Portfolio 1st term

Catherine Hepwright hasn’t always been a business woman. Around seven years ago the vintage business started, previous to this she had lived in London and Paris. After not doing as well as she would have hoped in her A-levels, she moved to London. She got a job at a theatre company called Bedside Manners and acted as wardrobe maintenance and dresser. This industry had always been close to her heart. Despite working within vintage industry, her great passion, she still describes the time at the theatre as, ‘the best two years of my life.’ In Paris she worked as a nanny for three years, though this for her was quite a lonely period of her life. Working abroad led to a restricted friend network and it ended up just being her ‘and the kids.’

When starting to discuss the journey of her vintage business she flips back her glasses revealing a more approachable looking woman. Her journey began when her and her friend Donna realised their love for vintage clothes and the items that they had in the back of their wardrobe. Despite owning these vintage items they concluded that they wouldn’t necessarily wear the clothes so started to sell on eBay. After developing their online eBay store ‘Spy Baby Vintage’ they moved into the basement of a café to store their clothes. This drew the public in to view the clothes and they ended up selling straight from the basement.

Donna’s music career started to take off which led to Catherine working for herself.

Selling in a rented flat just once a week to the public, gradually the prospect of opening an actual shop came about. After a name change due to the emotional attachment that Donna and Catherine both shared with ‘Spy Baby Vintage’, Hepwright’s opened.

Catherine was very wary of opening an actual shop due to her family situation, being a single mum. Previous to her business her life had suffered some rather gloomy moments. She’d been in two car crashes but was very adamant that neither of them were her fault in a playful, exaggerated way, making me a bit suspicious. As well as having to undergo the trauma that is a house fire. Her children had also suffered from illnesses, which meant they were in and out of hospital. This lead to a time of depression. First impressions would suggest Catherine was quite reserved in regards