Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / How Fashion Designer Innika Choo turned her passion into a biz, the power of building communities and how she got her namesake brand stocked in retailers like Net-a-Porter

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How Fashion Designer Innika Choo turned her passion into a biz, the power of building communities and how she got her namesake brand stocked in retailers like Net-a-Porter · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Episode 4 with Inika Chu.
• 0:12
  Welcome to another episode of Female Startup Club. Today, I'm chatting to a dear friend of mine, Inika Chu. She's the founder and creator of her namesake brand, Inika Chu. She makes beautiful handmade and embroidered smocks. We talk through what it's like to turn a passion into a business, the power of building communities, and how she got her brand stocked all around the world with retailers like Net-a-Porter and Browns Fashion.
• 0:38
  And when you finish listening to this episode, make sure you check out her beautiful pieces on Instagram at Inika Chu. Okay, so I'm going to set the scene a little bit. We're sitting in a bedroom. We're in Byron. We haven't seen each other for how many years? Seven? Five? Ah. Hang on. No, it must be more like seven. It is seven. It'll be about seven years. Yeah. I think it was 2014. You were working for Iconic, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:07
  It was either 2013 or 2014. Amazing. Yay. It's such a crazy long time. It has gone. And to be like on a whim. When I saw you were in Australia, I was like, no way. Maybe she's going to come to Queensland. Yes. But this is so cool. I love it. Yeah. So to set the scene, we're having a wine on the floor. It's pretty great. I want to go back to the very beginning of Inukachu, the label. Mm-hmm.
• 1:35
  and why you started what you started, what was the decision to start the brand, what made you start the brand? So I don't know if the brand came first. I used to get,
• 1:50
  My mum, like all through my childhood, used to, I think like everyone's mum, they're really good at dressmaking and sewing. And mum used to go out to Paddy's Market in Brisbane and we'd get like the scraps of fabric and make up things. I remember mum spending hours sort of cutting, hand-making patterns of things that we'd found, these old vintage patterns. And that was kind of
• 2:11
  like every weekend and every weeknight, that was mum's hobby and my passion. I'd sort of say, I want this. And then she'd sort of find a way to whip it up. And then we started getting vintage pieces. So it'd be that sort of...
• 2:23
  oversized new moves and things that no one else wanted. And we would sort of cut them short and tweak them this way. And that was, yeah, loved all of that sort of stuff. And then churchy dances, of course, Brisbane girls, like you had to have a matching outfit. So we'd come in these little ridiculous ensembles. And so it's so funny to have pictures from that time. I think so. I'm floating around. Oh my God. Yes. A glittery girl.
• 2:51
  A true spirit girl. Oh, my goodness. And so, yeah, that's been what happened. And then, of course, I lived in London for a few years. And then.
• 3:00
  um got back from and collected vintage everywhere we went and got back you have an amazing wardrobe oh there's a lot in there yeah there's a lot in there it'd be trash to anyone but treasure to i think a handful of people yeah definitely treasure definitely um so then i ended up in dubai and um
• 3:22
  Anyway, kind of long story short, there's lots of amazing tailors in Dubai. So I used to continue. Obviously, mum wasn't around to help me sort of tweak things. So I used to go to these beautiful tailors.
• 3:32
  Um, and, um, down in Vertibye and around there and get things tweaked and get things made. And then when I met my husband, we moved to Singapore and the same thing, there's always access to these incredible, like little roadside tailors, little tiny things would be like $9 to do a hem or, you know, you get, if you got a good relationship, you'd get $5 to get a hem and you'd sort of hitch up this, um, maxi dress into something that was illegally short. And that's pretty much how I funded my wardrobe. Um, yeah.
• 3:58
  was yeah vintage pieces on eBay that I tweaked and then got to Bali and continued doing that and then there was one piece and this is about when Instagram kicked off and a couple of my friends who are like you know got right amazing businesses now like their Instagram was taking off then it was beautiful Zoe from
• 4:20
  Mr. Zimmy. Oh, I love that. Yeah, yeah. She's just an incredibly inspiring person and an amazing businesswoman. And she was just a friend. And then also Claire Jet Set. So they were both like very... And I think just the way the algorithm was around there, it just happened that people like casually found...
