Diary of a 2 x wardrobe icons Website hero

Have you ever wanted to walk a working week in someone else's shoes? Welcome to our series that gives you a no-holds-barred look at the Monday-Friday diary of successful women.

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Petro Stofberg and Laura Fantacci are the co-founders of style platform, Wardrobe ICONS. With a passion for helping women find those forever pieces in their wardrobes, the duo work to show their audience what never goes out of fashion – from clothes to beauty and interiors. As mothers as well as founders, the pair walk us through a week in the life of working from home, balancing family with business and playing to each other’s strengths.

Petro Stofberg, 39 Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Wardrobe ICONS Laura and I started Wardrobe ICONS seven years ago, from my kitchen table. The idea was to create a shopping platform that favoured forever pieces over quick-fix fashion, and grown-up style that allowed women to find items they would stay in love with, season after season. In a world saturated with websites that tell you what’s in fashion, we wanted Wardrobe ICONS to be the destination that tells you what never goes out of fashion. It quickly became apparent that, although we both come from fashion editorial backgrounds, my strengths lie in the operational and production elements of the business, while Laura is a lot more creative and ideas orientated. I often joke that she is always trying to add the last bow to a project, while I am desperately trying to get it out of the door on time! Laura Fantacci, 39 Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Wardrobe ICONS After a 10-year career in glossy magazines (I was shopping editor at Red magazine), and the birth of my first child in 2014, I decided to take a leap from print and transfer my fashion editor skills to a digital platform. That same year, Wardrobe ICONS was born. It’s a fashion, beauty and interiors website that provides women with intelligent, sustainable choices, our aim being to show our audience what never goes out of fashion. My job involves all that is creative, so I head the product selection on the website and work closely with the designers on our Future ICONS and ICONS Exclusives marketplaces, and with our social media manager on our Instagram content. I also sign off our magazine covers and newsletters . It’s a lot, and I work until 3pm, to look after my girls when they’ve finished their schoolwork, but I love it and feel so fortunate to be able to make it work around my life.

MONDAY Petro: Stella, my 4-year-old, wakes me up at around 7am, complaining of urgent and immediate hunger that needs to be instantly attended to. I have a cup of hot water with lemon first thing - something Jasmine Hemsley recommended in an episode of our ICONversations podcast. I am not good on health routines (I always forget to take my supplements!), but this is one thing I do religiously. I feed the children, then run upstairs to jump in the shower. After my shower, I get dressed. Pre-lockdown, this might have taken me longer, but now I just slip into my uniform of a cashmere jumper and leather leggings.

"Laura and I always joke that we feel more like switchboard operators than editors, as we are always communicating between departments"

Petro Stofberg, Co-Founder And Chief Operating Officer, Wardrobe ICONS

The office day starts at 9.30am. Mondays are always busy, and every three weeks, it’s the day before our ICONS Update goes live, so crunch time. Laura and I always joke that we feel more like switchboard operators than editors as we are always communicating between departments. We start the day with a production meeting, so that everyone knows what the priorities are. We are in meetings most of the morning, about everything from planning our newsletter schedule to making sure our art director is briefed on home-page designs that are added on Tuesday mornings. I take a quick break for lunch at 12.30. Today, I am having a warm kale salad with lentils and baked feta. One benefit of working from home is that I can have a hot lunch. I spend the rest of the day responding to emails and do a bit of forward-planning for the week ahead. At 5pm, we have a last catch-up meeting to check that every i has been dotted and every t crossed. It is both my most stressful and most exciting part of the week. Everything is usually signed off by 6pm, and then I take over bath time with the kids and do the whole bedtime routine. By 9pm I’m tucked up on the sofa with a glass of wine, watching something on Netflix.

TUESDAY Laura: Tuesday is my ‘social’ day, and no, sadly that doesn’t mean I do anything that involves much-missed socialising. It’s the day that we have a team meeting to look at our weekly performance and plan the next week’s social media content. I’m a creative with a geeky brain and firmly believe that ‘you improve what you can measure’. I like to give the Wardrobe ICONS readers more of what they like, so we are constantly monitoring their needs and expectations.

