I was diagnosed with ADHD in my 50s – it’s powered my fashion success

When I visit Lucy Macnamara, the founder of Aspiga, at her fashion label’s headquarters in Battersea, I get the wrong room. It’s her team’s workspace alright, but her office is down the hall. I note how calm the atmosphere is in the former, her staff quietly tapping away at their laptops.

Lucy’s office is a little different: it is not her that greets me but a Jack Russell puppy trying to escape the room. Inside, her other dog Toula and a second puppy look like they’re going to make a break for it too. “I moved back to London from the countryside recently and I planned it well, so she’d have time to nest down before the birth, but the pups came two days after the move. What chaos!’ she says, laughing.

By her own admission, Macnamara talks at “a hundred miles an hour”, but says that chaos in her private life is something she’s used to, as is a streak of stubbornness that she associates with her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). “Everyone keeps telling me I can’t have three dogs. I almost want to prove them wrong and keep them all. I like defying the rules.”

Macnamara, 56, was diagnosed with ADHD three years ago. She claims her diagnosis has opened her eyes up to her strengths and weaknesses as an entrepreneur, giving her focus and much needed clarity about what she calls her “superpower” and how to better navigate her independent sustainable fashion label toward new horizons.

She founded Aspiga in 2006 and has steadily built her business from the ground up to become an award-winning B-Corp certified brand with an annual £10 million turnover and 13 shops in the UK, as well as one in Barbados opposite the five-star Sandpiper Hotel. This bricks and mortar presence is matched by a thriving e-commerce platform and a fashion catalogue operation. She has achieved this multi-channel presence independently without any outside financial backing, making Aspiga a rare entity in our increasingly global and risk-adverse retail landscape.

Macnamara still has big plans for her business, including expanding to the States and Middle East, and to support more charities to add to Aspiga’s already long list of philanthropic projects, which include initiatives with the Charlie Waller Trust, a mental health charity, and WaterHarvest, a non-profit that works to secure rainwater for remote communities in India and Africa. Aspiga also organises monthly beach cleans along the banks of the Thames. It’s abundantly clear that she isn’t someone who crosses the stream where it is shallowest: Macnamara thrives in a challenge and now employs 50 members of staff.

‘I thought I was Crazy Lucy Mac’

ADHD is a complex condition that affects people in different ways, but core symptoms include restlessness, impulsiveness and hyperactivity. On the flip side, in business, this can mean you’re more of a risk taker, more fast-paced and more laser-focussed on a particular goal that can give you instant satisfaction in the form of a hit of dopamine, the neurotransmitter connected to feelings of reward that have been found to run low in people with ADHD.

“What I find debilitating is intolerance and impatience. Luckily, I don’t have an addictive personality, but I do have a thousand hobbies – tennis, riding, biking, golf, you name it,” Macnamara tells me. “What I don’t often have is will power, so I can’t, for example, eat one chocolate finger, I’ll have the whole pack. Equally, I want things done urgently, which is why I think I have a successful business. At work, I never forget a thing, while outside of the office it’s a different matter, I lose my keys constantly, I get parking tickets, I’ve left the bath running a million times. It’s very frustrating but the superpowers are there.”

According to Prof James Brown, the co-founder of charity ADHD Adult UK (@adhdadultuk) and co-host of a podcast @theadhdadults, who also coaches people with the condition, the myth around ADHD is that everyone has the potential to soar high in business.

“What often makes it on to the web or social media is that people with ADHD are more entrepreneurial, like a blanket statement, but the strengths of ADHD aren’t spread among those who have it any differently than those who are non-neurodiverse. Everyone is different,” he explains. “People with ADHD are, however, more likely to start a business by themselves. The key drivers for success tend to be impulsivity and starting a business later in life. If you find something rewarding, you’ll fully engage with it.”

Indeed, Macnamara says Aspiga achieved B Corp certification – a special designation that requires a rigorous assessment of a company’s commitment to high standards of social and environmental performance – in record speed thanks to her goal driven instincts.

