Almost every aspiring fashion designer would jump at the chance to sell their accessory range alongside Kate Moss’s label. At just 24 years old, entrepreneur Amy Fleuriot has already ticked that off her to-do list.
“It was 24/7 work but very rewarding,” Amy says, as she recalls how her cycling fashion company Cyclodelic went from a small start-up to supplier to Topshop. “And a big learning curve.”
Her bicycle accessories, including glitzy cuffs, silky scarves and colourful saddlebags, were lining the shelves even before she had completed her studies at the London College of Fashion.
The challenge didn’t stop Amy from graduating with a first class degree and, barely a year later, launching her own successful clothing range.
Amy has also made a name for herself as an events manager for councils and charities, helping run London’s first bicycle fashion event ‘Pret a Rouler’ in June 2007, and orchestrating a fashion show in Brighton that attracted more than 1,000 people last year.
Being an ambassador for cycling style evolved naturally. Amy, originally from Kent but now living in London Fields, fell into it by chance in 2006.
“At university I got fed up with getting public transport or walking everywhere so I started riding my bike,” she says. “My friends thought I was crazy.” But Amy had soon noticed a gap in the market for women’s bike accessories, and decided to do something about it.
“I wanted to put a bit of glamour into cycling,” she explains. Four years ago Cyclodelic was born. But accessories were only the tip of the iceberg.
“People kept asking for clothing too,” she says. “And I took part in an overnight ride, 120 miles, and really struggled with what to wear.”
The web of success
Her website launched last September and already gets more than 2,000 hits a month, as women from as near as London and as far as Australia – she is in talks with a retailer in Melbourne – fell head over heels for her take on functional fashion. Amy says she’s “not making thousands yet,” but that the company is definitely on an “upward curve,” with a spring range arriving next month.
Crediting word-of-mouth and networking for her speedy success, Amy says the internet has been indispensible to launching Cyclodelic. “But I had to move my computer outside my studio as it was very distracting,” she laughs.
Producing much of the stock herself, she knows she has to keep focused. There’s a friend who helps out and a regular supply of interns, but apart from that she’s on her own. Down the line Amy is sure she’ll seek a backer. “It’s harder to expand without one and I would like to do more and get involved with different projects,” she says.
“But we are in a recession and I’m not trying to invest in too much, just keep it manageable.”
Admitting not everything about running her own business comes easily, “especially the financial side,” Amy says she wouldn’t give it up for anything.
“It’s a pleasure that people enjoy my stuff,” she says. “And never having to sit in an office is great.”
“Not many people work in the bike and fashion world,” she says, although cycling glamour is really kicking off now. “And I’ve been there from the beginning so my brand name has been around for a while.”
“Being a woman worked in my favour,” she adds. “The cycling industry is a man’s world, so it made the business stand out.”
She’s keen to encourage other young women into business, advising them to look for niches in the market “because it’s the way to make a career in an otherwise competitive industry.”
Well, it certainly worked for her.
