Celeste-Fashion for normal women UK size 12-20

If life has taught me anything over the years, it is that I should have more than one string to my bow – that is, I should have more than one way to make a living. Teachers have regular incomes that, on the whole, do not vary week-in, week-out. This is a blessing when accounting for outgoings that require regular fixed payments like mortgages, but naturally acts as a disincentive to working extra-hours in the way that 'overtime' or bonus pay might support.

Many teachers seek ways to supplement their income. Some even seek to leave their jobs and start again doing something else. Their financially-focused drinking partners may typically brag about fat bonuses, but for teachers these 6-figure sums remain the elusive fairytale fantasy of the education-free netherworld.

Some of my ex-colleagues from King George Vth school dug their tunnels out of the classroom through interesting means made possible by the very exciting possibilities available in a city at the mouth of the Pearl River. Mike Jackman and the late Peter Hindes took to Midas in order to design and make t-shirts for the local market. Angus Hardern set up Angus International and took to supplying silk by the mile for wedding banquets. The most recent of these top quality ideas has been Celeste Fashion set up by my colleague Jane Angwin.

Like many women in Hong Kong, Jane was not happy with what's in the shops (or perhaps more precisely, with what's not in the shops). Catering for the larger sizes has always been a task too difficult for most high street retailers. The Memsahib remembers being in one shop and not being able to find anything that would fit – she was told to her face by the assistant, "No elephant size!"

With culturally-established stereotypes fimly fixed in the fashion industry from drawing board to outlet, larger-size women have been on a hiding to nothing if they wanted to go shopping in Hong Kong. Jane therefore decided to start from the ground-up, to learn dressmaking skills at night school, to see what worked and what didn't. Then she thought about meeting that need by selling what she knew people would want to wear. And instead of constantly braving the condescending negativity of stick insect adolescent shop assistants, she thought about setting it up on-line to offer clothes direct by mail-order: one-stop on-line shopping where a few simple clicks would enable pain-free purchasing.

And so today Celeste Fashion's wharehouse showroom opened its doors for the first time. Hong Kong fashion for normal women UK size 12-20 is now available through the website. At first sight the collection instantly strikes as a seemless range of ideas utilizing fabrics from all over the world, including some striking Korean prints. What is detected on closer inspection is the quality of manufacturing. The commonest heard complaint of poor quality certainly does not factor with these clothes: each garment is beautifully produced, largley under the auspices of their colleague Joseph Wong. Jane is also selling an exciting selection of jewellery from Indonesia.

So, now Jane really does not have all her eggs in one basket. Her young team of distributors and marketeers, including her daughter Helena (who with her husband Joe has her own business, Hell Models & Champion Entertainment) are set to establish their presence here during Hong Kong Fashion Week where they have a stall. Their next target is the Chinese mainland where it is estimated there are more plus-sized women than there are people in the ole US of A! Because of the prejudice and ineptness of the usual providers of women's clothes, it appears theirs is the Kingdom.