Boden History 1991-1995
Sometime in the late 1980s, I was proving to be a particularly ineffective stockbroker in London. Eventually, my employers decided to send me to New York hoping that I might learn something useful.
I didn't get any better at my day job, but while there I was inspired by the high standards set by US mail order companies. Thinking that there wasn't anything similar in the UK, I packed in my job and sent out my first catalogue in 1991.
Initially the catalogue featured just eight menswear products. I ran everything from the sitting room in my flat, using friends as models, and calling in every favour I could invent.
We started to grow, and I was able to move out of the flat and recruit some real staff...
...including an office dog. While he fell pathetically short as a guard dog, like everyone else he fulfilled his modelling duties with aplomb.
Womenswear was added in 1994 and soon proved to be even more popular than menswear. In retrospect, I probably should have realised that a bit sooner.
