Meet Lisa Montague, the new CEO of Aspinal of London
Lisa Montague is the new CEO of luxury accessories brand Aspinal of London. She was formerly the CEO and president of Loewe, and before that was CEO of Mulberry.
Aspinal is a well-kept secret. It’s a small company with luxury values and products made to a very high standard. It is amazing value for money and that’s really appreciated by its customers. That’s its USP, and it’s not something I’m going to change.
I grew up around fashion. My father was a fashion agent in Manchester, and my mother ran lingerie shops. You learn a lot over the dinner table. In the holidays I’d be with my father colour-coding sample swatches, or covering for my mother while she travelled.
My family instilled great values: a work ethic and a strong sense of right and wrong. As employers, they always said treat people as you would like to be treated yourself – that wasn’t always the case in retail. I’m still a stickler for right and wrong.
Leather mini hat-box bag, ￡495, Aspinal of London
I don’t take work home with me – I value the separation between my job and my family life. My way of having it all is to make the distinction, so I go into transition mode on the journey and get my head in the right place to be totally ready for the kids [Montague has three children aged from almost four to 14 years old] when I get home.
I’ve never thought about sexism in the workplace in Britain. I had a working mother and I was always expected to go into further education and work. But when I went to Spain for Loewe, I expected the conversation to be about me being British and running a Spanish company, but it was more about me being a woman. I realised that America and Britain are much further ahead in this respect.
When I went to LVMH, I wasn’t sure I was up to it, and I felt as though someone might uncover the fraud. But I took a lot of deep breaths and ended up loving the experience.
I am excited by the breakneck speed of the fashion cycle, but we need both fast and slow. You cannot produce luxury quickly – it takes time to develop quality. There’s a danger of compromising intrinsic design values by trying to go too fast.
I’m endlessly positive. Negativity drives me insane. I can be impatient, however, so I have to stop myself always trying to go bigger, better, faster. I have to remember to take people with me.
Aspinal only launched in 2001, it’s a young business, and it’s punching above its weight. Fifty per cent of sales are online, which means it knows its customer well. We don’t need to build the business in a traditional way because the market is shifting, and the opportunity to innovate is so much greater.
The new flagship store in St James’s Market, off Regent Street, which is launching in early November, will be a game changer. At over 3,000sq ft, it’s a big space that will give us a chance to show the whole product line. We’re also aiming to grow the British audience, taking Aspinal out of London, with new stores in Leeds and Edinburgh as well as those in Manchester and Birmingham.
Our Michelle Dockery frame bag – now known as the Lady Mary bag – has done really well. It’s a classic British design, but the frame is amazing. Frame bags used to be heavy, but you can manipulate this quite easily. There’s another collaboration for men in the pipeline for spring 2018, which I’m excited about.
For spring/summer 2018, in partnership with Murder on the Orient Express [out in November], Aspinal of London has created a capsule collection inspired by the film. I love the hat box [pictured, above], which is the perfect size and comes in a rainbow of colours – Aspinal does colour so well – and a cream-and-camel two-tone version.
Advice? I always horrify everyone when I give mentoring talks saying maths is the most useful subject. Be open-minded about creativity but also understand the rigour of what it takes to run a business – if you can marry the two, it’s wonderful.