I’m Georgia Campbell and I’m the founder of Miss Crofton. We are an East London-based lingerie company, making affordable, high-quality pieces often with an element of nostalgia. Originally founded with a friend in a bedroom in a house on Crofton Road, Camberwell (hence the name) in 2008, we’ve been slowly getting bigger ever since. Quality has always been really important to our brand, and we set out to reject that idea of disposable fashion that many traditional high street stores now perpetuate. Of course lingerie is a really romantic area of the industry anyway, and we just wanted to make elegant and beautiful pieces that last, that people really love and don’t tire of wearing.
G: What is innovative / unique about what you do?
I’d say our aesthetic was pretty unusual- our pieces are sexy but never trashy, and really we want to make women feel really empowered in our clothes. Also, the fact that we’re still relatively small really helps us to build up good relationships with our customers. As a result we’re able to offer additional services, modify our designs for customers, cater to a wider range of sizes, or even create bespoke items, like custom-made bridal sets. We started out selling from a market-stall in Greenwich, which some people might find pretty unusual. Although we’ve since moved to Broadway Market (where you can find us every Saturday!) I still feel like this is a really important part of our business. Being able to meet our customers face-to-face is hugely rewarding, especially with the repeat customers who have been buying from us for a few years now.
G: What would you say has been your most memorable experience while developing your business?
Probably the first time I made any serious money from the Market stall in the early days. As any small-business owner will tell you the graft that goes into getting a business off the ground is huge, especially during a recession, so when you’ve put in loads of sleepless nights and spent days dragging suitcases of stock through the rainy midwinter, when it beings to pay off theres no thrill like it! We’ve also recently started working through a Limehouse-based organisation called Stitches in Time (www.stitchesintime.org.uk) who link small-businesses with women in the local community with sewing skills. Not only is it great to be able to provide work within the local community, the quality of the work beats most factory production by a mile!
G: Why do you choose Shoreditch to run your business?
Although we started off south of the river, we’ve been based in East London for a few years now. I find being immersed in a creative community hugely important to the growth of our business. Not only do our surroundings provides masses of aesthetic inspiration, but also working in an area with heaps of other small business allows us to gain access to a great pool of resources- from business advice to smaller PR agencies, packaging designers, photographers etc. Another great thing about working in an area with a large fashion hub is that it’s easier to differentiate your product from your competitors.
G: Who/what are your favorite CEOs/Businesses in Shoreditch?
Quite a few to name! Of course our Shoreditch based stockists- Bordello, Stud & Stud, and If you please all offer a really great range of designers. There’s loads really, but that’s what great about the incubator feel of the area- seeing other people setting up and running successful businesses is inspiring in itself, and makes things a bit less daunting if ever I need a reminder of why I’m doing
this!
G: What are your favorite places in Shoreditch?
I love eating out- the Vietnamese strip on Kingsland Road might be an obvious suggestion but it rarely disappoints and I love that laid-back attitude towards dining with a large group of friends. The Bridge coffee shop is another favourite. Great coffee, and an insane Aladin’s cave of nik-naks on the wall- we did a shoot upstairs there a while back and I just love the look and atmosphere there.
G: What does the future has in store for your business?
Lot of growth hopefully! Especially online. Of course retail in general is increasing web-focussed, and I put in a great deal of time trying to build up a social community around Miss Crofton, which has also helped us build sales globally. Besides new stockists in Japan, the USA and Spain, we ship globally and I get massively excited about selling to people in places I’d never heard of previously!
