When I visit Lucy Macnamara, the founder of Aspiga, at her fashion label’s headquarters in Battersea, I am given the wrong room. It’s her team’s workspace, but her office is down the hall. I’m struck by how calm the atmosphere is in the first, as her employees quietly tap away on their laptops.
Lucy’s office is a little different: it’s not her who greets me, but a Jack Russell puppy trying to escape the room. Inside, her other dog Toula and a second puppy look like they’re getting away from it all too. “I recently moved back to London from the countryside and I planned it well so she had time to settle before the birth, but the puppies arrived two days after the move. What chaos!’ she says laughing.
By her own admission, Macnamara talks at “a hundred miles an hour,” but says chaos in her private life is something she is used to, as well as a touch of stubbornness that she associates with her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). “Everyone keeps saying I can’t have three dogs. I almost want to prove them wrong and keep them all. I like to defy the rules.”
Macnamara, 56, was diagnosed with ADHD three years ago. She claims her diagnosis has opened her eyes to her strengths and weaknesses as an entrepreneur, giving her focus and much-needed clarity on what she calls her “superpower” and how to better navigate her independent, sustainable fashion label to new horizons.
She founded Aspiga in 2006 and has steadily built her business from the ground up to become an award-winning B-Corp certified brand with an annual turnover of £10 million and 13 stores in Britain, as well as one in Barbados the other side. the five-star Sandpiper Hotel. This physical presence is accompanied by a thriving e-commerce platform and fashion catalog operation. She has achieved this multi-channel presence independently without any outside financial support, making Aspiga a rare entity in our increasingly global and risky retail landscape.
Macnamara still has big plans for her company, including expanding into the United States and the Middle East, and supporting more charities to add to Aspiga’s already long list of philanthropic projects, including initiatives with the Charlie Waller Trust , a mental health charity, and WaterHarvest. , a non-profit organization dedicated to securing rainwater for remote communities in India and Africa. Aspiga also organizes monthly beach cleans along the banks of the Thames. It’s clear she’s not one to cross the river where it’s shallowest: Macnamara thrives on a challenge and now employs 50 staff.
‘I thought I was crazy Lucy Mac’
ADHD is a complex condition that affects people in different ways, but core symptoms include restlessness, impulsivity and hyperactivity. On the other hand, in business this can mean taking more risks, working faster and being more focused on a particular goal that can give you instant gratification in the form of a dose of dopamine, the neurotransmitter. linked to feelings of reward which appear to be low in people with ADHD.
“What I find debilitating is intolerance and impatience. Luckily I don’t have an addictive personality, but I do have a thousand hobbies: tennis, horse riding, cycling, golf, you name it,” Macnamara tells me. “What I don’t often have is willpower, so for example I can’t eat one chocolate finger, then I have the whole package. At the same time, I want things to be done urgently, and that’s why I think I have a successful business. At work I never forget anything, while outside the office it’s different, I lose my keys all the time, I get parking fines, I’ve run the bath a million times. It’s very frustrating, but the superpowers are there.”
According to Prof. James Brown, the co-founder of the charity ADHD Adult UK (@adhdadultuk) and co-host of a podcast @theadhdadults, who also coaches people with the condition, the myth surrounding ADHD is that everyone has the potential to be high to rise. in business.
“What is often seen on the internet or on social media is that people with ADHD are more enterprising, as a general statement, but the strengths of ADHD are not distributed differently among those who have it than those who are non-neurodiverse. Everyone is different,” he explains. “However, people with ADHD are more likely to start their own business. The main drivers for success are usually impulsiveness and starting a business later in life. If you find something worthwhile, you will fully commit to it.”
Macnamara says Aspiga has achieved B Corp certification in record speed – a special designation that requires a rigorous assessment of a company’s commitment to high standards of social and environmental performance – thanks to its purpose-driven instincts.
“My team said we should do this within two or three years. I said, ‘no, we’re doing this now,’” she recalls. “Sustainability has been in our DNA from day one. So why wait? When something is important to me, I can become hyper-focused on it, which helps it move forward.”