• 4:42
  like not many people, I didn't have that many followers, but I think just by being in the realm of those two, um, a few more people saw and, um, yeah, I wore some of the silly pieces that I'd made on Instagram. And from that, um, yeah, well, I think I sold 10 pieces without having a real business. And I've still, I've met some of the people since then, like I was one of the first people who bought one of your pieces and they're still like very proud of that. And there were,
• 5:08
  really quite like interesting customers like amazing people's a lady who owns um uh do you know the brand Danny Joe Danny Joe yeah it was one of the one of the no way one of the very first customers oh my gosh and I know amazing all the way over in New York and I feel like those people I find the same with kinks I have girls who have been with me like from the very beginning yeah
• 5:32
  They obviously now follow me personally as well. We chat all the time. Obviously, I've never met because I only do online. Yeah. It's amazing. They're so loyal. Yeah. And I just so love them. It's amazing. I'm like, you're the true kinks girl. Yeah, absolutely. And, yeah, just these...
• 5:50
  I don't know, law of attraction, these amazing relationships with people, they're kindred spirits, I guess, across the planet. And then another one, like, oh, I can go through a handful of this. One of ten, yeah, ten pieces, and then I made another ten.
• 6:06
  And then I think I did, this is like over the space of six months. And then I think I made another 10 pieces and started casually a website. And that's when you thought, oh, I could make this into a business versus like, I'm just doing this because I truly love it. I did love it. I didn't have a dollar to my name. So I, these people would.
• 6:26
  they paid on pre-order and then I went back to the factory and they waited six weeks and then they all received their beautiful pieces it was like very I didn't have any any money at all and I was a young mom I had two little babies and my husband was working full-time this was purely a passion project yeah um and it just happened yeah no and then so then we um yeah set up a
• 6:48
  our little Shopify website and we were like, what do we call it? So my first ever set, the label only said Inika. And then I was like, should it be Inika Choo? Should it be Inika? And then I went to register a domain and Inika.com had been taken.
• 7:02
  Funny story taken by my ex-boyfriend. What? I know. He paid for it. Creepy one. And I'd forgotten. And he'd been renewing it all those years. And I couldn't get in touch with him. He was an old boyfriend from Germany from years and years and years ago. So that's a funny story. I was like, damn it.
• 7:19
  Don't ever let someone else pay for your domain name. Yeah. You also like, can I have that? Yeah. Cause I had it back and he reckons he didn't have it. Anyway. So I reached out to his back. Long story. Anyway. So then it became Mini Kitchu cause that domain wasn't taken. It's a great name. Yeah. Love it. So then I fell pregnant with Dante, my third little bub. So, and it was all very casual. And I think I created another, I sampled another collection and then pregnancy, you know,
• 7:48
  it's pretty hard, hardcore, especially having two other little bubs. So I didn't like take it that seriously. And then had Dante.
• 7:57
  was just sort of coping with life. And then I got an invitation, still sampling, still getting together a collection, knowing that I would pick it up when I could, you know, string a sentence together because you really lose your mind. Oh, I personally, like, you know, it takes a little while for me to bounce back to reality in childbirth and then early, you know, having kids. Anyway, and then we got a call from a lady who runs a trade show in Miami, and she had been having dinner with...
• 8:26
  one of the buyers from, actually from Harvey Nichols, and just by chance had been having to know, have you seen this brand? And she was like, oh my God, I know I love this brand. And she called me up and told me this whole story. And she said, so I want you to come.
• 8:42
  out to Miami. And we were like, oh God. And Dante was six months old, I think, at this stage. And so we had, it was a week and a half before and- Oh my gosh. Yeah. So Pan and I hadn't even planned on having, let alone a wholesale business or even running. Like I knew I wanted to keep making these beautiful dresses, but yeah.
• 9:01
  Yeah, so we were like, oh, how are we going to even charge wholesale? We don't even have priceless. We don't even have lookbooks. We don't even have anything. So we had to then work backwards from there and call. In a week and a half. We didn't even know what the markup was for a wholesale, like if it's 2.3, 2.4. We didn't know any of these sort of markups or anything. So we literally got on the plane and said, well, let's just hope we can at least cover the cost of our flights.
• 9:27
  Yeah. And so left the kids, all three of them. This was the first time. And, yeah, went to Miami into this trade show and just happened. I don't know what the stars might have been aligned that year. I'm not sure. But we had this beautiful stand and it was next to, across from Mara Hoffman and next to...
• 9:49
  who else are we next to flagpole there's gorgeous uh swimwear brands they're up and coming very budding beautiful girls and next to linda farrow the designer yeah and just down from um and so all of that was just by chance you were kind of dotted in around these other amazing designers yeah i have a feeling that the booth had a had you know one of the
• 10:12
  a booth had become free or someone couldn't make it and they were just trying to fill that space and they needed some something fresh and new and we just got lucky and was it expensive to do the actual trade show yes so it's a it's a big upfront kind of cost yeah yeah we yeah we did sort of um negotiate a little bit to saying look we hadn't planned on um doing wholesales but um yeah it was sort of a big investment to get there and we're like let's just hope that we can cover you know our investment to get there and um
• 10:40
  It just happened that, yeah, the buyers from, all the buyers happened to walk past because they had to walk past. So, yeah, I think if you're going to invest in going to a trade show, I think asking where your booth is going to be is really important. And putting yourself with not competitive brands, but brands that you would want to sit next to in a retail space or online if you're going to be.
