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Anna & Lydia
Interview & Words Hannah George
We have featured some of the most incredible and influential women in business since the inception of WOTC Magazine. These cover girls and features have shared with us every single detail of their journey - the good and especially the bad parts because those are the most inspiring when you are able to overcome them. For this issue, we wanted to give a female business owner from our community of readers, the opportunity to be our covergirl - in this case, we found two of them. It wasn’t an easy decision as we had thousands of amazing female business owners apply and sadly, we couldn’t choose them all. However, they were able to join our community of hundreds and thousands of women of whom we love creating opportunities for. Many women from our community of readers have now become contributing editors, guest photographers on our shoots and speakers at our events. For our chosen cover girls, we wanted to create further exposure for their brand and profile both women by sharing their story as this is something they have never done before. Meet Anna and Lydia, the innovative and creative founders of ‘Tiba + Marl’ award-winning bag and accessories brand.
I countdown as I eagerly await to let Business Owners Anna and Lydia into the Zoom meeting room to commence the interview. I am greeted by two joyful voices and two bright smiles as we begin to ask how each other are. We giggle at the first question - something that we may have all experienced and have been asked of — who is going to go first? Anna commences to explain the genesis of their business endeavor. Both mothers and women with a keen interest in fashion, they began to realise that they experienced the common grievance of not having a baby bag that caught their eye or was of any interest to them. “Let's just say, which was out there wasn't really what myself or Lydia or any of our friends really wanted to carry.” They didn't want to comprise their style just because they had kids - I mean, who does?
What they had found amusing and laughed about soon became a great business idea. They had the credentials, and they knew what would make there bag stand out.“like keeping it sartorial, making it unisex, making sure that all of our bags had life beyond their soul purpose of a baby changing bag.” Luckily, there was a gap in the market for them. Soon after the business was more established and found its legs they were able to pack in their jobs to embark on their new journey - of course with kids!
Beating me to it, Anna reveals that herself and Lydia both met on their first uni job. It was skills acquired at their jobs that enabled them to create amazing bags that had an instant demand before its launch. “We had had a waiting list of a thousand people before we launched.” My eyes widened in astonishment of their great achievement. Networking has been what has helped to elevate and promote their brand, she mentions, “we haven't paid for PR for the first four years.”
Both growing up in London, they really wanted their bags to be inclusive to everyone from men to single parent mothers. “We had fathers carrying babies and bags imagery and that was at the time quite revolutionary.” They were really fortunate with the press. “We had quite a few celebrity dads have our bags. We had Tom Hardy, Russell Brand and his wife actually bought our bags...and they were snapped with the bags.”
Being a successful brand, I was intrigued to know if they have been experiencing any turbulences during COVID-19. With the lack of certainty of how COVID-19 will affect the world, they are not sure how it will go. One thing that they have been able to master is supporting their team, all of which are also mothers who are having to work around their kids schedule. “We didn't furlough anybody, we just said to our team, just do reduced hours don't worry about it.” Knowing their struggles and the obstacles they all unavoidably stubble across they established a united force of help and care towards each other. “Everyone was very adaptive to help each other out.”
With this year marking their 5-year milestone as business owners, I felt it ever so pressing to discover what some of their greatest successes have been! Anna highlighted that they were able to do all that they did whilst having children. “Lydia and I did everything with babies.” Therefore, what they appreciate is having a great team.“Having the right people on the team has been a God send - especially during COVID-19.” A major success was them expanding and launching in another territory, with excitement they say, “we now have a warehouse in Australia!” This is huge advantage and opportunity for them to grow their business and to take it to the next level.“We have both markets now, and we can really try and nurture both.”
Whats next for Anna and Lydia is their new launch in Spring called ‘Concept’, they want to expand their reach to those who may not have babies.“You can buy the backpack and buy all the other adult bits you need - its made to adapt.” Both innovative and creative minds have a keen understanding of what their target market desire and they do not fail to make the best! No matter what may be going on they seem to always find a way to deliver excellence and bring out something that we have never seen before.
