Cute clothes for cool kids

IN OUR HOUSE they are called restaurant clothes. They are not dickie bows and waistcoats, but they are not the regulation sweatshirt and jeans. They are the items of smart-casual clothing that mothers of young boys reach for on special occasions. They may not be expensive but they can be difficult to find.

This was the first niche that Emer Cahill noticed when she was shopping for her eldest son Ruairi. “I found you can get very expensive things, such as a Burberry coat, and you can get very cheap clothes. I wanted to get good middle-of-the-road clothes that looked like clothes for kids, not smaller adult clothes.”

She turned to the internet and UK websites, but found that the postage costs often wiped out any savings on the transaction. So she did what thousands of Irish online customers do every year and had them delivered to a relative’s address, in her case her sister Tara Lally in London.

Tara joined the investment bank Goldman Sachs in 1999 as a first-year analyst. After eight years of pressure and punishing hours she was working as vice-president in derivatives. Before the credit crunch arrived she had decided to leave and wanted to set up her own business. Sitting down with her sister to come up with an idea they thought of the space Tara always made in her suitcase for her nephew and niece’s new clothes.

Through a friend in Delgany, Co Wicklow, the former investment banker found herself at a parent and toddler group researching the potential new market.

“A lot of mothers said they were shopping online and they’d rather be buying it in Ireland, from an Irish business. So we thought there must be an untapped demand.”

The sisters have spent the past 12 months going to trade shows and persuading brands to give them Irish retailing rights. “I got some help with the business plan from my old sponsor in Goldman Sachs,” Tara says. It was intimidating to step out of the corporate comfort zone and onto the floor of a trade show. “At first we were so obviously new, not having a clue. But people were very helpful and we learned lot.”

To bag their biggest brand, Little Joules, they had to submit their plans to the company’s board of directors. “We are their only online supplier in the UK and Ireland,” Tara explains.

Does she miss the adrenalin of the banking world, the leap out of derivatives into dungarees? “I don’t miss the long hours. I do miss the way of working. It was very team oriented. You always had pressure but you had support and people around you. Now I spend a lot of time in email contact with Emer.”

Tara has been bridesmaid to Emer and is godmother to her son. Now the sisters are business partners and hope that their close relationship will help diffuse any rows in the future.

They work separately, Tara in London and Emer in her home outside Limerick. Tara has been working as a consultant while setting up the business and is looking forward to devoting more time to it in the new year, when her latest contract finishes.

The result of their year’s planning and building is OscarandInez.com. “It’s for boys and girls aged between three and 10 years. When we looked at the baby market it was pretty saturated, but part of the reason I started shopping online was because it was so hard to find nice things for boys,” Emer says.

Along with the range of clothes there are gum boots, practical raingear and pool toys. Delivery costs a flat €3.50 and the courier will deliver to business addresses or follow advice in an email like, “leave it in the cat flap or with a neighbour”. And the name? The first idea was Little Wardrobe, “but when we looked at it a lot of websites for children use the word ‘little’.” So finally it came from combining Tara’s dearly departed dog Oscar and her favourite girl’s name: “If I ever had a girl I’d call her Inez.”

OscarandInez.com