I've never been very good with children but when I met Kitty, we hit it off straight away and when she was 5 years old I became her godmother. I took on the role with great enthusiasm and vowed to make her something every year. When I asked her parents for permission to post this story, her father sent me these words which not only tell the story more eloquently than I could, but also happen to be a perfect reflection of my relationship with clothes, and the reason Mishi May exists at all.
Here are the words he sent me...

Kitty was quite shy, probably not unusually shy for a 5-year-old girl with a certified clown for a brother  -but nevertheless often found hiding behind my leg holding on quite tightly – and never ever ever available for photographs (in fact  you’d be forgiven for thinking we only had a son if you browse our  albums up to July 31st 2017)
 
Then the jacket arrived.
 
It happened to be a very sunny day, and standing in the conservatory, she clapped eyes on the baseball jacket for the first time. Taking in the huge tiger face embroidery, her own name emblazoned across the shoulders as the sun hit thousands of emerald green sequins’ and mirror ball reflections chased around the room.  Cue audible gasps and farewell forever to shyness!
 
In the following weeks, months, years the jacket totally demonstrated to me the power that clothing has – something I’d hitherto missed. Everybody wanted to stroke the sequins and everyone we met, even strangers would either demand ‘a twirl’ or enquire into it’s “availability for adults”.
 
The jacket has become Kitty’s armour, because she can walk into any room and it IS the introduction. All she has to do is proudly stroke the sequins from green to silver (and back again ) whilst answering the inevitable “where’s it from?!” question with a phrase  I swear we’ve now heard  at least 50 times, possibly closer to 100;
 
  “My godmother made it.  She’s a fashion designer in Bristol called Molly MIshi May”
 
 
I absolutely cannot wait for the day she grows out of it so we can frame it, hang it and stop bloody panicking about her leaving it on a bouncy castle or up a dune.
 
Postscript:
(I also now own a shiny, golden baseball jacket with a dragon design on it - no-one likes it but when we’ve both got our jackets on… I know we both  feel like the dogs boll*cks