real parents, and I was in it as well. Tomorrow I’m doing more filming with them. I became a brand in itself – I got a logo and a website done (my audience actually asked for it – I’d assumed they wouldn’t have time to read it!).
I wanted Dress like a Mum to be much more like the Sartorialist, focusing on street style, but it was difficult to find the right people for
The blog now has 13,000 followers and I have an agent. Mums started to be accepted as a digitally progressive audience, and I got introduced to this agent who wanted someone who represented that. Now they negotiate projects for me.
What I’m more interested in and what I’d always had in mind was this network that I’m building of fashionable mums. I’m meeting Instagram in a couple of weeks to potentially work with them on a number of projects for example. I don’t really want to be a fashion
What do you think really grew the network for you?
Definitely support from other people. When I first worked with Topshop they reposted it on Instagram and I got 1,000
What made you take the leap to do
I’ve always wanted to be my own boss, I just didn’t know what it would be and I’ve toyed with lots of ideas. The good thing about Dress like a Mum is that it comes easily and I really love it. I know what I have to do with it, I don’t have to run it past anyone and that’s great. I know what my brand is, what my brand pillars are, and the freedom of it is super fun.
By the time I was supposed to return to Spring, when my daughter was 4 or 5 months old I realised there might be something in the blog. You look around at other
How often did you feel like ‘it’ wasn’t going to work?
Time is my only enemy really and that’s because of childcare, which is a chicken and egg scenario, and I can’t really commit to it at the moment. I was listening to a podcast this morning, and there was a great quote “if you let doubt in, then doubt will take up too much of your time”. Dress Like a Mum is going to be a success, it’s just working out how. I’m really open and positive, so if it doesn’t happen then something
You’re obviously writing the blog, collaborating with brands, doing consultancy, all alongside being a mum to two kids. What do you find difficult about managing multiple jobs?
It’s not easy to manage it all. I’ve cut TV out of my life (and I like TV!) and I look at social media in a different way now. Before I used to be much more engaged in looking at other people. Now I know I have to go on and do x amount of posts, and it’s more if I have time that I’ll do that.
What do you do to spur yourself on when you get the fear?
I just have a word with myself! It’s still quite new. I don’t have a lot of risk at the moment and I’ve never doubted that there’s something in it. If I’m not enjoying it, I can close it and do something else.
What makes you feel good / powerful?
The response from people when they really like something you’ve put out is really cool. The decision-making side of the business is great. There were times when I worked full time when you
What’s the best compliment you’ve been given?
When people think what I’m doing is entrepreneurial. I’ve got ideas of where I’m going – but ultimately I’m quite reactive – I’m neck and neck with the future, so that’s great when people think you’re doing good work. You do get compliments online saying ‘you look nice’, but I
What drives you, your legacy, or enjoying the moment?
Definitely enjoying the moment and just going for it. I was walking along the other day, and had this realisation ‘this is my job!’ I was with my daughter, we were at a press day and looking at all of these lovely clothes, and that’s amazing.
The campaign is great and so many people are on board with it now. Last week Mother and Baby wrote about me and said ‘she has changed the misconception that Mums can’t
How do you define success now?
I would really like to earn more money! It’s all well and good doing this kind of thing, but until you’re earning decent money, it’s not really a business. When I can pay off my credit card and pay for childcare, I’ll see that as success. I feel like I’ve reached other factors
Where would you like the business to get to?
I’d love to have a physical home for the brand in some way. I also want to start doing unique collaborations, to build the brand more and start to look at products like a ‘Dress like a Mum’ nappy bag for example, or a leopard print nursing bra! Something that doesn’t exist and it should.
How do you start your day?
Normally with a kid jumping on my face! That’s followed by breakfast (or kitchen
I do 2 or 3 Instagram posts a day, mainly in the evening. It’s quite a lot – but I’m getting into a structure now and have a content calendar for the week, which makes it a lot easier.
My Instagram posts are then seeded out to facebook and Twitter (but it’s different audiences). I post
How do you organise yourself? Any essential apps or tools you can’t live without?
I’m a big Google calendar user, which is amazing. Notebooks and lists really! Sometimes I’m so busy I don’t even have time to write the list though and I just run with what I have to do. The star on my Gmail is useful, so I know what I have to reply to.
How do you come up
I try and think about what my audience want primarily. I have a structured content calendar, and I try to work back from events I know I have coming up. So for example, I’m going skiing in March, so I’m trying to work back from that in terms of content ideas.
Instagram is my main driver, but you have to have a life to have something genuine to say on Instagram, as my feed is about me. Some mums ask me questions directly, like ‘I need a party outfit that I can breastfeed in’, so then I’ll do a piece on that. I try things
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a TV presenter, or a DJ. Who knows, it might still happen – I’m talking to people about doing podcasts, and potentially going on Lorraine!
What would you tell your kids about working out what they want to do in life?
I’m going to tell them that anything is possible. There will always be competition, but they should go for it and not over-worry about
If you could do any other job in the world, what would it be?
A detective! I like finding out things…although I don’t like the dark side of it – but I think it would be really interesting to solve clues!
Single best piece of advice you’ve been given along your journey?
Just to go for it. Encouragement rather than advice has been important for me. A lot of the Mothers Meeting mums have been really cool – when people don’t doubt
To find out more about Zoë, sign up to her instagram @dresslikeamum or check out her website at www.dresslikeamum.com
For more on mothers meetings check out www.mothers-meeting.com
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