EKOSense.co.uk

EKO Sense's Helen Davies with her gorgeous Hub Award, made with Cornish beechwod and recycled materials

Well, Helen has been too modest to shout about it so I will spread the good word instead!

At EKO HQ, we’re chuffed to pieces that EKO Sense’s creator Helen Davies scooped Entrepreneur of the Year at the prestigious Hub Awards 09.

The awards celebrate the best of Cornwall’s young entrepreneurs and innovators. Helen went through a gruelling interview process from some serious judges to win the award.

The judges were impressed with Helen’s passionate and commitment to the brand, the quality of her business planning and the fact that she is happy to ask for help from lots of willing supporters when she needs it. They were impressed at the progress of EKO Sense so far and look forward to watching the company develop.

What’s also brilliant is that Best New Business Start Up award went to the lovely Mark Grice from Redfuse Internet, who built the EKO Sense website.

Congratulations Helen and Mark, richly deserved for all your hard work!

So after months of dreaming, thinking, sketching, designing, hard work, blood, sweat and tears – EKO Sense is finally here!

I’m immensely proud of my first collection. It’s inspired by all the things that are important to me – creativity, the natural environment, great fabrics and comfortable and wearable designs.

It’s been a busy time getting here. I’ve recently come back from London, where I went around to some of the national magazines and publications to show them the EKO Sense collection.

Helen Davies - the brains behind EKO Sense!

I have not one, but two, PR and marketing people helping me out. Lucy Jenner-Brown at Minky Publicity is a specialist fashion PR who used to work with brands like Kangol. She used to keep Samuel L Jackson in his Kangol hats!

Lucy and I had a great time at Cosmopolitan and the Ecologist, who loved the clothes and the brand. Fingers crossed they’ll give us some nice write ups!

I also work with Rachel Picken at mpad, who has been working on digital PR and getting the word out in the South West. She’s been chatting to the other friendly businesses and updating the blog while I’ve had my head down getting everything ready for launch.

My website and catalogue have been designed by my good friend Lee Stone – thanks so much Lee for turning my ideas into a brand. I’ve then worked with Mark Grice at Redfuse Internet who has built my website and offered me lots of advice and ideas along the way. All the gorgeous photography is by Lee Mann and we had a brilliant time (if not a bit chilly) shooting all the clothes with our models Anna and Lisa-Ann.

I’ve had so much support from businesses along the way and there’s such a wealth of talent in Cornwall.

I recently visited the team at Frugi – a fantastic organic kidswear company. Lucy Jewson set up the company Cut4Cloth when she was struggling to find clothes to fit over her baby’s cloth nappies. Lucy was so lovely and helpful – it’s great to see how their business has bloomed and grown to become Frugi and I hope EKO Sense will follow in their footsteps.

I’ve had lots of great advice from Rachel Cresswell at Business Link who gave me some helpful suggestions about managing all the stock and dispatching.

I’m now working on Spring Summer 2010 which is inspired by a two week road trip around Morocco – no rest for the wicked! I hope you enjoy the collection and please let me know what you think, particularly when you wear the clothes.

Helen

EKO Sense has been created by Helen Davies, aged 26,  is a Cornwall based fashion designer, having relocated to the Duchy from London.

She went to Cape Cornwall School and then onto Penwith College to study A levels in art and design, ceramics and photography. Helen then studied an Art Foundation course at Falmouth College of Arts, where her interest in textiles began.

Helen studies a BA degree in Fashion at Surrey Institute of Art and Design, where she gained technical skills, worked on live briefs and work placements in the London fashion scene.

In the final year of her degree, Helen worked closely with eco-fibre company Natural Colour Cotton, which provided fabrics for her final collection created from organic and fair trade textiles. They then employed Helen as a designer to develop a range of clothing, taking Natural Colour Cotton from a fabric supplier to a clothing brand. Helen launched newborn babywear collection The Perfect Start and new mum collection Bamboo Yoga.

Helen then moved to maternity and kidswear company JoJo Maman Bebe as assistant maternity designer, and within three months took over the entire design for the maternity collection. Her responsibilities included weekly design board meetings, sourcing trips to factories and buying trips to Paris each season.

But with ambitions for her own line of eco-friendly designs, Helen was keen to return home to Cornwall. She relocated to St Just in Easter 2008 to create EKO Sense.

Helen says: “I gained fantastic experience in the clothing industry, and the chance to travel and work with a big brand and design team.

“I always thought that I would eventually move back to Cornwall. After months of planning, applying for loans and saving up the pennies I started to work with contacts in the industry to develop EKO Sense.”

Helen has already begun work on Spring/Summer 2010 collection for EKOSense, including a research trip to Morocco. She is passionate about working with Cornwall’s creative industry and nurturing young talent.