Inspiro: Princess SparklePants

If your life lacks glitter and sparkle, then look no further than Princess Sparklepants to satisfy your girly, fashion-obsessed, glittery needs!

Team Pants is formed by bestest friends and fashionistas, Lu and Hannah who have decided to cure their obsessive compulsive shopping habit by making pretty things that other people will love just as much as they do.

Unselfish and super-talented - what’s not to love, huh?

Princess Sparkle pants - What’s with the name?
The name revolves around the word sparkle! We’re both magpies and can spot the smallest particle of glitter from miles away. We’ve bonded over our shared love of anything that sparkles, and had to represent that since it was probably what inspired us to start making. The company we work for (Webree.com) has princess Fridays, where we wear crowns all day and lord it over the smelly boys, so we’re often called The Princesses. And I think we just both love the words pants, in the full name it works well, Princess Sparkle sounds too clean and nice! That’s just not us!

Tell us about the sparkly-gorgeous girls behind the label - where you from, where did you meet? What made you do what you’re doing?
We met through boyfriends.

Luisa is originally from Portsmouth, but Hannah is from London. It’s fair to say we clicked as soon as we met, we knew we could be good mates. The night we were first introduced, we shared some drinks and played hide and seek in a huge old house with boys who were shooting toy guns at us. We formed a team, and it’s been that way ever since!
We’re really similar in lots of ways, but totally different in others. Lu is really creative and organised (seriously, she’s frighteningly organised), whereas Hannah’s good at writing and promoting our work. We work together coming up with ideas for products and really encourage each other.
We have very similar taste in clothes and music, which are probably our main inspirations. We spend way to much money on sparkly things, and thought making it might save (and potentially earn) us a bit of money, and feed our addictions!!

What was the first product you ever made and how did you sell it?
The first thing I (Lu) ever made was a cat out of clay mud that I dug from my garden when I was about 8! I stood at the end of my drive, and told anyone that walked past all about my creation of dirt. I ended up selling it to my next door neighbour for 30p and was a very proud girl!

What makes you jump in the air happy?
The pair of us are really good friends, and always feel rather lucky to have each other, saying we make each other happy sounds so pathetic though, so, on a less emotional level, we’re absolutely obsessed with pretty things. Recently, making the products has made us rather proud of ourselves. Hearing people say they like the bits is such a great feeling.

Tell us about your product range, what you got to offer? What are your current favourite items? What inspires your too-cute designs?
All our stuff is meant to be worn with a cheeky smile and accompanied with a hair flick. The inspiration comes from our own personal tastes. Things we would like to wear, and would admire on another girl (or boy!!)

What’s the secret to your success?
It’s quite simple really, everything we have made are things we would wear ourselves, and things our friends would wear. It’s a guilty pleasure, everything we’ve loved since we were younger has been influencing us and making an appearance in the jewellery!

What’s a typical day in the life of PSP…
Well, we wake up, text each other to check what we are going to wear for the day, and both go to work at Webree (a web services company based in Portsmouth). We sit opposite each other from 9 until 5.30, talking on messenger so if we come up with ideas we can immediately share them!! Most of our lunch times are spent power shopping, looking for bits and pieces we can turn into marvellous creations. The evenings are spent either together creating our masterpieces, or texting each other with various ideas (not that we have become obsessive about this!!)

A PSP soundtrack - who’s on it, what’s it sound like?
Idlewild – When I argue I see Shapes – coz we can be psychic when this song plays
David Bowie – Magic Dance – Shared obsession with the Labyrinth
Britney Spears – I love Rock N Roll - Team Pants learnt to pole dance to this song
The Pipettes – One night stand – we just love it
PANIC! At the disco – I write sins not tragedies – lots of fun dancing to this song
System of a Down – BYOB – We have a great picture of us dancing to this song, ahhh, memories
That That – Shine – We want to learn the dance routine
Juliette and the Licks – Hot Kiss – Team pants went to see her and fell in love (She has hot boys in her band)
Kenickie – I would fix you – Very, very pretty song
Peaches – F*** the pain away – we like getting down and dirty busting some sweet moves to this

What’s next in the world of PSP?
The next step is launching our website, which is currently a work-in-progress. By the time you read this it may already be live so keep checking www.princess-sparklepants.com
After that we are going to continue getting more friends involved so we can increase our range of stock, and hopefully carry on enjoying this as much as we have done so far.

Have you any advice for any wannabee jewellery makers/business ladies out there?
Go for it, we have had so much fun, and we are amazed at the amount of support and encouragement we have received. As long as you are having fun there is nothing that should stop you!

Visit www.myspace.com/welovesparklepants for orders and enquiries, and to keep up with the adventures of Team Sparkle Pants!!