CG: Rob, please tell us about your t-shirts.

RR: LadyUmbrella tees are all 100% 180grms combed cotton with a soft discharge ... Read More »]]> LadyUmbrella is a brand new and exciting designer range of ladies t-shirts from Spanish designer, Elena Montes Casado, fusing fashion and art. Based in Dublin, Ireland they ship t-shirts worldwide to help spread their own take on women’s fashion. They recently launched their online t-shirt store on the 20th of January 2010 and are currently offering free shipping on all t-shirts. I recently spoke with Rob Ryan, owner of LadyUmbrella and asked him to fill us in on his fabulous company.

CG: Rob, please tell us about your t-shirts.

RR: LadyUmbrella tees are all 100% 180grms combed cotton with a soft discharge print. The t-shirt itself is designed and custom made for us as well as the print on it. T-shirts have a smooth woven 100 denier damask neck label which is also soft. All of our t-shirts come with customized hang tags which are signed, dated and numbered by the Elena (the designer) so each t-shirt is unique to the person who buys it. We are launching with an introductory price of 24.99euro for a period of one week – as a thank you to those who have been fans and following us so to give them a chance to get our tees at a nice low price. It is also possible to get a promo code by joining the fan page and letting us know which tee is your favorite and we’ll send the exclusive promo code to the person which would make the price just 22.50euro for a tee. Shipping, well, shipping is free worldwide on all orders. After the first week our tees will be sell for 29.99euro but the promo code will still be good so just 26.99euro.

CG: We want to know what makes you tick.

RR: Well, what makes us tick as a company is a desire to make some cool t-shirts that people will want to wear and talk about and to break the mold and do things a little bit differently. We are genuinely attached to each one of our t-shirts as each one has taken months of work to be realized. What started out as a few interesting doodles and quirky brand name has been transformed over the last year into a fully fledged funky fashionable tee. The two of us in the company are so motivated and driven to make LadyUmbrella a success it is fair to say that LadyUmbrella has become a bit of an obsession, an infatuation, our passion. We really care about what we send to our customers and put a lot of time and effort into wrapping and packing our tees and hope that when the customer receives it they will be uplifted and happy. We always say “Stay happy” – life is too short to be otherwise – and that is another key factor for what makes us tick, we want to make our customers happy and make sure they stay happy.

CG: What do you love about your product?

RR: I could ramble on here about all the things that I love about them. Elena, the designer, has a real gift when it comes to creating these unusual and interesting designers that are quirky and adorable. I guess I love the consistency of the LadyUmbrella line, the colours and the fact that LadyUmbrella, as a character, is given a persona and life on each of her t-shirts. The fact that each design has its own tale is another feature I like as it helps us in one of our company missions of “fusing fashion with art”. Each t-shirt is something that you can talk about, most characters have a name and the scenes and scenarios are light hearted and entertaining – or so we hope. Another thing I really like about our LadyUmbrella range is that each t-shirt will be unique to the owner. I said earlier that we are attached to each tee and this is true – so much so that we signing, dating and numbering each hang tag to ensure that there will be no replicas. I also love that we have free shipping world wide – it might not make stellar business sense but as I said we want to do things differently and when you purchase a LadyUmbrella t-shirt you’ll be pleasantly surprised from the moment you purchase.

CG: What has been your favorite experience?

RR: Well, we are a still new to the “game” but we’ve had some really memorable experiences so far. Our facebook fan page (http://www.facebook.com/ladyumbrella) just passed 2,500 yesterday which is staggering to us – we haven’t even sold a t-shirt yet but we already have a growing and interactive global fan base, the power of the internet I guess. Other great experiences are actually receiving a Christmas present from a fan. A girl in England sent us some chocolates and cake for Christmas with some nifty cocktail umbrellas which she had drawn our logo onto – it came completely out of the blue when we received it but thought it was a pretty cool thing to happen (and the chocolates and cake were nice too). Another experience that we enjoyed is getting one of our t-shirts featured in a photo shoot for Denim Day here in Ireland – an annual fundraiser. We have also sent out t-shirts to England to be used in a feature length movie called Booked Out which is about to go into production.  And I guess, well, the posting of the first t-shirts to a prize winner a month ago was a moment to savor. The notion that our t-shirts, which we have worked so long and hard to get created, were starting to fly the coop was a heartwarming one and justified all the effort we have put into LadyUmbrella so far. Those first t-shirts were sent to Niagara Falls which I think is a pretty awesome place to be able to send our first t-shirts too…and even better we received a glowing review from the recipient which just sweetened the experience even more. As I said, things are only really starting for us but we have already had so many great moments with LadyUmbrella we really can’t wait to see what the future holds.

CG: What has been your most difficult hurdle?

RR: I’ll be honest here and say that there have been hurdles every day. Nothing has been plain sailing really and it has been a real challenge to get the t-shirts created the way we wanted. We have designed the shape of the t-shirts themselves so finding a supplier who would be able to custom make our t-shirts to our specs was the first hurdle..Then we had to design the website and build it which we did somewhat in house. The design of the site was initially envisioned by us brought to life on the screen by a great web designer called Pawel Witkowski (www.webdesigninfo.eu). Once he had the design done it was a case of making it “work” which we managed to do ourselves and with the help of a good friend Steven Fitzpatrick – the database ninja. Other hurdles were the legal side of things, copyrights and the likes..We also then had to deal with the banks, credit card companies, company registration offices, tax offices – basically everything that has to be done that isn’t the “fun” side of the business..There are so many components to each t-shirt and so many suppliers involved getting everything lined up and synchronized was another challenge. Thankfully though we managed to jump all the hurdles and navigate all the challenges that were thrown at us and launched on Wednesday 20th January. It has been quite a journey to get here and this is still only the beginning. As a new chapter for us and LadyUmbrella begins we are ready to take on any hurdles or problems that may occur and look forward to many memorable moments as we spread our own vision of ladies fashion – globally.

Visit LadyUmbrella.com.