Hope
A British womenswear fashion brand launched in September 2015. Hope is into its 4th collection, web sales are growing fast with additional international interest including a major US department store as its first overseas stockist. Founded by Nayna McIntosh. Backers include Stuart Rose, ex-M&S CEO.
Hope is a British fashion brand which embraces women of all shapes, sizes, and ages – in particular women over 40 who are wanting clothes to make them look great, feel fabulous and just as importantly, be comfortable.
Founded by Nayna McIntosh who has over 30 years’ experience with some of the biggest and best known brands in UK retail including launching the George and Per Una concepts.
Following her own intuition and experience as a shopper and industry expert together with 3rd party research, Nayna understood that the older woman is an increasingly important yet often neglected part of the market.
Nayna and her team have 200 years’ combined experience, an average age of 52 and five out of six of them are women. This a team that knows this woman because they are this woman.
Since launch, sales have gone from strength to strength, the database is over 16,000 and growing and website traffic in the last three months is +350% on last year. There has been strong unprompted international interest with 20% of organic web traffic coming from overseas.
Product returns are half the industry norm which is an endorsement of Hope’s approach to sizing.
Funding to date has been provided by Nayna and private investors including Stuart Rose, former Chairman and CEO of M&S as well as other retail veterans.