• 11:04
  positioned next to these beautiful brands, try and put yourself so that visually or that your, your buyer is going to be merchandising you already as they were doing. You get positioned. Yeah. Yeah. Do other in those stores, are the designers also in those stores or is it staff at the trade show? Sorry. Yeah. Um, is it the designer that's like kind of they're selling the brand to the buyers? Like were you the only.
• 11:29
  brand owner who was there doing that? It's not as common to see them, but they do pop in. So that year I did actually meet Mara. She came and introduced herself and came over. Because I feel like for you, a strength is you, right? Like you sparkle, you're someone who has like a lot of vibrant energy, you radiate warmth and you're just so lovely. So I also imagine
• 11:51
  That's something that's so important for you to be in the store and be selling your own brand, whereas maybe other brands don't have that person who's truly like, this is my brand. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's an interesting thing putting your name on something. Yeah.
• 12:06
  I truly mean it. Like I really want to look someone in the eye and talk to them about why we've got this piece and how it feels when you wear it. And I want to see their expression when they try it on and see them sort of start to sway or dance because they've put it on and they feel beautiful, especially. That's actually why I do this. That's the joy. That's actually what I get out of it. And that would be why as well you can just resonate like so easily or you can stand out so easily in those situations, I imagine.
• 12:35
  Because buyers would see you and meet you and be like, whoa, like I get it. Like I get the brand. I get what she's doing. I get it all. It all makes sense kind of thing. I'm terribly awkward in these situations, but, um, but for some reason, um,
• 12:50
  Yeah, they've been very, very, very kind to me. And we've been, yeah, the relationships we do have with the buyers are great. They're really cool. And I'm terrible on email. I always reply way too late if not remembering to reply at all. Thank God, Pern is a little bit more organized than I am on email. I'm notoriously bad.
• 13:07
  But yeah, somehow, yeah, it's better to get me on WhatsApp, I think. So I think some of the suppliers have got this little relationship where I'll be like, oh, sorry. And yeah, but no, it's good. It is really lovely to be able to do that. And then also for our customers to be able to do that as well. Like if you're selling a product then through another store, which I'm not selling it directly, for them to be able to continue that conversation that we've somehow started, whether
• 13:35
  it's through photos or through Instagram chat or through DM or,
• 13:39
  yeah, somehow to be able to, for that customers to still buy it on a larger retailer or in a store, like in Selfridges or in Browns or to go into, you know, matches or, and then to still feel like they're worth continuing that conversation with me. With you, yeah. Yeah, that's, yeah, an interesting thing, but really important. It's really important. Really important. And then if they start to wear it and then someone sort of stops them in the street and says, oh, I love your dress. And they're like, oh, and then they...
• 14:07
  And your clothes have that wow factor. I imagine like girls would stop girls that they see in the street to be like, what are you wearing? We get people writing to us. That's probably the most common thing that our customer service receives is emails. Like I've worn this dress and I think probably five or 10 people have stopped to compliment me today.
• 14:25
  how women feel when they wear the dress. I'm not a technical designer. I've never learned how to do this stuff. I've learned by looking at vintage pieces. So I've learned by, you know, taking a vintage piece and then looking at the seams and all the old techniques, like they didn't have overlocking machines. So I don't use any overlocking actually. All the factories will be like, no, no, it'll be faster to this. But I don't want that because when you do a French seam, there's like
• 14:51
  just that added little bit of detail that takes that little bit longer time. It's just that little bit extra weight in the garment and you feel it, whether you are technical or not, whether you know how a garment's created, but there's something when you put it on, it just feels like that little bit of extra care went into it. And then you cherish it and you want to wear it for longer.
• 15:09
  people notice it and, um, yeah. And that's how you feel. Ultimately it's how you feel. So that's the, um, that's the buzz. That's what I feel. That's a special source that you give everyone. Yes, definitely. That's amazing. And so just to rewind a little bit, when you were at the trade show, that trade show, what happened? Like what happened when you walked away from that trade show? You had people being like, yep, let's place an order or like, how did it work?
