Cefinn Raises Fresh Cash as Demand for Dresses, Knitwear Fuels Double-digit Sales Growth
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LONDON — For six years, the U.K. got used to seeing Samantha Cameron, sporting sneakers and skinny jeans (sometimes on a scooter), ferrying her kids to school or wearing sharp, colorful dresses as she posed with world leaders.
Britain has seen many prime ministers (and their spouses) come and go, yet no one has matched the easy elegance of the former first lady Cameron, who’d served as creative director of the high-end stationer Smythson before she moved into No. 10 Downing Street with her husband, former Prime Minister David Cameron, and young family.
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Over the past five years since her husband stepped down, Cameron has been channeling that bright, youthful aesthetic into her clothing label Cefinn, which has been notching double-digit sales growth and which raised 1.2 million pounds in its latest round of funding earlier this month.
In the 12 months ended Oct. 31, sales were up 45 percent to 3.8 million pounds year-on-year while losses fell 32 percent to 166,000 pounds. The momentum has been building, with sales up 55 percent in the first two weeks of the new fiscal year, according to the company.
Cefinn declined to give details about the investors in the latest funding round, but said the money will go toward growth capital to support the sales and expansion of the range; customer acquisition marketing, and the recruitment of expertise in merchandising, production and digital.
Cameron founded Cefinn in 2017 and it remains a direct-to-consumer business with a handful of wholesale clients, including Net-a-porter, Matchesfashion and Trilogy.
Clients include the new Princess of Wales, who wore a blue Cefinn funnel neck blouse for a visit to Glasgow earlier this year (when she was Duchess of Cambridge), and Queen Consort Camilla, who donned a green printed midi dress during a trip to Cornwall.
Cefinn’s pussy bow blouses featured big in the Netflix series “Anatomy of a Scandal,” which starred Sienna Miller as the vengeful wife of a scandal-prone member of parliament.
The blouse is glamorous, but also practical. More than half of the collection — from the knitwear to the silk tops — is machine washable. The clothes are also built to travel, with most of the fabrics wrinkle-free.
Online sales make up 65 percent of the business, and were up 69 percent compared with the same period last year. Average order value increased by 10 percent in the past year, while the customer base has grown 49 percent.
A resilient and practically minded entrepreneur, Cameron powered through the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 by shaping her offer around the changing needs of her consumers. She continues to do so now that many of them have returned to hybrid working — and special events.
From the get-go Cameron put the accent on dresses, which she has always designed to be worn with sneakers or heels. During an interview at her west London studio she embodied the look, wearing a Cefinn midi style with Victorian flair — and tall boots with a block heel from Mango.
Cameron said that when COVID-19 came along, the dress business collapsed “but we were lucky because we had just bought in knitwear and shirting, and we had a couple of styles that did really well.”
Over the past two years, Cameron has worked on expanding the knitwear offer, which accounts for 22 percent of sales. True to Cameron form, it’s practical. Her sweaters are made from animal-friendly, non-mulesed merino wool. They’re also washable and don’t pill.
“Post-COVID-19, whether you’re in the office or on Zoom, they’re an alternative to a jacket. The shapes are very sculptural — one of our bestsellers has a blouson sleeve. And we do them in various necklines. You can wear them with smart denim, tailored trousers or a leather skirt,” she said.
The sleeveless ones are doing well, too.
The Janice style, which comes with a V-neck or a funnel neck, has been Cefinn’s top-selling product by units in the last two years, and Cameron believes it’s because it can be layered over a dress with statement sleeves without killing the look.
It’s also heavy enough “to keep you warm if you’re working from home during the day,” she said.
Knitwear sales have grown 83 percent over the past year.
Once lockdown eased, the dress business bounced back “overnight,” said Cameron, whose current bestseller is the Daphne, a dress made from fine corduroy that costs 290 pounds. Another popular style is the Jacquetta, a velvet maxidress with tie at the neck costing 320 pounds.
Both are part of Cefinn’s largest winter and Christmas party collection to date.
Cameron has been trying to design more sustainably, working with fabrics such as organic cotton poplin and voile, Lenzing Ecovero and recycled polyester. She’s eliminated plastic from Cefinn’s packaging while garment labels are now made from recycled yarns. She’s working on sourcing sustainable buttons and other trims.
She also keeps a close eye on inventory and said she’s happy to do smaller runs of styles. Cameron said her clothing “isn’t fast fashion or disposable,” and that she’s designing for the long term. She doesn’t like discounting, and keeps it to a minimum.
In addition to expanding the offer, Cameron plans to build the U.K. market, her largest one, and further penetrate the U.S., where Cefinn has a localized website. Sales in the U.S. grew 130 percent last year, and the region currently generates 6.4 percent of total sales.
Cefinn does not have any physical stores, although it has had pop-ups, and Cameron said she’d like to do more. The plan is to open one or two in London to enable customers to try the collection and get styling advice.
Cameron said she’s keen to continue investing, with the aim of it turning a profit in “the next couple of years.”
She said her vision for Cefinn has always been to create a full wardrobe of clothing, “and that needs time, and investment.”
It’s clear she’s enjoying the journey.
Cameron is in the office five days a week and said she’s involved with every aspect of the business, from financial to sales, creative and production. She designs all the prints and the clothing and relies on a strong studio team to bring her creations to life.
Cameron said she’s “obsessive” about fit, and her samples are a U.K. size 10 (a U.S. size 8). That’s considerably larger than the usual U.K. sample size of 4 to 8 (U.S. 0 to 4).
Cameron said she’d like to broaden out her offer even further, with clothing that ranges from a size 6 to 16, with an eye to dressing a variety of women — for the office, the Zoom screen or the photo op.
