Little English
It was a joyful day when little Shannon Latham was presented with one of her grandmother’s precious handmade dresses. Her favorite was a white, floor-length day gown, smocked with pretty pastel geometric designs. She wore the gown usually after bathing and swimming and also was known to have slept in it a few times.
The memory of that little dress led to the creation of Little English, a Lexington-based children’s clothing line sold in hundreds of boutiques and stores across the United States.
“It was 2004, and I was looking for a creative outlet,” said a now-adult Shannon Latham, owner of Little English. “I immediately thought of my grandmother and all of her wonderful heirloom sewing that she had done for our family for so many years. We wore them [day gowns] all the time, and no one had anything like that on the market. [It was] a simple little dress that you could put on to wear after swimming or at the beach, after bath time and, sometimes, we even slept in them. I thought, ‘Let’s try these and just see if there’s a marketplace for them.’ ”
Latham started out with just a few simple designs, smocked in motifs with bunnies or flags—even a small bumblebee. She also added a pocketed, two-piece set to go with the gowns. Sales at her first show in Memphis net her more than $10,000.
“I thought, ‘Well, OK, I’ve got a product. I think this is going to work,’ ” she said.
In addition to its outlet store at the company’s Lexington headquarters, Little English clothing and accessories can be found in more than 250 stores across the United States, including retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Maisonette and Motherly.
Little English
“It wasn’t that I was reinventing the wheel,” Latham said. “I was doing what other companies did with smocking, offering the same type of body styles, but it may have been the choice of the palette of colors that I was using [that appealed to customers]. I also had a good following of friends from Memphis and the South who liked the way I dressed my children, and I think that all played into it.”
The multimillion-dollar company has established a reputation for its devotion to strong customer service, treating its clients with plenty of respect and understanding.
Jeanne Clark, owner of Kidstop Children’s Boutique in Owensboro, described Little English as one of the shop’s top three best-selling clothing lines—that’s out of more than 50 brands sold in the business.
“They are very supportive of their boutiques and retailers,” Clark said of the company. “It does well for us; it definitely does. It’s just classic beautiful pieces [of children’s clothing].”
Of course, that’s exactly what Latham likes to hear.“We give them not just clothing but value and quality in being our customers, whether it’s a boutique customer or an end consumer,” she said.
Watching her mother build a successful business was nothing short of inspiring for Dunn Latham, now Little English’s chief operating officer, who works side by side with Shannon.
“I loved watching my mom present her collections and making personal connections with the boutique owners who soon felt like dear friends,” the younger Latham said. “It was absolutely incredible to watch a product go from a sketch to a sample to market … I think that’s when I caught the entrepreneur bug.”
After graduating with degrees in opera and art history, Dunn joined her mother in the business. It was a move that added even more value to the company, Shannon said.
“She’s as tough and tenacious as I am in wanting to build a beautiful company and give our clients and customers the best product we can,” Shannon said. “It’s like having two of me but with a more modern approach to so many things. Her eyes are a bit more modern than mine, but she understands the classic principles of where my design begins.”
Dunn took that modern approach and expanded the business to include a larger online presence. “I grew our Instagram and Facebook followings significantly through better use of hashtags, engaging content and giveaway contests,” she said.
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Dunn also began working with the brick-and-mortar boutique customers to help them with their online presence. That shift to include online sales proved to be a lifesaver in 2020, when COVID-19 shuttered most businesses for a time.
“A lot of our stores have built those two sales features [in-person and online] into their repertoire,” Shannon said. “Not only do they have their brick and mortar, but they have a working website, and they have a growing, consistent Instagram platform, all of which gave them the ability to reach out during this pandemic, even though their brick-and-mortar stores may have been closed. All of that contributes to our growth as a brand.”
That online growth resulted in the need for a bigger workforce. Just three years ago, only four people were needed to help Shannon and Dunn keep up with sales and fulfillment. There are now 15 employees at their headquarters, and, like their clients and customers, those employees are now part of a new family.
“I tell my employees every week how thankful I am for them because they are the reason why Little English continues to grow,” Shannon said. “We have the right people. They truly care about raising us up to the next level.”
The next level for the mother-and-daughter team included launching BISBY in August 2020. Dunn calls it their “next-step brand” aimed at outfitting older girls. It goes beyond the traditional color palettes and motifs that have made Little English a staple in many young wardrobes.
“BISBY dives deeper into fashion-forward hues, complex textile patterns, and trendy silhouettes,” Dunn said. “It was also very important to us that we design with layering in mind, so that girls could feel confident in picking out their clothes and finding their own sense of style.”
With both the Little English and BISBY brands outfitting thousands of children from newborns to preteens, the Lathams may be seeing unprecedented growth, but neither Shannon nor Dunn takes all the credit. They are rooted in the belief that it’s all about the customer.
“It’s not just our product that makes our company,” Shannon said. “It is the level of service that we insist upon and actually are able to deliver upon smoothly. We have just built an incredible operation.”
To locate boutiques carrying Little English and BISBY, along with more information on the company, visit littleenglish.com.