• 15:35
  Yeah, so we weren't really sure what to do. I'd gone on Keynote and no numbers. I didn't even have Excel. I didn't know how to use Excel. I didn't even have a university degree. So I was on numbers, on Apple Numbers, and I'd sort of typed up some sort of, like, you know, lookbook and line sheet and order form and just...
• 15:59
  this particular trade show, Cabana, um, you don't, like, it's actually not allowed to bring in extra props or anything. You have these beautiful clean racks and they kind of make it look like a retail store, which is to our advantage because of course we didn't have the budget to be investing in this beautiful fit out. And personally, I find them quite wasteful anyway, because it's just, you know, quite a short time use, but, um, yeah,
• 16:21
  So, yeah, we had this, we rented the coat hangers and I'd gone and bought some beautiful big green, went out to the wholesale flower market, bought this huge flower arrangement and put it on this tiny little desk and we just sort of waited. And I remember one of the buyers from one of the huge retailers who was,
• 16:45
  particularly stalked you know everybody wants to be in this store everybody wants to be in this retail store so right um she has to walk around with a baseball cap on you know that people look oh people know who she is absolutely and it's like the whispers on the street oh she's here and you're kind of like i don't know no we didn't know but we did have this massive floral arrangement
• 17:06
  I honestly believe she had sort of stumbled over to hide behind these flowers. Oh, wow. And then I was like, are you hiding behind my flowers? You know, when I was being a little bit cheeky, I think I would actually have had a bit of a rosé at that point because it was in the early afternoon and they had come around with these, you know, these treasures are beautiful these days. They have tricks.
• 17:24
  Anyway, so I'd had a little cheeky rosé and then we just started chatting. And then she goes, and by the way, who are you? And I was like, oh, Inika. And she's like, talk me through your collection. And I'm terribly awkward, but I talked from the heart and told her about what the pieces were and made her a little giggle. And then, yeah, we got an email a few weeks later and...
• 17:44
  That was a massive shock, but that was one of the retailers. And then I guess... That's so amazing. Yeah, very exciting. And you don't know who the buyers are at the same time, and sometimes you'll have sort of two or three buyers in your stand at one time, and, of course, you have to give everyone the same amount of attention and to show you and very patiently sort of just explain each piece, and you want to give all of that beautiful story, but it's three people there at the same time. And it turns out we had, you know, three...
• 18:14
  Usually the major stores, if they all know who each other are, if they see another person in the stand at the same time, they'll wait and they'll come back. But it just happened there was a few. So, yeah, it's just an interesting thing having to, yeah, learn. And for someone like this, as someone now, you've been through a few different trade shows. Yes. And speaking to someone like me who's never done one at all, would you recommend as that is like a key thing to do if you're going to go down that journey? Yes.
• 18:40
  If you think a wholesale model is going to be beneficial for your business, absolutely. I think chochos are, they're so social. You meet the same or if not similar people, always similar brands and you see the same faces and everyone's lovely. Like I know you hear awful stories about the fashion industry, but my experience, people are lovely. They're genuinely kind people. The New Yorkers are amazing. And actually all the Americans, yeah, they're just so high.
• 19:08
  and they genuinely got so much to talk about. I'm really happy to see you and always asking about the kids. But I guess that's Instagram as well, isn't it? So just kind of remaining true to who you are and then, you know, that conversation that I was talking about before that I feel like Instagram has sort of been this almost that I've got a greeting. Like there's always this hello, how are you? You've really got this, like.
• 19:31
  I lead into a conversation without realizing it. Or you've been like pen pals online and then you meet in real life. I forget that we actually don't know each other. Exactly. I get that all the time. I know. I have like a relationship online with someone that's like some cool brand or some cool girl. Yes. And then we meet in real life and I'm like, oh my gosh, I just actually forgot that we haven't met before. Yeah. But that familiarity is true. It's real. It's just because it's online. It doesn't mean it's not sincere. Like we truly, there's a reason why you gave.
