The Duchess of Cambridge, née Kate Middleton, often favours Spanish designers when it comes to dressing her children Prince George and Princess Charlotte, with a particular favourite being Pepa & Co.
As George touched down for his royal tour of Canada wearing an outfit from the retailer, we talked to the label's founder Pepa Gonzalez about how it feels to have the royal seal of approval...
Prince George wore Pepa & Co to arrive in Canada
The little royals have been spotted in your designs. How did the demand rise straight after the design was identified as yours? Can you describe the immediate impact?
First of all, we were extremely honoured and even surprised to have both Prince George and Princess Charlotte wearing our clothing in official pictures. Firstly Princess Charlotte wore out taupe knitted cardigan for the Queen's 90th Birthday portraits and then Prince George wore an entire Pepa & Co outfit in his 3rd birthday pictures, the whale sweater, taupe shorts and the blue shorts.
Prince George wore Pepa & Co yet again on his arrival in Canada
As soon as the Prince George pictures were made public, we were inundated with telephone calls, orders and messages on social media. The striped whale sweater sold out almost immediately but luckily, as ours is a limited and exclusive collection that you can only find in our site, we were able to get hold of more stock to satisfy the demand.
The Prince was dressed in Pepa & Co for his birthday portraits
How long did the increase in demand last for?
We had a huge uplift in traffic to the website on the day that the pictures were made public. An increase in web traffic of nearly 3000%. Overall, the demand and interest lasted for around a week and surprisingly not only for the Prince George outfit, but for other cute items from our collection.
The designs that they wore, are they still your bestselling items? Will they always feature in your future collections?
The whale sweater was a bestselling item for spring/summer '16. We won't offer exactly the same sweater again, as Pepa & Co offers a limited and exclusive collection every season.
We could keep producing this garment again and again as we know it will be a best seller always but it's not the philosophy of our company. We love design and seeing children look like children in any of the sweet items we offer. But watch this space!
The knitted cardigan as worn by Princess Charlotte is a “must have” piece in any children´s wardrobe, that will always be in our collection, and continues to be a bestseller. We offer a heavier Autumn / Winter cardigan which is available now in a variety of colours and a lighter version for the summer months. Colours change according to the season.
Princess Charlotte also wore a cardigan from the brand
As a whole, how did it change your brand?
It didn't change our brand overall but it gave us a platform to make our small independent brand known worldwide. It was lovely to get so many positive messages from around the world, and pleased that mums were able to discover our brand, because as they say, it´s very difficult to find elegant and traditional children clothing at affordable prices.
The interest and demand for Spanish childrenswear has only increased in the last five to ten years, thanks to the European Royal Families wearing not only a classic and formal style but also many Spanish brands to dress their children.
Both Prince George and Princess Charlotte look adorable in every outfit they have been pictured in, wearing classic and traditional style childrenswear.
I feel very proud that the Duchess of Cambridge has selected our label, Pepa & Co for her children.
Pepa Gonzalez said she is very proud the royals have worn her designs
Have you had much recognition worldwide?
Thanks to the Duchess of Cambridge, there has been even more demand for traditional and vintage inspired childrenswear not just in the UK but worldwide. I have had orders from as far as Korea as well as Russia, the United States and Brazil. Our clothing has travelled to many places in less than 3 years than I have ever been to!
What has been the best thing to have happened to the brand since the royal seal of approval?
We always enjoy seeing any of our clients pictured in our clothing but to get the Royal seal of approval has been an honour for me. The best thing to happen out of this was to introduce Pepa & Co to new customers from around the globe. I feel very curious when we send orders to obscure places around the world and I always try to imagine where the families are, what their daily routine is and how amazing that someone on the other side of the globe decided to click on our site, fall in love with our collection and place an order with us!