What I love about Thursday's brand is that it's built on values, which is a challenge that I personally feel. I'm building the brand not because I'm profit driven necessarily, but because I want to help women feel beautiful in their bodies.

When I'm thinking of a business name, I don't just think about the actual thing that it does. I think about what are the nuances behind it, what are the feelings, what are the values, what are the things that it can grow into? Who's the target audience? How would they respond to this?

A major challenge with manufacturing in South Africa is that your competitors are not only local brands. They are international powerhouses. They have endless money and they've got massive manufacturing scale and they've got all the choice in terms of their raw materials. 

The answer to “what's the next best place outside of South Africa if I want to keep my manufacturing in Africa”, turned out to be Mauritius, which has an amazing textile industry. But I quickly learned that, especially as a small business working on a global scale, just because they had the capability didn’t mean that I would be taken seriously as a client.

My ideal vision for what this could grow into, is for South Africa to become known for a specific type of garment. If you look at Australia, for instance, they are blessed with a lot of beaches and are well known for their swimwear. France, on the other hand, is well known for its lingerie. 

My sewing contractor is amazing in terms of her skills-development approach. She recycles all of our waste fabrics - the odd-shaped bits and offcuts - and turns them into scrunchies or have the fabric shredded and put into dog baskets. These become little projects for the seamstresses who work for her, things that they can make and sell.

If you want to start a clothing brand, I would recommend that you find a local CMT (cut, make, trim). They can do your sampling, your design and produce on a small scale. Everyone has these great ideas that their product is going to be huge and sell hundreds. But there are always mistakes in the beginning. Don't invest all your money into a thousand units; rather start small, do product testing and see how your target audience is responding to your product.

Here's the secret: I actually can’t sew. I cannot design. I have none of the skills I need to own a lingerie brand. But at the same time, I have a very high quality product that people love. How did I make this happen? First I educated myself on what it takes to have a business like this. 

For me, it's very important to know what you want. A lot of people go into a new business and they're not entirely sure what they want and they're looking to other people to help give them that. At the end of the day, you need to be the leader. You need to drive the vision and the direction.