• 20:00
  your time to them even when they're online anyways, because you're interested, you're, you know, you've got a kindred spirit that some sort of, so it's a, it's a wonderful thing. We're able to like connect and,
• 20:11
  attract even more people than we would have if we had stayed in our town and not been online. You know, it's incredible. It's really amazing. And so I want to, that's a nice lead into the next part that I sort of want to talk about, which is your focus on community and the pop-ups that you're doing all around the world and how that came about and how it's kind of like evolved into what it is now, because you just had a pop-up this weekend with the beach people in Byron Bay and, um,
• 20:38
  I see that you've done a few of these now. So I want to hear more about that. Yeah. So I guess like fast forward from what we're talking about before with online, you know, we then started, you know, our brand was on the Porter and then on matches and then brands and suffocates and all these beautiful stores. And so, and then our e-com as well, was certainly getting more traction. We started to be exposed to more people and then,
• 21:06
  It was purely online. So as we were going with the business, the communication we had with people was all by email or by DM or by, you know, instant messages on Instagram. And so the way our product, like our product is so beautiful and voluminous and, you know, the quality of it, but sometimes I wasn't taking very good photographs of it or not able to
• 21:31
  shoot it in the right way so I wanted people to see it in real life because a big, more common feedback that I was getting was
• 21:39
  it's so pretty in real life. It looks even more beautiful in real life or the quality of it, you know, these sorts of things. So I was like, okay, I have to get this. People need to see it. Yeah, absolutely. And so I can't remember how we got invited to Singapore, but Singapore was like interested in the data. It was, you know, really, really, well, I lived in Singapore, so I had a great, really very loyal friends who were supporting the brand and
• 22:08
  and then their friends, and so we were like, let's go to Singapore. And another friend who had a homeware store had said, oh, I've got a space, you should come. So a week before, we were like, let's go. We didn't really plan it. I barely posted it online. I think I did an Instagram post and then did a couple of stories. And then another...
• 22:30
  um, like, what's it called? Grace Tales. The Grace Tales had reached out and said, oh, you should do an Instagram takeover. It's, um, Grace Tales is like a beautiful, um, it's founded by an ex-vogue editor, Georgie Abe, and she, uh, founded, like, these stories on motherhood and early motherhood, and she has a really loyal following, and, um, yeah, so she, um,
• 22:52
  asked to do Instagram takeover. So I did that. Wow. Cool. Yeah. Just lovely little opportunity. Um, I don't think I did it very well, mind you, but I'm sure everything, all of your content is so, Oh my God. No, the opposite. I love your content. I love like your words, the way that you take pictures is all of it. I'm just obsessed. No,
• 23:18
  I was very awkward and a bit forgetful but anyhow so we we did this wonderful pop-up and just the rush of being able to finally like meet our customers and see people who had heard about the brand or had seen a friend or a friend had said oh you should pop by and um and then when they were like oh no I can't wear that and I was like please just try it on and people were putting these things on and like I never thought I would like love to wear this dress but I love it and I
• 23:47
  We still get these comments, I'm still wearing a beautiful dress and people sending photos in of, I wore your dress today and got these beautiful compliments. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, I love it so much. It's not something that you wear or you invest in and you wear it once. It truly is something that tears on. It's still that beautiful piece. And I'm like, oh, I missed that piece. I should, you know, think about doing something similar again because, of course, once we sell this beautiful piece, that's it. That's it. And we don't do huge quantities of every run or every style, every colourway, so we try and keep it.
• 24:17
  you know um so it's been yeah really really lovely to be able that was just such a buzz for not just for me but for um my beautiful staff as well who um are also purely online with the relationship with our customer service and um how big is your team by the way oh we're um contractors um mostly and it's one two three four
• 24:43
  There's about seven of us now. So, yeah. Nice little family. Yeah, absolutely. Extended family. Yeah. And then a few additional. Are they all in Bali or they're around the world? Around the world. Around the world. Yeah, yeah. And so it's been really lovely, just with different time zones and being able to look after our customers who are also all around the world. Yeah, it's been great. But that's the ability of working online, isn't it, that we can all.
• 25:06
  You know, just meet great people. Yeah. I have an amazing girl who does not woman. I always say girl, but I mean woman. Yeah. Who does my graphic design. And I have...
• 25:18
  just so many like, I don't know, experiences where you find these people and you're like, gosh, I want to work with you somehow because I can see how talented you are and I want to make it work in my business somehow. And because I travel a lot, I can't have obviously someone that works in an office because that's also not the lifestyle that I'm trying to make. I'm all about remote workers. And it's just incredible the talent that you find out there that you wouldn't see if you were trying to hire someone to be with you every day. Yeah.
• 25:48
  Absolutely. And the other thing is like, I don't, I'm not from a corporate background. I don't, I've never really worked in any sort of like corporate structure before. So I didn't really even know what it looks like, what it looks like, or even what the roles are called. Like if I hired someone, I'm like, Oh, what would I do an into like an advertisement for? What would I call that role? It's like, what is a manager? What is it? Yeah. What does that even mean? Yeah. Yeah. Basically we're all professional emailers. Let's be honest.
• 26:15
  That is absolutely... Oh, my God, 100%. That's all we do for a living. We all professionally email. I remember when I worked... I'm not very good at that, mind you. I'm terrible at emailing, so... When I worked at The Iconic, on my business card, I had professional Facebooker. Did you? Yeah. That's cool. It was like professional Facebooker or like...
