Throwback Thursday

 I have hinted before that Raspberry Iguana has existed before so this blog will throwback.

Raspberry Iguana was registered as a limited company as a gift for my 18^th birthday; I don’t want to disclose how many years ago that was but trust me it was a lot, or certainly feels like it. If you were really interested, then there are ways to figure it out. Anyway, I was about to head off to university to study Fashion Design and Fashion Marketing with big dreams of becoming a fashion designer. My parents wanted me to have a name, label for all my designs whilst I was there. As explained previously, my brother gave me the nickname Princess Iguana so my parents thought that should be the natural choice, however you cannot call a limited company anything with princess in the name unless I am actually a princess, or my birth name is princess; so my parents had to spill the beans on what they were doing so I could tweak the name slightly. In all honesty I am not sure how Raspberry ended up replacing princess, but it stuck, and I think it sounds quirky. It was also important that the name wasn’t too fixed on fashion because I was still 18 and it is ok to change paths.

A different path was exactly the direction I took, after my first semester at university I had decided that fashion was to be appreciated and whilst I still liked designing it, I hated sewing, particularly under pressure and on industrial machines – randomly I did like pattern cutting and would maybe at some point like to get back into this as a hobby although I am not sure I would remember any of it now. I changed course to Fashion Futures Trend Prediction which in brief is anthropology and trying to identify future trends in cultures that would have an effect on consumable goods and services, I always explain it as a course to end up working for someone like WGSN (other trend predicting companies are available). This meant Raspberry Iguana went on pause for the next three-ish years.

Post university I stayed in London and worked full time for a very popular high street retailor that doesn’t fully exist anymore. It was great, I was having my Carry Bradshaw moment, on a slightly different budget, but I was living in the capital, had great friends, had a job, was always going to see bands, art exhibitions and the many markets London has to offer. I started drawing, doodling again in my free time and was filling sketchbooks. It was also at a time when shops didn’t charge for plastic bags but bags for life or reusable bags were starting to be encouraged which got me thinking about printing my designs on to cotton tote bags. I approached Greenwich Market to see if I could rent a stall there, it was small but busy and the closest to where I was living at the time.

That was it, every Wednesday when I wasn’t at my real job, I was at the market selling my designs, printed on to tote bags, cushion covers, lampshades and kids’ t-shirts. My dad helped me every day and even did it on his own when I was on holiday, we joked that he was my intern as he volunteered his time and bought the coffees, but he believed in me and sat with me when it was cold and it is one of my best memories with him, just hanging out. Whilst at the market I was approached to take part in other one-off events which I did; one Christmas market my mum had to join the team as I had to work at my other job. She had also crocheted some little Christmas decorations to sell and make the stall look more festive. Raspberry Iguana was even approached by a famous magazine for their gift guide, which was the turning point….

I had been working seven days a week, five in my real job, one at the market stall and the other day was spent sketching, blogging and making more stock; I wasn’t making much money and knew I needed to grow but I needed to invest some more money in first, so I needed a better full-time job. I declined the magazine offer (probably not a wise move in hindsight), stopped the market stall, but continued selling online and looked for a bigger job.

The next chapter of life saw Raspberry Iguana grind to an almighty halt. I got the bigger better paying job, left the city and joined the rat race. My career took over and whilst I did have slightly more disposable income my spare time was the price I paid. Raspberry Iguana became dormant and stayed dormant for many, many years. When I was pregnant with my first small I casually said I would start it up again on maternity leave believing the myth that maternity leave is a holiday, it is not, it is possibly the biggest responsibility ever looking after a miniature human so there was no energy or brain function left to try and start up a business although I know there are plenty of other superpowered mums out there that do.

So here we are now, this time last year I was working my notice period on my career job, so it was finally time to bring back Raspberry Iguana and do something with it.