Occasion dresses for boho beauties, backed by dragons

Sitting in the reception of Asos head offices in London, as organised chaos goes on all around us, I chat to Beth Chilton, the co-founder of Hope & Ivy one of the newest brands available from the online retailer. Having been founded only a year ago over a glass of wine Hope & Ivy has expanded fast, and not only thanks to the backing of two Dragons. The dresses Hope & Ivy make are the kind you can picture on cool London folk like Poppy Delevigne and Daisy Lowe, something on which dragons Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones seem to agree.

For us mere mortals, occasion dresses are some of the most difficult items to find, especially if you want something a bit different that doesn’t cost the earth. This was a problem noticed by Chilton and her co-founder Sarah Sleightholm. Incorporating beautiful hand-drawn embroidery, Hope & Ivy dresses are exquisite and original, but with an affordable price tag. And with embroidered, romantic midi-style dresses very much in vogue this season it’s easy to imagine wearing these dresses at a wedding on a beach, or while sipping champagne in the country. If you’re feeling brave, you could even consider turning dusk-to-dawn on its head, and wearing one of these boho designs during the day with boots and a biker jacket.

Hope and Ivy was founded by friends Beth Chilton and Sarah Sleightholm ‘over a glass of wine and a realisation that “we can do this on our own.”’ Both women had spent time working in the fashion industry but it was when Chilton quit her job, and plans to move to America fell through, the idea for Hope & Ivy was born . “It just gave me that kick up the arse I needed.” Chilton told me. “I spoke to Sarah and said, now’s the time, if you really want to do this we should do it now. Just trust me.”

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Midi with cold shoulder, €213.33; Jumpsuit, €173; Frill top, €106.66

Sleightholm had designed embroidery and prints for high-profile fashion clients, and that along with Chilton’s experience of managing and producing for fashion brands like Topshop, made for the perfect pairing. “We had enough knowledge of the industry, enough contacts, and enough get-go to get everything started, so we did.”

After that initial conversation, everything moved quickly for the pair. Chilton told me, “We said if we didn’t get anywhere in a few months we would call it a day. We built our first collection pretty quickly. It took Sarah about six weeks from initial design to a collection. We went into Asos, as we had contacts there, and within a few months it was available to buy online.”

Enter the dragons. Before landing the deal with Asos, Chilton had applied to the show, but had heard nothing. It was only when Hope & Ivy were already up and running, that the phone rang. “At that point we went back and forth, trying to decide whether to go on the show or not. It could have been career suicide.”

It was after seeing the viewing figures of nearly 5 million people that the pair decided to take the risk. “It was an absolute whirlwind.” Chilton says. “We had all these models in the green room backstage half naked and all the other contestants thought we were mad. We were the first to go on and we were in there for an hour and forty mins.”

While the pair didn’t get the dragon they planned for, they got a pair that suits them well. “We were grilled by Touker Suleyman, who we really wanted. But then Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden jumped in last minute and made an offer of £78,000 for 25% and we were delighted.” And what do the dragons have planned for Hope & Ivy? “They want us to become transactional, which will happen soon and their contact books are going to be great for us too.”

Hope & Ivy’s autumn winter collection is available on Asos now and this coming spring summer a bohemian bridal collection will be available.