The NatWest Great British Entrepreneur awards are an extravagant affair that celebrates the hard work of the amazing entrepreneurs behind small and growing businesses.

Theresa and I (it's Faye here, Marketing Director at dandi London) attended the awards which were held at the impressive Bloomsbury Big Top. As we arrived at the venue, we had a remarkable entrance walkway uplit with blue and red lighting, lined with huge round helium balloons. Then, as we went around the corner the space opened out with a red draped roof and impressive hanging chandlers this was the drinks reception area. The main area was also beautifully decorated with fairy lights by the hundreds.

Theresa was wearing a red lace ¾ sleeved dress, of course paired with dandi patch to ensure she wouldn't be embarrassed by sweat marks even if the room heated up or pressure got high during her award category announcement.

Theresa was a finalist for the Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year category. We have achieved a lot as a business this year and have even expanded our brand to now include two anti-sweat products; the dandi patch and the dandi pad. With over 3,000 entries received Theresa was thrilled to be a finalist and we really feel this shows the potential that our products have. Unfortunately, we didn't win the category but we were against some very strong companies and we did receive some great comments from judges saying they were very impressed by dandi London and that they feel our business could go very far - so that was lovely to hear. We continued to enjoy our evening, meeting some inspiring people, eating a tasty 3-course meal under the twinkling lights of the big top and celebrating getting this far with a few glasses of bubbles.

Throughout the evening I received lots of compliments from different people about my outfit, many of whom asked me where I got it from. I told them the story about my dress as it was actually from a new start-up company. I said I'd write a blog and include some links to the company as I always like to help other entrepreneurs where possible so here it is...

My dress was from a company called The Dress Change. The basic concept is that The Dress Change is an online womenswear exchange platform; you can essentially 'swap' clothes with people without paying for them, you just need to have a site membership (they have free options by the way!). The Dress Change had their launch party a couple of weekends ago and dandi London was one of the sponsors for their event, so I was lucky enough to go along to it. I got to visit their pop-up shop to get an idea for how the concept works. This is how I came about getting my beautiful orange dress I wore to the gala. It was actually once the property of blogger Torera George (thank you girl!). Here are a few shots of me loving my new outfit.

Many people would shy away from both this type of material and colour due to the chance of it showing sweat marks, but as I am from dandi London I knew about our amazing underarm patches that prevent that from happening, so I had no worries. I felt super confident in the dress and would advise both dandi London’s anti-sweat products and The Dress Change to anyone.

I just want to finish off by saying a big thank you to YU Life for our ‘skip the hangover kit’ and to JD & Co for our unicorn tote bags and sweet treats inside! 

Congratulations to all of the finalists and winners, you have amazing businesses!