Designed to Grow
For over two decades, TUTTI has been redefining affordable luxury with integrity and purpose. Inspired by the founder’s travels and the raw beauty of the natural world, every design tells a story – one of discovery, connection and timeless elegance. Here, we talk to Kate Rose, Founder & Creative Director about the next chapter of the business.
Beginning TUTTI when she was just 23, Kate highlights that she had a strong belief that women wanted pieces they could style that felt personal, effortless and could become part of their everyday wardrobe.
“Over the following 20 years, the business has evolved enormously and grown from a small jewellery start-up into a much broader lifestyle brand; but the original strategy has remained, creating pieces that feel considered, wearable and timeless,” highlights Kate Rose, Founder & Creative Director of TUTTI. “What has changed is our ambition. I always felt there was a much bigger brand within TUTTI and fashion became the natural next chapter.”
Having built a relationship with their customers through jewellery, they had learned how she buys, how she styles herself and most importantly, how she wants to feel. It was the customer who was telling them what they wanted and Kate felt that fashion was the next opportunity to give her more of that inspiration.
Whilst jewellery taught the company to think about detail, proportion, texture and how something makes you feel when you put it on. Those principles have naturally transferred into the clothing line.
The founder comments that there remains a recognisable TUTTI aesthetic, described as a lifestyle aesthetic that is effortless, considered and feminine without being overly precious, designed to style and layer with confidence. “The jewellery finishes the outfit and the clothing creates the canvas for the jewellery. That is where the two categories have become particularly powerful together.”
With three stores to date and an active UK expansion programme, the brand has learnt that context is a subject that really matters and that the stores perform well when there is a reason for someone to visit – somewhere with a sense of destination, experience and discovery.
The stores have shown Kate and the wider team that the physical environment is an extension of the brand. They are not trying to create a traditional fashion shop; they want people to feel that they have stepped into the TUTTI lifestyle. This has become an important part of their strategy moving forward as they look at the next phase of growth.
“The perfect TUTTI location has personality and for us, the best sites are often the unexpected ones; spaces where we can respond to the architecture, the community and the wider destination to create something that feels genuinely different,” says Rose.
Bringing energy, experience and a strong sense of community to any destination it occupies, TUTTI want their stores to feel active and connected to the communities around them. With her strong founder story offering authenticity, the next chapter is about building something bigger than a founder-led brand alone.
With her creative vision sitting at its heart and with Managing Director Helen Williamson shaping and driving the business into its next stage, together they want TUTTI to become a brand that contributes something meaningful to the destinations they are part of, rather than simply occupying a retail unit.
“We are looking at significant UK growth over the next two to three years, with around 12 new store opportunities forming part of that ambition. However, we are not interested in opening stores simply for the sake of having a larger store estate. We are looking for the right destinations and importantly, the right partnerships,” Rose explains.
As well as UK growth, international expansion is also part of the longer-term vision, but they want to build it from a position of strength rather than rushing into it. They are particularly interested in markets such as the Nordics, the US and Asia, where they believe their proposition could resonate strongly.
When discussing this growth, Kate highlights that the challenge will be taking what makes TUTTI unique and making sure they preserve that as they scale internationally. That means having the right team, infrastructure and partnerships around the brand so that growth never comes at the expense of creativity or identity.
The company are not trying to compete by being the fastest or the loudest, their point of difference is that they are building a considered lifestyle brand around the real lives of women.
“We think our biggest point of difference is the relationship we have built with our customer and the authenticity behind the brand. We understand why she comes to TUTTI and we want to continue earning her trust as we grow.”
As we discuss with Rose where she would like the business to be if we were speaking again in five years’ time, she comments that she would want TUTTI to have become a recognised lifestyle brand; not a jewellery brand that moved into fashion. She would like the company to have a strong UK retail base, a presence in the right international markets and a reputation for creating beautiful, experiential retail environments.
“I want us to be known for doing things differently, from the way we design collections and create stores, to the experiences we give our customers and the destinations we become part of. We want to build a brand that women grow with, something they discover at one stage of their life and continue to come back to as their life changes,” says Rose.
“If we can look back in five years and say that we have grown significantly while remaining independent, design-led, authentic and unmistakeably TUTTI, that will feel like real success.”
