WHEN Alice Heusser and Olivia Kennaway met while studying at a Cape Town fashion design school in 2004, they had no idea their friendship would create a company making waves across the continent."I had been to visit Olivia at her home in Kenya and we brought back some beautiful kangas (traditional East African cloth) from a market in Lamu," Heusser says. "Friends started asking if we could make them our trademark Lalesso skirts. That’s how the business started."Setting up a business when young meant there were challenges and some hard lessons to learn. But Kennaway is grateful because it meant they could take risks out of "sheer naivety" that they can’t get away with today."Fashion is a multibillion-dollar industry and there’s little room for mistakes," she says. "Showroom fees are considerable and it’s a big risk to take not knowing what sales one will make until after the marketing period is over."To operate in a competitive industry and stand out as a unique brand that is sellabl...
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