How scarves and a sense of purpose are driving clothing brand Scamp & Dude that has a branch in Edinburgh's St James Quarter

“I think there's a real magic to Edinburgh.”

Jo Tutchener Sharp is the founder and chief executive of Scamp & Dude, a “British superpower-infused fashion brand” that also helps a range of good causes.

Its growing branch network includes one Scottish outlet, in Edinburgh’s £1 billion St James Quarter, with each one filled with products in its bright leopard and lightning bolt print. They include its Super Scarves, which for every scarf sold sees another donated to a woman with cancer.

Tutchener Sharp, who launched the firm in 2016, is adamant that not only should other, larger retailers, undertake similar initiatives to give back, but that fellow company founders need to have purpose embedded in the brickwork of their businesses, rather than tacked on.

She says that when she gives talks to owners of new and small businesses, they say they don’t know what their firm’s purpose is, and ask her whether they should just donate to a charity. But she tells them that a purpose “has got to be in your heart”, and motivate you to get out of bed every morning, especially because it's hard work running a business, even more so in the current climate. “My message to everyone is always that it's got to be a purpose that is really important to you, that you can feel in your heart… you can't fake purpose.”

Tutchener Sharp before creating Scamp & Dude had been running her own beauty PR firm, but decided to exit (a “really, really, really” stressful process) after having her second child and needing a better work-life balance.

But she started to feel unwell, and suffered “excruciating” pain in the back of her eye that saw her sent to hospital, where she had a brain scan. A medic walked into her hospital room at 1am and told her that she’d had a brain haemorrhage, and had a lump on her brain. “And then she walked out and left me on my own.”

Left in distress about the outlook for her family, she went on to have brain surgery, and in the lead-up examined her life to date, and wondered how she would be remembered. And worrying that it was too late to do more to help people gave her a “horrible, empty feeling in the pit of [her] stomach.”

The Scamp & Dude founder, pictured at its Edinburgh store, is aiming to donate 63,000 'Super Scarves' a year to women starting chemotherapy. Picture: Connor Mollison.

Scamp & Dude originated from her coming up with the idea of a superhero soft toy that she could have given to her children while she was in hospital that would include a pocket with a picture of her, and which she could tell them would watch over them. She set to work having the Superhero Sleep Buddies made, the aim being that for every one sold, she would donate one to a child in need.

That led to coming up with the name for the company, taken from her two sons’ nicknames, and a business plan, including her vision for a clothing line, with each item, to this day, boasting a neon “superpower button” design feature that wearers press to get their “superpowers”.

The firm started as a children’s brand, but demand really skyrocketed when she developed sweatshirts for adults. She then found herself winning awards, and having to go up and collect them in other brand's dresses, so decided to start making her own.

And the idea for Super Scarves originated when she found comfort while in hospital from a colourful scarf, a contrast from the clinical environment. The initiative has to date donated more than 48,000 of the items, and is looking to reach 63,000 a year – the number of women she says start chemo annually in the UK.

The firm in September 2023 opened an outlet in Edinburgh’s £1 billion St James Quarter. Picture: Connor Mollison.

The firm, which has been self-funded to date and has about 100 staff altogether, now has four branches in England, with Cambridge that opened earlier this month joining Marlow in Buckinghamshire, London’s Battersea, and Manchester.

Its outlet in Edinburgh taps into Tutchener Sharp and her family’s strong affinity with Scotland, and its capital city in particular. “I think there's a real magic to Edinburgh.” Her visits to the Scottish store include for its launch in September 2023, and earlier this year as one of the featured entrepreneurs in the Women on Top events run by Edinburgh women’s network Egg.

Tutchener Sharp doesn’t rule out further expansion north of the Border, and says the business has been “keeping an eye on” Glasgow, with an ultimate plan to have a shop within 90 minutes of all of its customers, and look overseas further down the line. She also says having a bricks-and-mortar presence provides a focal point for the community the brand has created.

Its growth bucks something of a trend in retail, with nearly 14,100 shops and outlets belonging to multiples and chains (those with five or more outlets) last year exiting UK high streets, shopping centres, and retail parks – equivalent to 39 a day. The report from PwC however also found that openings were up for the fourth year in a row, albeit to just 25 a day, while visits to shops north of the Border increased by 0.2 per cent overall in June year on year, the Scottish Retail Consortium.

That is a welcome boost in a sector that has been buffeted by no shortage of headwinds in recent years, such as the cost-of-living crisis. Tutchener Sharp says the increase in the cost of fabric, for example, has been a hurdle for Scamp & Dude, although it works not to pass such increases on to the customer, “so there are difficult choices to make”.

But she is always very happy to see how her firm, recently named a certified B Corporation in recognition of its green credentials, is making a positive impact on people’s lives. And she encourages others not to wait till it’s too late to realise the importance of purpose. “Know it now.”