• 26:35
  Something exactly like that kind of thing. So funny. Yeah, it is. To break it down, like what you do most in any industry in a day. It's communicating. It's communicating. Yeah. It's communicating. Once you connect with people and whether it's a customer or a retailer or your factory that's producing things for you, it's literally just connection, connection, connection and community. And that's it. Yes. When you really break it down. Yeah.
• 27:03
  Absolutely. And it takes a while to even figure out the different, not languages, but when yes means no and,
• 27:13
  Today means tomorrow and five minutes means like two weeks and all of that sort of stuff as well. Like understanding the true communication, the layers of communication. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. It takes a while. And so to go back to the pop-up, so you had the pop-up in Singapore and now you've had them literally like all around the world. You had one recently in Bali. We did. You had one, you've had them now while you've been in Australia. I've seen multiple going on. Yeah.
• 27:41
  And is that part of your strategy moving forward to continue? You know what it reminds me of? Tangent. And it's like a totally different brand. All I do is Tangent. Sorry. Keep up. Where are we now? Yeah, great. Totally Tangent. Brands like Supreme, like back in the day, you know, they'd have like meetups and pop-ups and like kind of that it creates a cult following really because you get to like do these things
• 28:06
  Maybe Supreme didn't have pop-ups, but, like, you know how they have, like, limited release things where they plan, like, an event around that and all these people would come out of nowhere. Yeah. And I feel like your brand is also doing this kind of thing where you're allowing people to be – you're bringing people into your world. Into the fold, yeah. Into it. Yeah. They get to, like, experience it the way that you want them to experience it. And then this creates this, like –
• 28:29
  loyal cult following where people are like yeah i'm part of this community yeah that you've created yeah well we've become friends i feel like you know every time i'm like stay in touch send me photos when you're wearing it because i truly want to see you know and everyone's got a they're like i've got this event next week that i actually have been you know looking for the perfect dress for i'm like i can't wait to see you yeah i can't wait to see you all dressed up yeah or i actually
• 28:54
  every day when I drop the kids off to school and I just love that I throw it on, but I feel a little bit more dressed up, you know, and that's awesome. You know, or this is my dress that I just throw on when I get home and I just love to walk around. You know, these are the, I don't know, I just love hearing, or yeah, exactly purpose, like built, that's what they were made for. That's what I envision how I would wear them when I'm sort of,
• 29:16
  got this sample or I've got this cut and I'm sort of trying it on in the mirror and looking going, how am I going to wear this? What would I feel? Like, what's going to be no fuss? What would I, you know, throw in and not have to think about again and then, you know, feel great for the rest of the day or, you know, that's gone tangent. I keep just...
• 29:32
  I love it though. I love it. I love it. I'm like, you can see the way that if the audience can see the way that I'm looking at it, it's like loving, doting, like child leaning back here. Oh my gosh. No, I love it. I totally love it. Too, too buzzy to, yeah.
• 29:52
  Anyway, all good. Yeah, so it's fun. It's really fun. What did you ask me? I've forgotten. About the pop-ups and, like, you moving forward and you're creating these pop-ups and this being a part of your strategy, I guess, in building the brand. It fills my cup to me. It really is amazing to be able to meet our customers in person and to see and actually to get the feedback firsthand as well.
• 30:16
  that's actually how our collections have grown. We actually started with just that one smock shape and I did it in various colorways. And then I sort of gradually got feedback, you know, from people writing in and sort of saying, hey, I wore this, but I'd love it if it was just a little bit longer or, you know what, the sleeve is just, you know, that the ties of the sleeve sometimes get caught in my nappy when I'm changing nappies or, you know,
• 30:39
  You know, this is lovely, little bits of information. That's amazing. And that's actually how the collection has changed and grown. And that's why I'm like, okay, cool. I'm going to do that with just like two more centimetres length so people can feel just that little bit more comfortable. Or I'm going to make the belt just a little bit longer because it just means that I can, you know. That's so cool that people take the time to let you know. I love it. I actually encourage it. I love it. And so even with our customer service now, we've got a thing if you –
• 31:07
  it's like three times a trend if you hear or get a common topic more than three times it's something that we need to bring up and we need to talk about so and so do they flag it with you like on whatsapp or something or is there like a process where you're like here put these things that you hear yeah um like to the side and then you review them or something yeah my customers write to me on um whatsapp for sure we're very very big whatsapps however we're meant to try slack soon that's meant to be a really good one
• 31:32
  um but we also have a weekly meeting and everyone sort of talks about the department it took us a long time to we talked about having this weekly meeting but um yeah we've all really really cherished actually doing it and um getting it because even though we're all in different departments even though I'm sort of across the board of everything but um it's amazing how much
• 31:55
  everyone is integral in every single person's piece of, that's where our accounting team just understand about, you know, I don't know, I'm going to give you an example, but our customer service basically needs to know every single aspect of it. Like if production is going to be running late and our customer service have been receiving emails about a piece that I wore three months ago at a trade show and they like went and they caught it out of the corner of the photograph and they're like that pink top, I'm desperate for it, when is it coming out? So we need to be really...