Macnamara has worked in the charity world for fifteen years, so I wonder if she could have applied her skills to any start-up? “I would have been brilliant as a city trader,” she says, smiling. “I was drawn to fashion because I always knew when something looked good. I am not a fashionista, I like to look beautiful, so unless the collections suit me, designs are not enough.”
Aspiga is known for its throw-on transitional dresses, beautiful blouses and chic block-colored sweaters, all made from sustainable fabrics, with embroidered pieces and colorful accessories, handmade by artisans in Kenya and India. “Most of our clothing is kind of ‘ADHD-friendly,’” she says. “For example, small buttons can easily be tied in elastic loops. I don’t like restrictive things so collars don’t stick around and I don’t like tight waists either. When it comes to fabrics, it’s all about the touch and feel.” This explains the popularity of her feminine and tactile corduroy dresses with a soft hourglass shape and subtly ruffled cuffs.
This year, Aspiga was shortlisted for the Sustainability Award at the Drapers Independents Awards, testament to the company’s environmentally conscious production process. 82 percent of the collections are made from certified sustainable fabrics, while 94 percent of the cotton is organic or responsibly sourced. The company aims to take this final figure to 100 percent by 2026, and you can bet Lucy won’t be happy until she reaches that final percentage point.
If Macnamara has one regret in her personal life, it’s that she wished she had gotten married and had children, but her “itchy feet” got in the way. She says that same inflexibility has served her well at Aspiga: “It’s funny because I’m a very talkative person outside the office, but at work I just want to get the job done. “I have to keep reading emails to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ because for me… well, it’s not that I don’t care, but it just doesn’t seem relevant to me.”
The entrepreneur’s ADHD diagnosis came relatively late in life, as is the case for many since awareness of the condition has improved in recent years. “People have said, ‘Why do you need a label at 56?’ but that’s not the point. My diagnosis has given me a greater understanding of all neurodiversity. It has made me more tolerant and open-minded. The thing to remember is that you don’t just ‘catch’ ADHD. Some symptoms, such as forgetfulness, can progress into menopausal symptoms, but the diagnosis takes a long time and goes back to childhood,” she explains.
“For so long I thought I was crazy, ‘Lucy Mac,’ and I hated myself. When I was diagnosed, I was initially quite sad because people with ADHD are more likely to remain single or get divorced. Of course there are other factors involved, but I was always afraid that I would be bored. Now I realize I’m not alone and this means I can educate and help myself.”
Does she now recognize some of her weaknesses as a boss? “It was a relief to tell the team. ADHD is no excuse for my impatience sometimes when I talk too honestly, but at least the staff knows and understands that part of me. What I’m bad at is SKUs [used to track stock inventory] and legal contracts. I’ve hastily signed things that I probably shouldn’t have done in the past, so now I have a better process.”
Stephanie Camilleri, a London-based ADHD coach and founder of the ADHD Advocate, says the name of the condition itself is problematic. “The words ‘attention deficit’ are misleading because we have attention in spades, and that’s the problem: we have too much to do. The word “disorder” is controversial because ADHD is situationally variable, so being in a place where you can’t use your strengths feels very limiting. On the other hand, if we can design our lives and environments around our strengths with ADHD, we can thrive. We are essentially ready for authentic interest.”
Macnamara’s response to this is to find a lot of variety in her role, something confirmed by her colorful Instagram feed in which she meets Aspiga’s artisan producers in India and Kenya.
I want to know if she ever sits back and praises herself for achieving what she has achieved so far. “No, because I think we still have a long way to go and until I reach my end goal, I can’t relax.” Perhaps, I suggest, the ultimate goal should be just that: to be able to celebrate Aspiga as a success story that goes beyond fashion and raises awareness of neurodiversity. Uncharacteristically, she pauses for a moment, looks me straight in the eye and says matter-of-factly, “You know what, I would really love that.”