“Rhuraidh said that the twenty jobs that were to be lost at the factory might not seem that much, but it would be felt like a hammer blow in such a small community as Fort William. He felt, however, that it could be saved, and before he took his leave of us that evening, he presented Patrick and me with a brief, three-page document which outlined his plans.”

Rhuraidh MacLeod had given the company a working title, Vagabonds, a word that Katie had heard him use quite often to describe his young, hyperactive son. He envisaged the new company to be mail order, so that manufacturing, ordering, and packaging could all be handled from the same unit, and payment for articles would be up front. Rhuraidh’s idea was that the workforce should be laid off for two months during which time he had set Katie the monumental task of sourcing fabrics, producing samples, and photographing the catalogue while he would use the expertise in his office to set up the computer system and buy in mailing lists.

“It was pretty daunting,” admits Katie, “but the carrot that Rhuraidh cleverly dangled in front of my nose was that, for the first six months, manufacturing costs would be borne jointly by the Local Enterprise Company and the District Council.

“So I decided to take on the challenge—not so much because I wanted to do it, but more out of a sense of loyalty to Rhuraidh. If he had taken this much trouble to save twenty jobs, then it had to mean a great deal to him. So Vagabonds became the name of the company, and exactly two months after Rhuraidh’s visit, the first little pair of baggy trousers with elasticated waist and oversized pockets rolled off the production line and were sent off to our first mail order customer. It was a very exciting moment!”

Two years later, when demand for Vagabonds was spreading right across Europe, Katie was approached by the headmaster of Fort William High School to help their final-year Art and Design students with design technique and manufacture.

“I agreed to do it, although somewhat reluctantly,” says Katie. “I really felt that I couldn’t spare the time. But thank goodness I did. Those kids were so much more in tune with what everyone was wearing, and from that first year onwards, I incorporated many of their ideas into the Vagabonds range of clothes. I always credited their names in the catalogue under the heading ‘Designers,’ which I think made them feel that they had hit the big time!”

Almost six years to the day since the company started, Katie has decided that the time has come to sell up.

“The company is now in the position to be taken to a worldwide market,” says Katie, “and it needs someone with a greater business brain than I to be able to accomplish that! What’s more, I have been so occupied with Vagabonds over the years that I feel that I have missed out on a great chunk of my children’s lives. I just want to spend more time with them.”