“I Always Said If I Start My Own Business I Would Call It UmpaLumpa. A Beautiful Happy Word,”

The idea for Umpalumpa came to Elisa in 2005: “my youngest brother started to screen-print his street graffiti design “Bird” on shirts and made one for his nephew, my son Oskar. Seeing the reaction of Oskar to the cool shirt planted a little seed in the back of my mind. I was going through a period of reorientation, either going back to consultancy or do something completely different.”

“Clothes are emotion for me, they are important, they keep you warm, they keep you cool. They also have the ability to store memories and let you dream,” explains Elisa Huijsman: “Children’s wear is even more, you really have to think hard, or I think you should, about what fabric is suitable for children: can they play and wear it? Children are also very honest they like it or not if they don’t like the fabric or the design they won’t wear it, simple as that.” UmpaLumpa is a growing range of both children’s and baby’s wear and accessories, with Elisa and her brother constantly developing new products to keep customers coming back again and again to her webshop.

Elisa evolved a very clear business vision, creating a brand inspired by her brother’s graffiti style images and the idea of clothes that create happy feelings and memories.  Her awareness of the preciousness of memories is reflected in her idea of creating limited edition print runs and creating a business that worked around the constraints of a growing family, “my family was expanded with a beautiful girl Mae and by the time I gave birth to my third child in January 2007, a girl named Charlie (what’s in a name) UmpaLumpa Limited Edition Baby and Children’s wear saw the lime light with the launch of a web-shop.” 

Children’s wear is a sector that is super saturated and for a brand to be successful requires inspired creativity and strategy: Elisa says that: “It is the Limited Edition concept combined with the wear-ability (very important for children) and the durability (important for parents), which makes UmpaLumpa stand out. Customers return because they appreciate the quality of the products. The prints on the cotton shirts of the Limited Edition Collection are screen-printed by hand in Amsterdam and they don’t wear off washing after washing. The designs, still made by my youngest brother, are original, funky and have a urban feel to them, but always designed with children in mind. The designs are just off the beaten track.” Elisa’s ambitions for her brothers’ witty character designs, “I dream of spin offs like bedding, cushions and even wooden puzzles of them!”

As a small company sourcing is often problematic, but Elisa tries to source as ethically as her she can on limited buying power: “Environmental awareness and fair working conditions are very important to me. I majored in International Relations and Environmental Studies after a BA in Political Science and I strongly feel we can only move forward in business if we take environment and fair working conditions into account.” She goes on to say: “I buy the cotton shirts from the UK company Continental Clothing who are very environmental aware and have a CSR program. The shirts are made in Turkey under fair working conditions.”
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Working in small quantities the material for her cute poncho is more difficult, currently she has to make do with buying fleece from a local market, but her vision is to upscale UmpaLumpa and work differently: “I would love to work with a more natural (light weight) product instead of fleece. I looked into baby alpaca, but that was too delicate and too costly for this type of garment. In the future I would like to be able to sell larger quantities of the UmpaLumpa Poncho. I wish to move production in due time and get the benefit of economy of scale. I have already researched production possibilities in Peru and Bolivia and spoke with several female entrepreneurs.”

Elisa has been involved since the earliest days of SPINNA back in 2009. “I strongly believe in sharing knowledge, networks and making real connections. Everyone knows that family matters, but in business relationships matter. This is not just handing out business cards, but being genuinely interested in the stories of others.”  Elisa believes in supporting others and online is a great cheerleader for SPINNA. “The fact that SPINNA is an international network is the world to me. Textile is international. I am part of a Dutch women’s network but I miss the textile expertise and with my contacts who are in textile we all end up with the same questions, where can I source, who’s produces in small quantities, and where can I find natural fibres? The SPINNA network is a platform where we also have the same questions but where you can find the answers too! You can find the contacts or the information you are looking for. Because it is both for buyers and suppliers it is easier to connect. For example at the last SPINNA event (the Trans-Mongolian Express Party at The Oriental Club during London Fashion Week), I met this great person from Holland & Sherry who told me there is a lightweight washable wool which could be a substitute for the fleece I use for the poncho’s. Things like that are why I think being part of a specialised international network is so valuable.”
Elisa is so enthusiastic about SPINNA she made a special trip to visit London and the two SPINNA Circle London events last month including the mentoring afternoon with Karen Hirshfield. “It was a great hands on session, focusing on managing your own expectations while growing your business. [Karen Hirschfeld] The mentor gave us tools to get focused and by doing so, be more successful. We got great digital hand out with specific exercises, which you can do at home. It is not only the output that counts; “she says: “the road to it should be enjoyable too!”
Elisa has obviously got the entrepreneurial bug, having quite an unusual vision of how her company should evolve and how her own life should develop too she says the future should be: “Building my brand step by step and in the end make myself redundant. It sounds strange but in the end it is all about letting go. UmpaLumpa feels like a baby in his infant years, I aspire to bring the brand to maturity and start a new project again!”
By Elisa Huijsman
http://umpalumpa.nl/home.php

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