Starting a small business is no easy task, but Emilie Williams from Dublin is absolutely killing it with her brand Ditsy Bits, where she produces t-shirts with designs inspired by the Irish language.
“I had set up an Instagram page selling jewellery during lockdown, so I started selling the t-shirts using that, and then it just grew and grew out of my control, which is obviously a nice complaint to have”. “Of course, most of my customer based in Ireland, but around 38-40 percent of my customers would be outside Ireland. It’s so cool seeing the amount of orders from Australia, America, the UK and all over Europe. I always wonder do they have Irish relatives, did they move away or do they just like the t-shirts.”
That’s when Emelie decided to release the products in drops: “I didn’t want to be left with stock, so I base it on demand. I started with drops of 20, and then it was 50, and then it was 100. It kept growing, it just snowballed from there.She continued: “With the t-shirts, I wanted something good quality. Obviously, nothing lasts forever, but I wanted to make something that will last a long time, and people can wear again and again.
“I have two lovely girls that help me with pop ups, my cousin is an amazing photographer, so she helps with the shoots, and I have people that I meet who model for the shoots. I literally make friends with all of them, it’s kind of created a community of Ditsy Bits. “I’ve had influencers reach out to me as well which is so amazing, because I feel like influencers get sent loads of stuff that they don’t use so it’s really cool to see them wearing the t-shirts."