Growing up in Carndonagh, Co Donegal, a young Stephen McLaughlin regularly walked the Circular Road dreaming of finding love, living in London and working in fashion. In the end, it took sacrifices, hardship, and a global pandemic to fulfil his vision. Now, he not only works in an industry he longed to access but in 2020 – in the height of lockdown – he launched his own label, SML London, favoured by consumers and celebrities alike.

McLaughlin is part of an unprecedented wave of entrepreneurship that has swept the retail landscape in the last two years. Enterprises ranging from venture-backed start-ups to neighbourhood boutiques to fledgling fashion lines launched out of living rooms and garages or in McLaughlin’s case – a bedroom belonging to the parents of his partner.

While still on its debut collection, offering accomplished draping and timeless silhouettes, SML London has already hit a few early high notes and is gaining traction thanks to his bespoke designs, superior fabric choices and a strong digital strategy.

Having trained in Limerick School of Art & Design (LSAD) and worked across womenswear and accessories for various London-based brands including Henry Holland, Sharon Wauchob, J&M Davidson and Studio Nicolson, McLaughlin had a good innings before the pandemic found him unemployed and with few options.

“The job loss was the nail in the coffin. It gave me the kick up the ass to do it and the hunger to prove people wrong, or just show those people who can’t maybe see your potential. It made me realise I just had to make this happen,” he said.

He moved up north with his partner James Carling to the latter’s parents’ house in Yorkshire. “It’s very like Ireland, very peaceful, there were lots of long walks. It was Fashion Week at the time and I was reading Vogue Runway looking at all the collections and just made the decision to do my own label,” he said.

Once he made up his mind, he wasted no time in getting started. “I set it up in my partner’s parents’ house during lockdown – I suppose they were wondering what I was doing in the bedroom all that time,” he laughs. “My most creative time is at night when my head would be buzzing. I did all my research and spent hours pinning things up and doing a lot of thinking. It would be like a lightbulb would go off in my head and I’d just have to sketch it and that’s how the development starts.

“But I didn’t have to force anything. I have always questioned am I a fashion designer, but I finally started to believe in myself.”

Family and community

Now based in Angel on the northern fringes of central London, financial funding came via his family to get the fledging brand off the ground. “My parents were incredible, they’re not creative at all, my twin is a trader for JP Morgan, my other brother works in construction and my other brother is an accountant, so my parents always just believed in me. They’re coming with me on this journey, and they can see the brand evolving into something, that’s a really proud and humbling moment for me. I’m so blessed with my parents and my lovely granny. I suppose for years, I’d worked seven days a week as a young designer and would work Fridays and Saturdays in a restaurant to make ends meet and they could see that.”

Galvanising a community around his brand was essential in lockdown and continues to form part of his digital strategy. For this, he has leaned on his partner, a digital marketing expert to leverage growing consumer support. “He’s fantastic and helps with the website and at the moment.”

Juggling all the jobs in the start-up phase remains challenging. “I’m a one-man band, you have to be the designer, marketing, accounts. When chasing payments, I have to pretend to be a person called Anna from accounts. I want to have nice relationships with people, so I have to have an alter ego.”

His hands-on approach offers customisation, and a sense of connection to the consumer that’s been lacking for many throughout the pandemic. “Through our custom order service, our clients have been able to order their favourite styles in a custom colour or fabric and for me personally this is a very important part of the business. It’s allowed me to get to know these women and listen to their needs; This is vital information when it comes to designing new seasons and people really seem to love it. This strategy also eliminates the need for excess stock, helping to reduce waste that would otherwise be sent to landfill,” he said.

For any brand starting out, a unique point of view is crucial and for McLaughlin, it is his high quality and bespoke designs. He is passionate about the materials he works with and only uses high quality fabrics sourced from the big fashion maisons offcuts in factories in Paris and Milan.

“I would never use a print from Dolce & Gabbana, for example, as that is too obvious, but I get the most beautiful silk crepes that would have been so expensive to them, but is now discounted because it’s old season. A lot of my work is block colours and when I do prints, I’ll be creating them myself.”

Corina Gaffey on Stephen McLaughlin

McLaughlin’s work came to the attention of leading fashion stylist Corina Gaffey who dresses many prominent celebrities.

She said: “When dressing celebrities, you’re always looking for fresh designers, and I love supporting Irish. My client, Vogue Williams loves supporting Irish designers too, so when I was looking for something for her for a TV show recently, SML was on my radar and I remembered seeing Stephen’s designs. They were super polished and elegant and the fabric choices were beautiful, really simplistic but really elegant. He custom-made one of his own designs in red for her. He’s able to source amazing fabrics and I think that’s what lets a lot of designers down is their choice of fabrics, but he has this ability to source incredible heavyweight silks and satins and it makes them stand apart from everyone else. He’s all about no waste as well, which is a really nice sustainable element as well.”

Sustainability and the future

Working consciously to reduce waste and focusing on circular textiles is a big part of the brand’s purpose and McLaughlin is determined to perfect this part of production despite the challenges of scaling up his brand. “I love what I’m doing now; I’m creating local employment and not producing huge amounts of waste, it’s very sustainable for me as a young designer. I work on pre order so I’m not sitting on excess stock. It’s something I have to look into more now as customer demands change, and I’m talking to stores at the moment and all of that is not fully sustainable either. I’m battling with my own moral compass now. I started this brand to be sustainable but if I go into [big] stores and things don’t sell I’m producing waste, so those kind of conversations I’m having with myself,” he said.

“I think it’s more financially viable to do it this way because I don’t have a huge amount of outgoings. I don’t have a store that could send me back 20 pieces that didn’t sell or having to do sales, I don’t think I want to get into that, but obviously to grow as a brand you’d also like to see yourself in a store as you get more established.”

Unhindered by the two areas currently crippling retail – supply chain and the talent crunch -McLaughlin’s found his niche, but his challenges remain in the scale up. “I have a big vision for SML and I’m nowhere near where I want it to go. But the collection is really only getting recognised now because of Covid and I want to take my time with it, and not just throw out another collection. I want to be a brand for every woman, every shape, size and from all backgrounds, and to still be sustainable. Not to get huge and then start to offer bad fabric or cheap fabric. I’d like to develop everyday pieces, to offer something for those who just want to buy a piece of the brand. Lots of women like what I do, but it’s too expensive for them. So maybe develop more everyday pieces and a bag.”

He’s also considering a full lifestyle line. “I like having my hand in a few different pies to keep things fresh,” he said.

“It’s been a whirlwind of a year. But things are really starting to pick up, people are engaging with the brand, and understand its ethos. It’s been a good year in many ways for me. I have tried to look at the good of it. Of course there has been so much sadness with Covid, but it’s allowed me time away from the world almost since the very first lockdown. It’s allowed me time to think about my brand, and my purpose and what I wanted it to be. Setting up SML was always something I was going to do but Covid gave me that breathing space to do it. You have to give things a go, if you don’t try you won’t succeed.”