The French-born celebrity designer and founder of niche luxury maternity wear brand Seraphine, urged women not to follow in her footsteps.

Cecile said: “Don’t do it like me. Don’t combine starting a business and having a baby – it’s too much of a challenge and in my case, everything nearly fell apart.

“My second piece of advice would be find yourself a mentor, even if they are in a different field to you.”

But she said being pregnant helped her to identify better with the needs of her clientele.

She added: “As life would have it, I opened my first store and within the first year, I myself became pregnant.

“At the time, it was great as I could really experience what my customers were going through and relate to them.

“But, of course, I completely underestimated the challenge of pregnancy and that having a newborn poses, when trying to launch a new business.

“The business was successful immediately, so it all became easier and fell into place.”

She came up with the idea of setting up Seraphine in a bid to plug a gap in the market as her friends struggled to find maternity wear.

Items from the luxury collection, which was established in London during 2002, were regularly worn by the duchess throughout her three pregnancies leading it to become a £20million fashion empire.

Cecile, 45, made the remarks in The Wealthier Network’s report Understanding The Diversity Of Women’s Wealth.

She told them: “The idea of Seraphine came to me when I realised that there was a gap in the maternity wear market.

“Many of my friends and colleagues were pregnant and struggling to find stylish and appropriate work clothes. I did some market analysis and quickly understood that there was little on offer here in the UK and that the maternity wear market was far more developed in the US.

“Based on this fact, I figured it would eventually come to Europe including the UK, so I decided to quit my job and start the business.”

Cecile, who has 120 employees, said she never felt held back in business by being a woman.

The designer, who is also a client of HSBC private banking, added: “In the early days of establishing my business, I didn’t feel any biases as a woman at all.

“Maybe because I was young and filled with enthusiasm.

“If there were challenges, I would have simply brushed them away. I have to say, the British attitude towards entrepreneurs is amazing.

“They were always very enthusiastic and that really fuelled my passions.”

Source: Read Full Article