It was when I was shopping for baby clothes that I had the idea to start my own brand. All the gendered aisles were pretty shocking: I hadn’t noticed it before having my own child. Ideas began to spark, and I decided to design a unisex clothing line. Just at the right time, I bumped into a friend from France who is a product manager. She set the ball rolling with the manufacturers I used to work with. My design history really helped, because I already had the contacts. I don’t think I’d have been able to do it if I hadn’t had a trusting relationship with the factories that I’d used already – they need to have confidence in who they’re working with. It was important to me, too, to use the factories in Portugal that I knew would produce good quality clothes in fair circumstances.
Before I knew it, in 2011, I launched my brand at a trade show in London. Ruby was a year and a half old, and it was only six months after having the idea. I called it Tootsa MacGinty because that was the nickname Ruby’s dad gave her when she was born – he’s Scottish – and it was a name that holds great fondness.
At the trade show, I had absolutely no expectations. None. I was convinced somebody else would be launching a unisex childrenswear brand there too. Slowly it began to dawn on me that, aside from one other brand that was touching on what I was doing, other people weren’t actually doing it. My clothes were unusual. So many people came to my stand to say saying how refreshing it was to see, and what a new concept unisex was, that I started to realise I was onto something.
I managed to create my first collection because of my family. We cobbled together the money – my parents really helped – and I worked hard. While Ruby was in nursery, I worked. And then when she was in bed, I worked. I worked nights a lot. Part of my drive was the boredom of being a single parent – you can’t go out, and I’m not a big watcher of T.V. – but I had a lot of enthusiasm for the work too. My routine was to put Ruby to bed, get my headphones on so I didn’t disturb her, and get a lot of hours done. It was great having a brand new project and seeing it take off.
In the second year of the business, John Lewis took my collection. It was so exciting. Getting orders from a department store really helped. My brother’s girlfriend, who had helped me out at the trade show, helped me celebrate with a bottle of prosecco. Like I said – it’s a family business.
We’re still operating on a shoestring, really. Luckily, my brother Tom Pietrasik is a professional photographer, so he comes from New York to take the pictures when I’m having a shoot. Most of the child models we use are actually just friends’ children. We haven’t made our fortune yet! I really enjoy that aspect of it though – it feels very collaborative. It fits with the ethos of the brand too – I don’t want the children all coiffed and made-up. I want them to look like children, not posing, just caught on film looking natural. That comes across because the shoots with friends are always so fun. Of course, they’re stressful in the build up, but we always enjoy it on the day.
Ruby is five now, and she’s grown up only seeing me do this. She still thinks I make the jumpers (which would make me some kind of wonder woman knitter), and calls photo shoots “boo boo shoos”, from when she was very young and couldn’t pronounce the words. Now she’s getting older, she likes to have a hand in the design, and if she sees me drawing, requests certain animals. She’s also a dab hand at packing boxes and helping out at sample sales.
