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Launched in lockdown: 8 small business success stories to inspire
From candle makers to ceramic designers, we meet the entrepreneurs who tapped into their creativity amid the crisis 14/05/2021
When the lockdown struck in early 2020, many in the creative industries found themselves unemployed and unsure of what the future held for their previous professions. But for some, this proved to be an unexpected opportunity to explore new avenues, follow long-held dreams and embark on a fresh start.
We talked to the owners of eight small businesses about their journey so far…
Launched in lockdown: 8 small business success stories to inspire you
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Over at luxury marketplace 1st Dibs, editorial director Tony Freund attests that the sofa is no longer just a place to park your derrière while bingeing on a box set. “We’ve noticed a huge uptick in searches and sales of sofas that are distinguished by their sculptural forms. Where once a sofa was a quiet workhorse, comfortably seating as many people as possible in upholstered anonymity, now this furniture form is often a star player in a room’s decor.”
Kathryn Lo knows all about the Insta appeal of a cult sofa. As the founder of homeware e-store Interia Hysteria, she shares predominantly sumptuous seating arrangements with her 25,000-strong following. While her venture trades in zeitgeisty candles and art posters, the number of fauteuil fanatics messaging Lo to ask where they can obtain the pieces featured in her posts has prompted her segue into sourcing design classics. “Having an original vintage sofa shows that
‘Life is too short’: How to stop ‘saving for best’ at home Anya Cooklin-Lofting © Provided by The Independent
Underneath a chest of drawers in my living room, there is a vintage sake set that I picked up at a market over 10 years ago. Today, it remains in its worn cardboard box with its faded, blossom pink Japenese label still attached. The set is dotted with delicate florals that look as if they have been plucked from a Willow Pattern scene and scattered casually across the ware. Inside the box, the mould is lined with blue silk, and each piece luxuriates in the folds and bulges of the fabric. Each choko, or cup, is thoughtfully furnished with a thumb indentation so the pattern warps slightly against the ripple of the ceramic. The matching tokkuri, the elegant, narrow-necked jug, has a spout so miniature in protrusion that the whole set takes on a charming smallness that makes it impossible to use, even to look at for very long, for the very fact that i
While many of us were making nudge-nudge, wink-wink jokes about novice sourdough chefs during the 2020 lockdowns, another hobby-turned-business proposition was gaining prominence: candle making. Not the scented, Diptyque kind, these were candles designed mostly for visual enjoyment – whether as part of a tablescape or ornaments in their own right. The truth is, if you didn’t start a candle business during lockdown one or two, you didn’t complete either.
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“It may sound dramatic, but when I was furloughed from my role as an events and PR manager, I could literally feel my creativity draining away from me,” explains Tony Jack, who founded the wildly successful Fairholme during the UK’s first nationwide shutdown. “By day three [of furlough] I was watching YouTube videos on how to make candles and reading every blog I could find, as well as a book called
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