The business plan was written on the train on those long commutes between London and Maidenhead, but it was only when I was made redundant in January 2003 that I had the money (and time) to pursue it.
And so hush was born. A friend of a friend in Australia helped me get our first products made – six pairs of pyjamas and a cross between a cardigan and a dressing gown that my journalist boyfriend christened a ‘cardigown’.
I imported sheepskin boots from a market near my parents’ home in Melbourne; I bought a few alpaca throws from Peru; and I found the same hot chocolate from Spain that I had fallen in love with on my first visit to Europe as a 21-year-old.
I had 10,000 12-page catalogues printed, filled not just with the products but also my favourite books and films, as well as all the things I loved about a northern hemisphere winter. (That was quite a short list!) And I sent an email out to all my friends. (That was an even shorter list!)