• 32:24
  being on communications, okay, there's a delay with this pink top that's coming in and they're trying to be like, oh, I've received three emails about my pink top. So she'll then be able to go back into those customers and say, hey, I've just got word that it's not coming soon or, hey, guess what, it's coming out and you're going to be the first to know. Oh, my gosh, that's such a nice personal touch to, like, fully get back in touch and be like, this is what's what. Absolutely. No, our inbox is full of, like, relationships. It's all community. It's all relationships. And, yeah, I wouldn't have it any other way.
• 32:54
  It's really important. I think that, I don't know, it makes it worthwhile. It means something, you know. Yeah. It's true, and you feel fulfilled, and you actually... Absolutely. Yeah, because this is an investment piece as well. Yeah. It's not... It's, you know, a lot of work has gone into making every single garment, and then once you've saved up, you know, it's a lot to invest in having a beautiful piece and then to hold on to it. And I think it's really important that...
• 33:23
  I don't know. It's really important. It's a big piece of it. That's so nice. And I imagine all of your customers, that's, again, like what reinforces there. But you know why it's nice? Is because it's not like a, it's not like you were trying to do that as a marketing thing. You're just doing it because that's just you. Yeah. And it's all just a true, organic, like authentic thing that makes sense to you. And because you haven't tried to do it like that. Do you know what I mean? Absolutely. That's...
• 33:53
  stem from my non
• 33:55
  corporate structure or my normal, like I haven't learned anything about marketing. I haven't learned anything. I've actually come in at the other way. Like as a person who also is a shopper, I love to buy things online. I love to invest in pieces. I also have a family. I also, you know, know what it's like to, you know, so I, I am very much my own customer and I understand. So when you're doing like the marketing side of things, is it you doing marketing or is it Pern or you have someone else that does the marketing? We have, um.
• 34:25
  like someone who has been giving us like a little bit of insight into what the dialogue is and when is it Labor Day because we don't know what's happening in America we don't know that sort of stuff is the U.S. your biggest market it is yeah New York is our biggest customer it's um and um so I guess uh she's been giving us a really great insight into what the language is that actually industry-based this is going to be like a packing
• 34:51
  email, but most people, and you notice that like all of the big brands, all of a sudden you get all this like pre-packing holiday emails, like there's a general theme and then there's like the, all the holiday festive things, there's always like a bit of a dialogue that's quite consistent. So we've had that commercial calendar sort of put into our, um, um, um, um, um, um,
• 35:12
  But then also it's instinct. And then I'll have, and this is the stuff that I can't plan in advance. It doesn't really work for me if we do plan it too rigidly on our, like, commercial, our calendar is, is like, you know what, I know that this dress is beautiful. I know that women would love to wear this dress. I know how I feel in this dress. So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
• 35:33
  and it's not selling. So I've got to find a way to show my customers. They'll talk about this beautiful piece. So that's sort of very of the whim. And so I'll take a photo or, you know, I'll come up with some way to write a little email. And it's still very basic because it's my limited knowledge or time to be able to put into it. But, yeah, or it's even with Sharni saying, hey, Sharni, you should, or to our customer service, we've actually got two girls now, Lauren and Sharni,
• 36:00
  think, hey, this piece is so beautiful, you should let them know about this beautiful piece. Yeah, push this more. Put it out there so people know it exists. Yeah, so beautiful. So that's...
• 36:15
  Yeah, that's how marketing right now could be planned a little better probably. Oh, my gosh. But I don't want to send too many people too many emails either. Yeah. I don't send any emails at the moment. I need to get back onto my email game. Because I find like I started the brand with that really kind of intention of like, I'm never going to send an email. But then I was like, okay, no. To run a business, I do need to send emails. And I do need to do those kinds of things. But I still tinker in the middle of like...
• 36:42
  trying not to be overbearing, but then also trying to make money. Yeah. And it's a tough like line. I think especially when you're like super creative and you maybe are like a little bit like I'm trying to be better at the business side of things. Yes. And I'm someone that's trying to build a brand based on exactly what I love, exactly what I would want to wear. That's the stuff that I make. And I'm like, if other people love it, amazing. Cool. Versus like, yeah.
