You both have fashion backgrounds and launched your careers at Vogue. What inspired you to shift your focus onto children's fashion and lifestyle?
Sylvana: Luisana and I had long wanted to do something together, and the idea came to us purely out of our own experiences as mothers. Shopping for affordable, high quality, well-designed children’s apparel and home products was impossible. Retail has evolved in every other category to deliver great products immediately - but somehow not in the children’s retail category. Shopping online for kids was a painful process that often involved having a dozen web browsers open. It made no sense.
Luisana: It was obvious to us as parents that the children’s category was not being properly serviced. When we examined the retail landscape, we found that the children’s market was uniquely fragmented. Online options were largely limited to expensive special occasion wear or cheaply produced mass products with little style. There was nothing in between. We launched Maisonette to address this problem, and to offer beautiful high-quality children’s products at a variety of price points and on a platform that is easy to shop.
[Photo courtesy Maisonette]