“My team said we should look at doing it in two or three years. I said, ‘no’, we’re doing this now’,” she remembers. “We’ve had sustainability written into our DNA from day one. So why wait? When something’s important to me, I can get hyper focussed on it, which drives it forward.”

Macnamara worked in the charity arena for 15 years, so I wonder if she could have applied her skills to any start-up?  “I’d have been brilliant as a city trader,” she says smiling. “I was drawn to fashion because I’ve always just known when something looks right. I’m not a fashionista, what I do I love is to look nice, so unless collections click with me, designs don’t make the cut.”

Indeed, Aspiga is known for its throw-on transitional dresses, pretty blouses and chic block-coloured sweaters all made from sustainable fabrics, with embroidered pieces and colourful accessories handcrafted by artisans in Kenya and India. “Most of our clothes are sort of ‘ADHD-friendly’,” she says. “For example, small buttons fasten easily into elasticated loops. I don’t like restrictive things, so collars don’t cling and I don’t like tight waists either. When it comes to fabric, it’s all about the touch and feel.” This explains the popularity of her feminine and tactile corduroy dresses which have a softened hourglass shape and delicately ruffled cuffs.

This year, Aspiga was shortlisted for the sustainability prize at the Drapers Independents Awards, a testament to the company’s eco-conscious production process. Indeed, 82 per cent of its collections are made from certified sustainable fabrics, while 94 per cent of its cotton is organic or responsibly sourced. The company aims to raise this last figure to 100 per cent by 2026, and you can bet Lucy won’t be satisfied until she achieves that final percentage point.

If Macnamara has one regret in her personal life, it’s that she wishes she had gotten married and had children but her “itchy feet” got in the way. She says the same inflexibility has served her well at Aspiga: “It’s funny because I’m a very chatty person outside of the office but at work, I just want the job done. I have to go back on emails to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ because to me … well, it’s not that I don’t care, it’s that it doesn’t seem relevant.”

The entrepreneur’s ADHD diagnosis came relatively late in life, as it has for many since awareness of the condition has improved in recent years. “People have said, ‘Why do you need a label at 56?’ but it’s not about that. My diagnosis has made me more understanding of all neurodiversity. It’s made me more tolerant and open-minded. The thing to remember is that you don’t just ‘catch’ ADHD. Some symptoms such as forgetfulness can cross over with menopausal symptoms, but the diagnosis is lengthy and it traces back to your childhood,” she explains.

“For so long, I just thought I was crazy ‘Lucy Mac’ and I hated myself. When I got the diagnosis, I was initially quite sad because people with ADHD are more likely to stay single or get divorced. Of course, there are other factors involved, but I was always worried about being bored. Now, I realise I’m not alone and knowing means I can educate and help myself.”

Does she now recognise some of her weak points as a boss? “It’s been a relief telling the team. ADHD doesn’t excuse my impatience sometimes, when I’m too straight talking, but at least the staff know and understand that part of me. What I’m bad at is SKUs [used to track stock inventory] and legal contracts. I signed things I probably shouldn’t have in the past, hastily, so now I have a better procedure in place.”

Stephanie Camilleri, a London-based ADHD coach and founder of the ADHD Advocate, says the name of the condition is itself problematic. “The words ‘attention deficit’ are misleading because we have attention in spades, which is the problem – we have too much going on. The word ‘disorder’ is contentious because ADHD is situationally variable, so if you are in a place in which you can’t use your strengths, that feels very limiting. On the other hand, if we can design our lives and environments around our ADHD strengths, we can thrive. We are essentially hot wired for authentic interest.”

Macnamara’s answer to this is to find lots of variety within her role, something confirmed by her colourful Instagram feed showing her in India and Kenya meeting Aspiga’s artisanal producers.

I want to know if she ever sits back to commend herself on achieving what she has thus far. “No, because I think we still have a long way to go, and until I’ve achieved my final goal, I can’t relax.” Maybe, I offer, the final goal should be just that, to be able to celebrate Aspiga as a success story that goes beyond fashion, raising awareness of neurodiversity. Unusually, she pauses for a second, looks at me straight in the eyes and says matter-of-factly: “You know what, I’d really love that.”