The Fashion Law Edit Presents: Karlia Lykourgou

Karlia Lykourgou is a criminal barrister at Doughty Street Chambers and the Founder of Ivy & Normanton, the first legal outfitter specialising in courtwear for women.

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Bunmi: For me and maybe for many others reading this interview, this is the first time speaking with a barrister who founded their own ‘fashion brand’! Please tell us why you founded Ivy & Normanton?

Karlia: My family has been in the clothing industry for many years, so I grew up around fashion but it was never something I was keen to go into. I started Ivy & Normanton in March 2016, a few months into my pupillage, after struggling to find a tunic shirt that fit. I worked on the project over four years while I completed my pupillage, applied for tenancy and built up my practice.

Throughout that time, I was going to court and observing my female colleagues pinning the front of their collarettes to their tops to stop them riding up and complaining about getting their hair caught in the Velcro at the back. It seemed obvious to me there should be something better and that’s what kept me going.

Women have been at the Bar for over 100 years but it still feels like we’re catching up. Everything from the limited workwear options available, to the small, segregated robing rooms, to the numerous portraits of male barristers on the walls of the Inns perpetuate that feeling, and it gets worse when you consider retention rates.

Making sure women had a range of court clothing that looked good seemed a basic thing I could do to help achieve more equality in the profession.

I finally launched in June 2020 and now offer an elegant range of shirts, collars, collarettes and accessories that are more comfortable and flattering for female advocates.

Bunmi: Having a legal background surely must have been an advantage for you when starting Ivy & Normanton. What old and new skills did you have to implement into your business?

Karlia: A business has a lot of different aspects to it and when you’re starting out on a small budget, you have to do most of it yourself.

Setting up the business presented a number of new challenges. Even the legal aspects weren’t entirely straightforward as my experience is in criminal law not contract or IP. My legal education gave me a basic grounding in these areas and allowed me to respond more quickly to these issues when they arose. It also made me more aware of certain aspects of the business that had to be in place and gave me more confidence navigating the administrative aspects of a start-up.

In terms of new skills, I found there was a lot I needed to learn about business strategy, garment production, web-design, online retail, photo shoots, marketing and social media etc. To fill that knowledge gap I took online courses, attended conferences and seminars, read books and articles, and watched videos. I enjoyed the challenge of learning something new and applying it to the start-up I was creating.

Bunmi: On the logistical and marketing side of Ivy & Normanton, how has this been going for you especially in the current climate with the pandemic?

Karlia: Brexit has made importing goods from suppliers in Europe more complicated and expensive as there is now more paperwork that needs to be prepared and agents are often required to try and facilitate transport. A failure by either party to provide the correct paperwork can lead to increased costs and disputes between the parties if the goods get held up at customs.

Brexit has also made it more complicated to send goods to customers in Europe as we have to consider whether to add additional VAT to the goods we’re sending. This affects our international sales figures.

The difficulties in shipping and transport present an interesting new opportunity for the manufacture of our goods going forward. I suspect businesses will be looking to make much closer to home now. This may revive British manufacturing but could also lead to higher prices for consumers. Most garments are manufactured abroad because the minimum wage is lower, if they are manufactured in the UK the cost of making per piece will increase, but this will balance out against the lower transport costs and associated costs with ensuring quality of garments made abroad.

Covid has presented an additional challenge as most people are working from home and the spending habits have changed. In terms of legal attire, our sales are affected by spikes in the infection rates as this affects the extent to which courts rely on CVP rather than in-person hearings. Robert Buckland, the Justice Minister, seems to be keen that the wig and gown remains so it doesn’t seem like court attire is going away soon.

These are turbulent waters that old and new businesses are learning to navigate, but I think new businesses that can survive will be resilient and find operation much easier once normal service is resumed.

Bunmi: Diversifying the UK Bar (and legal profession as a whole) has been and still is a work in progress. It’s amazing to see that Ivy & Normanton mirror diversity in every way possible. How important was it for you to make sure Ivy & Normanton embodied diversity?

Karlia: For a long time, the pervading image of a barrister has been an older, upper-class, white man. Then programmes like Silk came along and white women at the Bar gained more exposure. That’s a step towards diversity but it’s not good enough. BAME communities are underrepresented at the Bar and more needs to be done to address that.

People believe they can be what they can see, so it’s important to promote a more diverse image of what a barrister looks like. I don’t want anyone to feel there is no place for them at the Bar because they don’t look the part or they don’t come from the “right” sort of background.

Our legal clients are diverse and the Bar benefits from diverse representatives who can communicate their clients’ experience in court and advocate effectively on their behalf. I think we’ll see more systematic change when these barristers rise through the ranks and bring their personal experience to the judiciary and government.

Ivy & Normanton’s website and marketing materials give us an opportunity to promote a more diverse image of what a woman in law looks like. I’m especially pleased with the I&N Women Blog which features personal accounts of women’s experience in law.

As well as the visuals of the brand, I have also tried to make Ivy & Normanton as inclusive as possible with our sizing. Advocates do an important job and it seems fundamental to me that we have the tools we need to get on with it and feel comfortable. Women come in all different shapes which don’t begin and end with size 10 -14. Ivy & Normanton offers the broadest range of sizes available in legal attire at the moment, but this is something we are still working on.

Bunmi: What’s next for Ivy & Normanton in the future?

Karlia: We are ambitious and keen to grow the brand in a way that’s responsive the needs of our customers. As long as there is legal attire, there will be legal outfitters and we’re claiming our seat at that table to make sure women are properly represented.

Find out more and purchase your court attire from www.ivyandnormanton.com