Today is The Bias Cut’s 6th birthday. And I’ll be honest with you: until last week, I’d completely forgotten.
As I worked on our week content schedule for celebrating International Women’s Day, it finally dawned on me that we’d be turning 6 on March 10th. I’d been so swept up with celebrating other women and it being our 1 year anniversary of launching our Strike Out Ageism campaign, I’d forgotten we were hitting another milestone too.
The fact our birthday falls in the same week as International Women’s Day is a complete coincidence. But it couldn’t be more appropriate. And this year we have even more synergy with IWD given its theme is #BreakTheBias. Not only does it include half our name (!), breaking the bias is exactly what we’re on a mission to do: to uproot heavily ingrained ageist and sexist stereotypes, and break down societally and personally imposed ageist barriers so that we can all recognise the true value of every women at every age.
And that’s what this 6th birthday signifies: 6 years of relentlessly challenging ageism in fashion; 6 years of championing age-inclusivity; 6 years of proving that age should never be a barrier to style.
But it also signifies the importance and power of women supporting women. When I first launched The Bias Cut, I was told no one would be interested in investing in me or my business – and, for the most part, they were right. I recall all too vividly the networking dinners where venture capitalists and angel investors (all men) latched on to any man who even uttered the word ‘tech’ (no matter how underdeveloped their idea was). Meanwhile, despite already having a fully developed business, I was told I needed a male business partner as they would “never invest in a business with a single female founder”.
"I was told no one would be interested in investing in me or my business - and, for the most part, they were right."
Whilst I battled the seemingly never ending wave of misogyny telling me my business was destined to fail, what kept me afloat were the women around me. Of course, my family and friends were an endless source of reassurance, but what really made a difference was the kindness, support and encouragement I received from other women with whom I had no personal attachment and owed me nothing.
These were women like my mentors who gave me the confidence to persevere – so much so, that when one man asked me “do your mentors even think your business is a good idea?!?” I was able to defiantly respond “yes, they do.” Women like the solicitors who invited me to host pop-ups in their law firm, despite my having done legal work experience with them years before. Women like the stylists, photographers, and influencers who worked pro bono knowing I had zero budget. And women like you, who took a chance by shopping at an unknown small online boutique on a mission to enact positive change.
Thanks to all these women, I was able to take a seed of an idea and develop it into a fully fledging business. I was able to ignore the (mostly male) voices telling me my business was worthless, encouraging me to just give up, and saying “when you fail, you’ll just become a lawyer right?” (yes that was said to me, verbatim).
And I make a conscious effort to follow these women by example: whether it’s introducing contacts to fellow business women; giving business advise to fledgling female entrepreneurs; or even offering work experience or mentoring female students both at school and university level. Later this month I’ll be a judge for the Girl’s Day School Trust Leadership Enterprise Advanced Diploma, whilst in April I’m the Key Note Speak at a Year 10 business day at my old girls school – and I can’t wait.
"Thank you to all of you who took a punt on the young woman armed only with an idea, a law degree, and small savings."
So thank you to all of you who took a punt on the young woman armed only with an idea, a law degree, and small savings. And thank you to all of you who have since supported The Bias Cut, whether it be through work, collaboration or custom, as you are the reason we’ve been able to flourish and grow. These past 6 years haven’t been easy to say the least, but thanks to you, today I can be proud of what we have achieved.
And whilst, I don’t want to jinx anything, I feel our 7th year is going to be our best one yet.
