Meet these brilliant women who have taken the leap to start their own business.
Happy International Women's Day!
This year’s theme is #PressforProgress; a strong call-to-action to press forward and progress gender parity.
Here on House Beautiful online, we’re celebrating the great work of brilliant women who are making, or have made, a splash in the design world. Some are juggling day jobs and families, others have taken financial risks to live out their dream, but the one thing that truly unites them (other than being women) is that they've all founded their own businesses through lots of hard work and determination – and that in itself is a sign of success.
Take a look at these business women below:
Vinterior was born after Sandrine (right) struggled to find affordable, statement design furniture for her new home that would stand the test of time.
Sandrine left her job in investment banking and, along with co-founder Leslie (left), they launched Vinterior – an online destination of over 30,000 vintage pieces available for sale, making it easy and enjoyable to find beautiful furniture all in one place.
Jessica Mason launched Piglet in January 2017 having previously worked for six years in PR and marketing in London and Dubai.
Piglet offers modern rustic bedding made from 100 per cent French Flax linen, and is available in a range of on-trend colours to complement every sanctuary. Jessica believes that a beautiful home doesn't need to be high maintenance – with high quality, natural basics, even an unmade bed can be beautiful.
A pharmacist by profession, Sunita has gone from being selected as part of the medical team to look after athletes at the Olympics, to designing luxury kitchen sink tidies. Her first design, the PAVARA sink tidy, has been created using patent pending designs. The business supports WaterAid through the Work for Good platform with every sale.
Helen designs and sells fabric and home furnishings for the stylish, contemporary home.
After renovating her home two years ago (which she shares with her husband and two sons) she was 'frustrated by not finding gender neutral and family friendly fabric designs' so she taught herself graphic and surface pattern design and created her own.
Following the launch of her first collection, her client list now extends to trade stockists. 'I’m passionate about creating designs that work for everyone’s needs working with clean, simple silhouette shapes inspired by nature that everyone can relate to,' said Helen.
Koz Susani Design is an award winning, innovative studio based in Chicago. Defne's designs are influenced by training in Italian architect Ettore Sottsass' studio, as well as her Turkish and Italian culture and her curiosity for different product types.
To coincide with last year's Milan Design Week, Defne collaborated with Istanbul-based design brand Nude to create the stunning Foresta coloured glass candle holder and the Layers coloured glass vase; both instant successes.
Brighton-based Corryn Boyes is the founder of Nine By Nine, an online gallery and shop that sells nine exclusive pieces of work by nine different artists, every month.
By day, she works as creative consultant for digital marketing agency, Propellernet. Passionate about design and illustration, when she's not working you’ll find her screen printing, writing stories about chameleons and taking long walks on the beach.
Paris Essex is the result of a collaboration between two knitwear and textiles specialists – Essex girl, Carolyn Clewer, and Parisienne, Tiphaine de Lussy – which began 26 years ago at the Royal College of Art.
Paris Essex's Crazy Blankets represent a creative dialogue between Carolyn and Tiphaine; the pair take it in turns to play with crochet and knit, using mohair, wool and super-synthetics.
Each blanket grows organically and fluidly rather than a planned design, so it takes on its own personality and tells its own story, with names such as Heebie Jeebie, Zig Zag Bunny and Miss Harlow.
Design brand Petite Friture was founded in 2009 by Amélie with the aim of asserting a distinct style whilst bringing with her an emerging French and European design scene.
After its first five years Petite Friture had more than 40 collaborations to its name which have had remarkable success including Vertigo light designed by Constance Guisset, Jetlag wallpaper by French illustrator and Max Enrich's Thin coffee table.
Having taught herself coding, graphic design and print, Lisa has been shaking up the design agency for 11 years. She creates, designs and prints several products at Dotty About Paper, including her signature personalised art prints.
Lisa also has a team of 11 females and trains them all herself.
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