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We meet in the sitting room of her beautifully designed and interested in the mass market, supermarkets and the like, but
furnished house. (“In my next life, I want to be an architect/designer, companies who wanted a smart, bespoke uniform that reflected
preferably Charles Eames.” Someone got there before her. An their values and gave their staff confidence when dealing with the
Eames Lounge chair sits in the corner, its timeless elegance public. One of our best ever clients has been Aviance who provide
undimmed after 52 years.) Sue is a slight, attractive blonde who
4,500 ground handling staff for airlines at 14 airports. Their
almost gets lost in the big comfy sofa, but anyone who thinks size
aquamarine uniforms are unmistakeable at check-in counters.”
matters will soon learn their lesson if they cross Sue. She is utterly
charming and funny, but she has the kind of core strength only
First-year sales of £500,000, almost three times projections,
possessed by people who have trodden the hard road for years
demonstrated the concept and the company has progressed in
and overcome everything that can be thrown at them.
the 20 years since to a handy £1.5 million annual turnover and a
team of six people providing smart workday uniforms for thousands
“I was a buyer for companies like Burberry, Jaeger, Harrods,” she
of people around the world, including sales and marketing teams
says. “I mean, I was really well known in the retail trade. My forte was
for homebuilders like Charles Church and Persimmon.
classic English clothing. Yet no matter how well I did, I always
wanted to run my own business. The last thing I wanted was a shop,
“The market for these products is quite niche,” Sue says. “The key
God no. But I did want to produce clothing, so I decided to learn
was finding a good mill to weave cloth and a factory to produce
how. At about that time, a supplier of mine, Pastella, wanted to
the clothes. I started by using Jeromes, a huge mill outside Leeds,
work with the very famous manufacturers L.S. and J. Sussman, who
but like so much British industry, they just couldn’t cope with the
made clothes for people like Pierre Cardin. I approached them,
competition from overseas. I used factories in Poland, Ireland and
got to know them and discovered they wanted to start a new
Romania before settling in Portugal where, happily, my fabrics are
women’s division, so I offered to run it for them. I learned the nuts
also woven, so it makes sense all round.”
and bolts of production; I had always had a good eye for design
and had even helped design some of the clothes for the big
If there is a downside to the business of corporate couture – and
companies I used to buy for. Then a cruise company asked us to
Sue is in every other way completely in love with what she does - it
design and produce a range of evening wear for sale on their
ships. They needed a name to market them under so they used
is having to nod her head dutifully when a client rejects her more
mine. But even though my name was on the label, I was still just
avant-garde suggestions and plays safe.
working for the company that made them.”
“I can quite understand why; they are not designers or trend setters,
Bit by bit, Sue settled in. She had a good salary with all the perks
they just want what they think is the best for their business. I happen
and sufficient staff to take all the donkey work off her hands. It was
to think I could improve on that, but it’s their decision! Yet safe can
all very agreeably cosy and the vision of her own business receded
mean boring, so we end up with clones – suits made pretty much
from view. Then in 1989 Sue met the woman who would unwittingly
from the same mould, in navy, black or dark grey. Actually, that’s
bring it back into focus.
why I love working for Aviance, because they bought into my idea
for a brilliant aquamarine cloth.”
“She was an independent broker who wanted us to design and
produce uniforms for a client of hers, a big travel company. We did
As you’d expect, there have been the usual idiot Neanderthal
all the work and she walked off with a big commission cheque. I
attitudes to deal with along the way, men who will only deal with
realised I had become too comfortable, that it was time to get on
men, that kind of thing. But as 85% of the people she dresses are
with life.”
women, it is not hard to see why her well-trained fashion eye
finessed all that and why she has now become the go-to designer
Sussmans were reluctant to let her go, but as a leaving present
for any company wanting a uniform.
generously gave her the new car they’d just bought her. With £30k
from the bank, she was off.
“It’s all very silly isn’t it,” she says. “I mean business is business,
whoever is doing it. But as some of my Jewish friends might say,
“I decided I would only produce uniforms,” Sue says. “That woman sometimes the best man for a job is a woman!”
had showed me there was a really good market out there, for
companies who wanted to dress their reps smartly. I wasn’t Source: Sue Stedman www.suestedman.com
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