"Every woman needs an item jacket," Katie Starmer-Smith says: a posh-looking bouclé jacket that looks great with jeans or a dress. "It does that desk to dinner thing."
At 34, and a working mother of one, Starmer-Smith is the embodiment of the Atterley Road customer. Albeit one with bouncier hair and a nine-year career in fashion buying at Jigsaw behind her. She started thinking about the website in 2011, after feeling that certain shops on the high street were looking too young for her, and frustrated that her favourite boutiques didn't sell online. "It's the best of the high street mixed with harder-to-find boutique brands." Her mantra is "sophisticated chic style", but she is insistent that everything she sells should be affordable. And she's big on edited choice. "If I see 2,000 white shirts, I give up. Our customers are sophisticated, but time poor, so we offer a smaller choice."
Aside from the item jacket ("As comfortable as a cardigan, but better looking"), Starmer-Smith recommends boyfriend jeans (by Levi's Made & Crafted) and a long-sleeved printed dress by Scandinavian designer Julie Brandt. Flat silver sandals by Filippa K, which inject "daytime sparkle". And, for the enlightened and truly label-blind, Starmer-Smith recommends the Hobbs Victoria trouser. "The tailored silhouette makes them an easy way to wear patterned trousers. I wear mine with a white T, black tux jacket and statement heels."
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