This time I had the chance to interview Clare and Mary, who are sisters and are also the creative directors of Allium B. brand. The name comes from the flower called Allium and B stand for both their surname (Burgess) and the place where the business is based (Brighton).  I would like to thank them for their time.

Now enjoy the interview!

Q: Why do you manufacture only dresses?

A: We share a passion for dresses, but as our styles have grown up, we’ve found it increasingly difficult to find grown-up but affordable options to match – dresses that aren’t too young, too old, too short or too long. We could find the blouses and jeans we wanted on the high street, but we couldn’t find the dresses, so we decided to focus on producing a beautiful dress range and filling this gap.

Q: Where do you take inspiration from?

A: Vintage. Be it a 70’s wrap dress or a Victorian lace glove. We love finding a fragment of an old dress and breathing life back into it. Amelia started as just a beaded collar found at Portobello.

Q: Being sisters, do you always get along well?

A: We have very similar tastes and love what we do, so yes we do get on. We are always honest with one and other, so if we don’t initially agree we listen and compromise. Our Lily dress is a great example. Clare loved the ribbon, Mary loved the simple tie belt – both looked great, so we kept both.

Q: Who is your favourite designer (if you have one)? and why?

A: Too many to choose from – but all-time favourites include Prada, Marc Jacobs and Emma Cook (another dress girl). Clare loves McQueen too. Her wedding shoes are McQueen and she’ll cherish them forever.

Q: What is your opinion about fast fashion?

A: Having both worked for Topshop, we understand it, but over the last 10 years the high street has got cheaper with the growth of Primark and clothing has become more disposable and quality has suffered. We want clothes that will last and become wardrobe staples, not something that we will bin at the end of the season, so we developed Allium B.

Q: Why should a woman decide to buy one of your dresses?

A: We’ve created a collection of simple but statement ‘forever dresses’, designed for women, not teenagers – at prices that won’t have you hiding the receipt but still allow us to produce beautifully-made exclusive dresses.

Q: Is your brand green conscious?

A: We aim to produce dresses that are beautifully made and will last. We keep packaging to a minimum and focus where possible on keeping things green.

Q: Are you going introduce other elements to your collection (like shoes, accessories..)?

A: We plan to focus on dresses, but maybe one day we will bring something else back from one of our trips to compliment the range.

Q: Do you think tailors are still important nowadays?

A: Our range wouldn’t be possible, without the incredibly talented master tailor and pattern cutters, that bring our sketches to life, so yes they are important.

Q: Three adjectives to describe your brand.

A: Versatile, forever, exclusive dresses

For more info visit www.alliumb.com