The biggest honour and surprise came
last year when we received MBEs from the
Queen! The day we went to the palace felt
a little like my wedding day and choosing
what to wear was a bit of a challenge, butmeeting Prince Charles was an honour. He
asked me if the giant dinosaur necklace I
was wearing was one of my own designs,
then he turned to Rosie and said: “So
you’re still friends then!”“The biggest honour and
surprise came last year
when we received MBEs
from the Queen!”
£20,000 loan to buy our first laser cutter.
I love that nothing Tatty Devine does has
ever been too planned. One Christmas we
needed to make presents for our friends, so
we made them their own name necklaces.
Next thing we knew their friends were
coming in asking if we could make them
one too and our best-selling personalised
name necklaces were born!
In 2004 we opened our second shop in
Soho which soon moved to Covent Garden.
Over the years we’ve been incredibly lucky
to work with some amazing names from
Gilbert and George to my friend Rob Ryan.
In 2012, Selfridges asked if we could do
a pop-up making our name necklaces in
store. It was nerve wracking, but it went so
well that they kept it full time and now we
have concessions in their Birmingham and
Manchester stores too.
For more about Tatty Devine,
visit tattydevine.com, find
them on Facebook at facebook.
com/tattydevinefanpage or
follow them on Twitter
@tattydevineDon’t wait for permission
Don’t wait for anyone else to give you
permission to start your own business, just do it.
It will never be the right time, so you might as
well just get stuck in. Manage your expectations
too. You don’t have to set out to be a big
business or a massive success – if you just want
to make for friends, that’s completely OK. Do
what makes you happy.Forget copies and keep creating
If I had to chase every single person who had
copied one of our designs then that would be
my entire job. We have been copied by some
really huge companies, and luckily thanks to
Twitter we were able to do something about it.
But there’s no point in getting angry about it,
just move on and keep creating.Get some help
It may be harder these days to get financial
support, but there are still places that will help
you get started in business. We got loads of
help from the East London Business Centre who
gave us invaluable advice right from the start. So
check out what is on offer for local businesses
in your area and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
There are people and other businesses who are
only too happy to lend a hand to start-ups.Harriet’s top three
craft tips
Rosie is my soul mate and we couldn’t
have done it without each other. We
never planned to become a brand, it just
happened. It’s hard to believe that we now
have 60 staff. We put out four collections
a year and have our classic collection with
an item from each of the 15 years we’ve
been going. Some of our old designs are
really rare and I’ve seen some sell for huge
amounts of money. I still get a kick from
making new things and I’m pretty sure
we’ll still be creating in 15 years time.Clockwise from top left: Laser-cut name
necklaces are Tatty Devine’s signature piece;
the girls still get a thrill from designing new
things; Harriet happy in her workspaceREAL LIFE
24 Craftseller