"We love the idea of our community being one that really listens to our readers"

Laura Fantacci, Co-Founder And Chief Creative Officer, Wardrobe ICONS

It was with this type of research that the concept of ICONS Exclusives was born – selecting pieces that we know they’ve been looking for, then making them available to them exclusively on our platform. We love the idea of our community being one that really listens to our readers. A quick lunch with my husband usually breaks up the day, and I end the day with a walk in the park with my girls, before dinner and bedtime.

WEDNESDAY Petro: This morning is a workout morning with my sister, weather permitting. I meet her at Hampstead Heath at 8am and we take the dogs for a run. It’s a great way to clear my head, and I’ve found it vital as a real stress-relief tool during lockdown. I am by no means a natural runner and, if I’m honest, it’s more walking than running, but it does the trick. I get back home at 9am. Then, I have the quickest shower known to mankind and sit at my desk, usually looking somewhat disheveled, for our 9.30 production meeting. Afterwards, if I have more meetings that I need to be presentable for, I usually do my make-up.

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Wednesday is our newsletter finalising day. We have one on Thursday that is flexible, so it might be a style sheet on how to wear a jumpsuit now, or a focus on the best rain jackets to buy. Then we do an ICONS Weekend News send-out, which includes recipes, and team tips on what to read or watch. Lastly, we have our Monday Update, which looks back at some of our most popular features and highlights a great timeless trend you might want to invest in and a beauty product we think is worth introducing to your routine. We try and wrap everything up by 5.30pm, but there is often an inevitable sign-off well into the evening that happens around bath and bedtime.

THURSDAY Laura: I love Thursdays, as it’s my buying day for our Future ICONS marketplace. We launched it in 2017, before supporting small business became so ‘fashionable’. So much about Wardrobe ICONS already involved celebrating brands with heritage that we thought to ourselves, “Why not champion the small businesses destined to become ICONS of the future?” And so Future ICONS was born.

"Once I finish work, I always do a 30-minute yoga session before dinner. It helps me unwind and stay sane in these crazy times"

Laura Fantacci, Co-Founder And Chief Creative Officer, Wardrobe ICONS

We started with British-made swimwear brand COSSIE + CO , when they were on their first collection. Since then, we have taken on more brands and emerging talent from around the world, including Aname , Marzoline , Rebecca Udall , Heloise O’Hagan , Eva Sonaike and Aurum+Grey , and helped them speak to our wider audience. I spend the morning on Zoom calls, looking at the next collections, selecting colours, choosing fabrics and picking the styles that will become our exclusives. Once I finish work, I always do a 30-minute yoga session before dinner. It helps me unwind and stay sane in these crazy times. I don’t like watching TV, so a bath with relaxing bath salts and a good book in bed is my preferred post-dinner activity. So rock ’n’ roll!

FRIDAY Petro: This is the slowest start of the week, so I make a lemon and hot water at 7.30am. I never have external meetings on a Friday, so I just wear my workout gear all day, which means I can usually fit in a quick session at some point and drop Stella off at school. Laura doesn’t work on Fridays, so this is a good admin day for me, doing accounts and working on future issues . I also take the time to find and restock items for the interiors section of the website, which is an aspect of the job that I really enjoy. It’s perfect window-shopping and often scratches a buying itch that I have. Although I have to admit, looking at beautiful things all day does mean that I end up buying a lot more than I should!

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I wrap up a bit early to hang out with the kids and get an early bath, which is also the perfect opportunity to try out some of the beauty products that are sent to us and start research for our beauty awards . Our current one just went live and is filled with strictly tried-and-tested independent products that we would highly recommend. By 6pm, I’m in my cashmere tracksuit, making fish tacos. In our family, hummus and wraps are king, but we also have a soft spot for a taco with all the fillings, including home-pickled red onion and spicy mayo.

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