Entrepreneur impresses Dragon's Den star with new fashion venture

The former Cleveland College of Art and Design graduate impressed former Dragon’s Den star, Theo Paphitis with the launch of her new online fashion retail website.

Claudette, 24, who graduated from CCAD’s Hartlepool campus in 2013, created her own fashion accessories business called The Cool Line last November.

It specialises in silks scarves in bold and daring designs and is already making an impression.

Theo runs a weekly competition on Twitter between 5pm and 7.30pm called Small Business Sunday, where people tell him about their business with the #SBS hash tag. He then chooses six businesses which he then retweets to all of his 500,000 followers.

As an SBS winner, Claudette got to meet the famous entrepreneur at a special event, and has gained a place on the dragon’s SBS winners’ website as well as receiving exclusive support, networking and business opportunities.

She also met with representatives from Ryman, Robert Dyas and Red Letter Days to discover potential business opportunities and benefit from useful advice.

On finding out that she had won, Claudette said: “I was shocked, very shocked. You have to remember I only launched the business at the beginning of November 2015 and to win an award at the end of the second month was very unexpected.

“It gave me a sense that things might happen for the business and it could be a success.

“Anyone who supports The Cool Line, I am extremely grateful to, but when it is someone with such prestige as a former Dragon it does feel amazing.

“In the week following the SBS win I doubled my followers and became part of a brilliant community of small businesses, who are always on the other end of a Tweet should I need any help or advice.”