Disasters both natural and man-made have the potential to derail personal lives and businesses. Earlier this month, London and other cities in England were in the grip of riots that affected its citizens and businesses.

We caught up with Ruka Johnson owner of Sugarlesque, a boutique located in central London to talk about how the riots affected her. We learned that while her boutique was spared, the riots still touched her and her friends in other areas of their lives.

Here’s the transcript of our video chat:

TLJ: Hi this is Luis with the Lingerie Journal and I’m here with Ruka of Sugarlesque via Skype all the way from London. Ruka, thank you for joining us!

Ruka: My pleasure.

TLJ: Thank you for taking the time. I wanted to go over a few things and obviously one of the things that has been in our minds are the riots that happened in London just earlier this month. And you have the perspective of not only someone that lives in the area, but also as a retailer and also as a lingerie designer. So I wanted to talk to you a little bit about some of the things that happened and how they might of affected you or might not affected you. So let’s just start with a little intro. Could you tell our viewers who may not be familiar with you what you do in London.

Ruka: Basically, I have a lingerie brand called Sugarlesque and I now have a lingerie boutique called Sugarlesque as well.

TLJ: Congratulations!

Ruka: Thank you! Thank you! It’s on Carnaby Street in central London and it’s been open for just about six months now.

TLJ: And obviously as we were talking about the riots that just happened in London. Did that impact you in any way?

Ruka: Luckily, not very much. In terms of the area that my shop is in. It’s in central London which is…there are a lot of shops. It’s not very residential. And there’s a lot of security, a lot of police in general.

We were all on alert and a few shops and businesses closed earlier, but…a shop in northwest London was affected a little bit, they took out some shops on my local high street, but other than that we managed to escaped unscathed. We were just lucky I suppose.

TLJ: But I’m sure the stress level you might have experienced was very different too. Despite the fact that it might not have hit you, you were probably very aware of what was going on.

Ruka: Yes, the stress. I wasn’t affected luckily, but a lot of my friends live in areas that were really badly affected. I can’t remember the second or third day of the riots I was in the shop with a photographer friend of mine and we were watching the footage online and she saw the shop next to her house being burned down. It was crazy. it was a weird feeling. The whole country went into a state of panic and shock.

TLJ: The cycle of news is very quick and everything that happened there I think maybe for everyone that lives outside of England it’s kind of fading a little bit. But a lot of what caused it and the problems coming out of it are still going to be there for everyone. Is there anything you’re doing to prepare for any kind of economic repercussions?

Ruka: Honestly, no.

[Laughs]

Ruka: I’m just counting on us…where my shop is, is honestly safe. I’m not worried about that. We have 24 hour security. And it’s unlikely that anything is going to spill into this area anyway. I’m just carrying on. The country is in a funny state right now. I have to say it’s been really heartwarming to see London in general grouping together, helping, doing clean ups and rebuilding businesses and that sort of thing.

TLJ: That’s excellent and really good to see.

Ruka: Heartwarming.

TLJ: Exactly!

TLJ: I just wanted to switch gears and talk a little bit about what your doing. Again, congratulations on your six month anniversary of having your boutique. Huge accomplishment.

Ruka: Thank you!

Ruka: The major thing is my business partner has left, but it was an amicable split. She is one of my dearest, dearest friends. So I’m doing it completely by myself. It’s scary, but honestly I’m so excited and I’m chomping at the bit to get into the new shop. Right now, we’re in a shopping complex with three floors and we’re on the first floor. I’m going to move up to a shop on the second floor which will be easier, slightly smaller and I’m just going to be doing it all by myself. The past six months I was working a couple of jobs which was crazy but because we did it without funding just to support myself. So I’m dedicating myself to it full time and I can’t wait really. It’ll be nice to be sewing all day.

TLJ: I was just going to say. All the lingerie designers I interview they have this energy level and it’s really a lifestyle, it’s a passion and I know that on top of running the retail store you’re going to be doing so much in terms of your own brand and that’s incredible.

TLJ: So what’s coming up with Sugarlesque?

Ruka: Right now, I’m working on a mini bridal collection. A thing that I found when I was just doing it online, I didn’t pay much attention to the bridal market and they didn’t seem to be my customer. But now I don’t know if it’s having a shop as a base, but I’ve been literally flooded by brides and friends of brides and that sort of thing. It’s a really big market so I’m working on a little collection for that. It’ll be two or three pieces. And before the end of the year I’ll be working on a new collection that will be quite dark, a little show-girly and now that I’m in a shop I can afford to make the basic pieces that sell and I can also afford to make the more extravagant pieces with beading and fringing and that’s what I wanted to do when I started.

TLJ: That’s exciting! Looking forward to and I love your imagery so I’m really excited to see what’s coming.

Ruka: Thank you! I’m excited too!

TLJ: Just to start wrapping up. I want to have you tell everyone where they should go to get in touch with you.

Ruka: My website is Sugarlesque.com or you can follow us on Twitter at @sugarlesque. And for wholesale orders you can email me personally at sugar@sugarlesque.com and anything to do with the shop, shop@sugarlesque.com

TLJ: Thank you so much and good luck with everything that you’re doing at the store and collection!

Ruka: Thank you!