Label Profile: Ruby Two Shoes.

Meet the talented women behind a new clothing, accessories and illustration label which debuted at Alternative Fashion Week 2004.

If Rachel Willis Bartlett and Anna Marie Wright ever come round your house, watch them closely. The duo, who both graduated from Surrey with BA's in Fashion Design in July 2003, are adept at turning household objects into accessories and clothing. From table cloths emerge shopping bags, out of boxes of old buttons there's a range instantly 'classic' jewellery. It's a passion of theirs.

The pair met whilst studying at Surrey University and began collaborating during their second year. "The easiest way for us to get better marks was to work together," remembers Rachel. Anna Marie concurs: "We noticed that when we worked together our ideas improved." After graduation, they knew they wanted to launch something together and Alternative Fashion Week provided the impetus. "Alternative Fashion Week really helped us find our way," says Rachel. "We'd heard about it a few years ago, and we decided we were going to do it this year which helped us get Ruby Two Shoes going."

Rachel came up with the company name. "It's kind of a Wizard of Oz thing," she explains, "I'd done a project for my last year at university which was around an Alice In Wonderland theme and there was a film Buffalo 66 and there was a lot of obsession with shoes and the colour of shoes that went with it - and I just said it one day and it just seemed right."

The first Ruby Two Shoes creation was a badge. "We got a badgemaker and we just thought of silly things, that I would wear or Anna would wear from then on started doing little tops and earrings, just the sort of things we would like because we wanted to make things for people like ourselves that were kind of frustrated with fashion at the moment and couldn't afford things that were so high-end that you feel you're being ripped off when you buy something, you want the satisfaction of buying something as opposed to buyers' remorse a couple of days later."