The best year for the business was 1990 when turnover reached £228,000, or about £500,000 in 2018 prices. It was the culmination of 10 years of hard work and creativity, including many breakthroughs in product design, such as the invention of 'curly hair', which became a favourite in all collections. It was achieved by winding wool around a knitting needle, making it damp, then leaving it to dry.
The nursery rhymes and fairytales of Ann's and Hugh's childhoods became a strong influence. The 'Half-past kissing time and time to kiss again' theme (pictured below) came from a poem by Eugene Field, created for Valentine's Day as a one-off. Like so many of Ann's designs, it became so popular it was soon a staple part of the range.
Ann was so prolific that customers struggled to keep up with her creative output. In a world without barcodes, one US customer had to annotate a Polaroid picture by hand to identify specific colourways for next order (below).
Many products featured illustrations, and early examples on the side of these jack-in-a-boxes (below) were created by family friend Norman Mansbridge, a freelance cartoonist who contributed to Punch, the Daily Sketch and Fleetway children's comics such as Tiger, Shiver and Shake and Whizzer and Chips.
Not everything worked. Among designs left on the cutting room floor were these prototypes that of a mermaid pin cushion (featuring real scallop shell) and a Christmas tree sewing kit. Ann says: "I created it all for the love of it and never expected to make any money. I was always more interested in the next one, not the last one"
Comments