That Irish Country Living cover actually had a profound effect on Heidi’s future.
“It was soon after I opened the shop and loads of people kept saying to me, ‘You’re the girl from the Farmers Journal.’ It was really funny and I didn’t know what to say.
“But a few months later, I was in the Left Bank in Kilkenny, and with the crowds, I was just kind of stuck. Gearoid (Maher) was standing there with a couple of his friends and he said, ‘You’re the girl from the Farmers Journal’. At that point I just replied, ‘Yes I am’, and now we are married, living on the farm in Gortnahoe and expecting baby number two.”
Training in fashion
Long before this Irish Farmers Journal-instigated romantic encounter, Heidi, the daughter of a cattle dealer, trained in fashion design in the National College of Art and Design (NCAD). She worked her summers with renowned Irish designer, Louise Kennedy. And after college, she went to work with Louise full time, who combines her basement studio and store in one building on Merrion Square.
This was an inspiration for Heidi and so, despite the recession, a decision was made to set up her own label. She laughs at the memory. “Really it was like 10 dresses on a rail, I did them in loads of different colours and made it look like a bigger collection than it really was.”
She initially had a pop up in the Loft in Powerscourt before moving to her own premises in Portlaoise.
“My idea was to have the studio and shop together and I thought it would be grand, that I would see a few people during the day and design in between, but the shop is a full-time job in itself,” she explains.
Design process
“We design all the clothes, do all the patterns, source all the fabrics and then I work with family-run factories in Italy and Poland to manufacture them. You give them everything – the buttons, the zips, the trims and the threads.
“We started designing more collections, breaking them up to have more stories. I had two seamstresses in the studio, as my Carpe Diem collection was made here, one girl downstairs in the store and one on production and accounts. We were busy.
We had been doing so many things and something had to give
“When I had Matilda in 2016, we literally closed the shop for two weeks and that was my maternity leave. Three weeks later, I was at the fabric fair in Paris. At the time it didn’t bother me as I love my job, but now she is three and I don’t want to do that the second time around. We had been doing so many things and something had to give.”
Now selling all over the world and with most customers not local, last year, Heidi started to refocus the business to online.
‘Buy it, enjoy it and wear it’
Boutiques and departments stores will only buy a selection of a designer’s collection and this left Heidi feeling pigeon-holed to the occasion wear market.
“When I first started it was a big market and for a lot of boutiques in Ireland, it’s their bread and butter,” she explains.
However, being the “crystal vase” dress only taken out for special occasions was not her vision for her label.
“I have dressed a lot of really fabulous business women. They might not wear our dresses every day, but they did for a conference abroad. I really wanted to tap into that side of things as opposed to the mother of the bride or someone buying a one-off piece. The working women were more likely to have the lifestyle to wear them more often as well,” she says.
“There are some influencers I like, but I don’t get involved with them. I am much prouder to share a picture of a business woman who has paid for the dress and say, ‘Here is such-and-such at this event wearing my dress’.”
Moving online
“It is all about the online now and between Instagram stories, Twitter, Facebook and getting your visuals ready, it never stops. Our next collection will only be available online. I want to go in a new direction and if I am still selling to the same shops, I still have to create the same special occasion wear.”
I wanted the girls to pick their outfits and style them as they would themselves
Heidi will continue with the pop ups though as well as engaging with her customers. Last year, they did a call out for some customers to get involved.
“We had loads of people come back to us and we picked a variety of age groups and sizes. The photoshoot was in Dylan Bradshaw’s as a pop up and they did the hair and makeup for us. I wanted the girls to pick their outfits and style them as they would themselves. I didn’t want it to be ‘Heidi’s impression’.”
Online is also difficult
“I think that with what is happening now (COVID-19), people will go back to supporting local. However, with people working, they have their house things they want to get done on a Saturday or they might not want to get dressed up to go into shops after being in work all week.
“Or with small kids, you just can’t bring them into shops. I can’t with my little girl, it’s just the age she is at. So I get that and it’s completely changed the way people are shopping,” says Heidi.
Although Heidi sees her future in online sales, she estimates that 50% of clothing sold online is returned.
My husband could not buy a suit online, the same goes for buying a tailored dress online
“It’s not easy to sell online. This is generally due to sizing issues. People are different, 14 on the top, 12 on the bottom. This got us thinking, ‘How do we change this? How do we make a more online-friendly product?’
“My husband could not buy a suit online, the same goes for buying a tailored dress online. It has to fit. When it comes to the Carpe Diem and tops, we rarely get them sent back as customers are happy. If you are buying something that is a bit looser, there is wiggle room and that is why I want to move more towards the separates.”
Sustainable fashion
“In Ireland, we do really casual or really dressed up, really well, but we get lost with smart casual. France and Italy do this particularly well. 
She thinks that there is a lot of false sustainability, which frustrates her. Her mantra is to buy better, but buy less and buy local.
“It is better to spend a bit more on a really good jacket that you will wear loads or buy a skirt that will go with this that and the other. Buy a suit and wear it with heels and then put it with a white t-shirt and runners.
“When I would say this to customers in the past they looked at me like I had 10 heads, especially about the runners. So I started photographing them the way that I wear them. Pink trousers with a runner and then dressing it up with one of my silk tops for the evening. Using Instagram to show this is what it can look like. Then we started putting these types of pictures up on the website and people responded positively.
“For someone, a stranger, to come up to you in a restaurant and say to you, ‘I love your dress’ is so nice.”
I want to use my maternity to readdress what we are doing
Most of Heidi’s business comes via word of mouth, but she is more active on social media also. As she has moved in this new direction, she has noticed that the demographic of the customers who come onto the website has changed from 45 plus to 35 plus also. She is conscious of this and intends to still have a range of what would be considered a typical “Heidi” dress for existing customers.
“I want to use my maternity to readdress what we are doing. When you are working all the time, you can be working in the business as opposed to working on the business. It seems like a reinvention of the brand and after 10 years why not?”
As we go to press, Heidi, Gearoid, the part-time suckler farmer, and little Matilda are looking forward to the new arrival due in June.
For more, visit heidihiggins.com
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