Alice's Pig is a unique fashion brand that sells vintage-inspired women's clothing. Nicolai Schumann is a Cass Business School MBA and left a finance career to co-found the startup.
As I speak to Nicolai Schuemann, he is rushing around the trendy end of East London searching for locations for his second store. Business is clearly brisk. He is the co-founder of a unique fashion brand, based in London’s Brixton, which in just under a year has gone from strength to strength.While there are many fashion boutiques popping up in England’s fashion capital, Nicolai’s case is unique. He spent numerous years in finance roles, working at BBC News and Deutsche Bank, and studied an MBA in 2008.
After graduating from Cass Business School, he became a converted entrepreneur. He founded Alice’s Pig with his sister, whom has a fashion background and worked for sportswear giants Puma in Hong Kong. It is, as Nico agrees, a good division of labour.
Nicolai took advantage of Cass Business Schools incubator, The Hangout, and he credits the free workspace and entrepreneurial expertise to getting their start-up off the ground.
Alice’s Pig sells stylish women’s fashion, with an urban twist, to an international audience. Their website’s look book is nothing but inspiring; a collection of beautiful fashion designs worn by models in urban locations on the streets of London.
The pair dispel the myth that MBAs are only interested in traditional career paths. Nico tells us what it takes to succeed in one of the most competitive industries for London-based SMEs.
What is the company size?
Me and my sister are the two official employees running the company. But then we have around ten freelancers working for us internationally, but mostly based in London. We have freelance PR workers, a quality manager, a graphic designer and all kinds of other people.
Which sector does it operate in?
We are in the fashion and lifestyle sector.
What does the business do and what are their core/flagship products?
We do women’s fashion with an urban twist. Our clothing range is inspired by vintage fashion but with a modern element to it.
We have an accessories range, including jewellery, upcoming as well - we are just launching it as we speak. We are thinking if all goes well, we will introduce a men’s line to the market in one to one and a half years’ time. But that is a long way off and nothing is definite.
How does Alice’s Pig remain competitive in the fashion industry?
We have a very tight grip on quality, as we have one member of the team based next to the factory in Shanghai that we source our fabrics from.
She hand-picks the material and we only work with unique fabric. There are a lot of vintage brands out there, but we give our clothing a modern touch as well.
Who is the CEO/ founder?
Myself and my sister are both the founders and we have outside investment. I’m basically doing all things business; I am in change of branding, marketing and sales.
I do the front-end work and my sister does the design, sorting and manufacturing. It’s a good division of labour. She has a Masters in fashion and textile engineering.
How was the company founded?
We were both tired of the corporate world; my sister was in Hong Kong working for Puma (a leading sportswear brand) I was working in the City of London.
We decided to leave our roles, brain-stormed and came up with the idea for Alice’s Pig. It was opportunistic. I have a business and media background, and she has fashion background. We are combining forces to produce something good.
Which regions are covered?
We are based in London but we have had big buyers from japan, the US and from France. So we’re selling at our home market, London, but have good international sales.
Do you have any plans for expansion and employee opportunities?
We hope so but it all comes down to the demand. Right now it looks like the brand is accepted in the market, so definitely at one point we may need a new designer for the men’s line, and we’re thinking of getting designers on board for our accessories.
Tell us something interesting about the company in your own words!
We test-wear all of our clothes before they go to sale with a focus group for about a month, to make sure they have good fit. If something’s wrong, we go back to the drawing board.
My sister is involved in the test-wearing and, obviously, we only use people we know and trust. We don’t want to show a new collection before it’s been released, but we let people wear it for a month or so before hand. That is very unique in the fashion industry.
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