• 37:06
  this big grand plan. Yeah. And it's a bit of a struggle. Yes. Yeah, it is. It doesn't feel, when it becomes like this very...
• 37:16
  regimented marketing structure it sort of takes the the true flight and the you know yeah yeah um but um there's also i think so many things on instagram right now there's some people like always constantly got new things to talk about new people are able to decide what they do and don't read i think if you don't don't
• 37:39
  um, that flood their inbox with like anything that's obnoxious. I think it's perfectly fine to send your emails though. And your subject lines and stuff. Oh yeah. Subject lines. Oh yeah. Such a good copywriter. Oh God. And it's, I, but I totally know that it's just also like the things that you write and your Instagram and stuff. I just love the way that you communicate. I'm always like, I subscribe to this. It's great.
• 38:03
  We always have like a subject line and a second subject line planned, you know, in advance, maybe a week before we'll probably do a talk about this. And without a doubt.
• 38:15
  Every time I send out the email, I've got it set up in Klaviyo, and just before I'm going to hit send, I'm like, nah, I don't like that, and I'll change it. Or I'll redo all the content right before pressing send until it's meant to go at 6 o'clock and I'll end up going out at 8 or 9 because I've sort of gone and redone it all. But, yeah, the planning thing, probably because I'm Aquarius, I'm not sure, but I get quite...
• 38:34
  Yeah, I can't plan too much. It doesn't work for me. You've got to just be, like, back to feeling it. I feel like I'm quite similar like that. Like, I feel like I'm just literally, I'm always, like, you know, my friend Sylvia, who you met at one of the trade shows. Yes, love her. She is just amazing because she's so organized. And she is, like. That's her piece, though. That's her thing. And I'm always just, like, I need someone like you in my life. Yeah.
• 38:57
  Who is this person that's structured and organized because I don't have that. Yeah. I just don't have that bone in my body. No. I try though. Yeah. It's hard as a leader being like that though and having other people who like. Who need structure. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
• 39:14
  Yeah, so because I know it's my piece to sort of really ride on instinct and to trust how I feel about something and how I feel about everything all at once and to really sort of float with that and to put a whole lot of energy into something because even though it wasn't on the top of the to-do list, all of a sudden it feels very urgent to get this done. I do go like that. But when I have other people who I've already the day before said, hey, this is really important, this is really important, this is really important, and they've gone off to work on all those things,
• 39:43
  And then I come in with this grand idea the next day, right, scrap that, we're doing this today. It's easy for me to do that. But for other people, I'm having to learn that that's a really stressful thing for someone who has got a list and they like to tick off that list and they've planned in their head exactly how they're going to do it. They're probably going to sleep that night, right in the morning, I'll get this done, this done, this is going to be done like this, I'll be out of hand today by this time.
• 40:04
  And I'm like, no, we're not doing that today. This is important. This is a new thing. Be excited about this. And everyone else is like, you're giving me anxiety. Precisely. Exactly. And because I'm a person who is big on feelings, that I absorb everything around that.
• 40:22
  it's painful for me to see me stressing other people out as well. So I've got to really work out, okay, this is really important for me, but I did already ask him to do three other things the day before that are totally different to this. So I better just chill. I'm going to bite my tongue and I'm going to wait until they're finished. Unless it's really important. Then we're all going on the two trains. Oh, the two train. I love that. That's so fun. Again, I love it. I love it. I love it. Um, but yeah, I guess, um, we've probably attracted, um,
• 40:50
  you know, the kind of person who is excited by the ride as well anyway. It's not like I started out being a really organized person when I hired them and then I've become unorganized. It's like I've been off the charts since the minute they met me, so it's just like learning to cope. But there's a lot of joy in the job. There's a lot of, like, when we get these emails from customers or even from the buyers from the wholesale side, when we get these really positive response from people, everybody feels it. So, yeah.
• 41:18
  Yeah, I feel like even for my friends who are really organized in business and have that completely opposite approach to me, they're still dealing with the same sort of like what problems are going to go, what fire they're going to put out each day and how they're going to do it and how they're going to approach. So it's just, yeah, it's just how we all cope. It's finding your peace and working through it, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.
• 41:40
  And also finding out your employees' piece as well, like what really makes each person thrive. How do they thrive, yeah. What do they need to be able to succeed in the business and keep, like, moving forward with it. Yeah, and go home feeling good about their job as opposed to, I didn't get that done today, I feel. Yeah, and dreading Mondays. Yeah.
• 41:58
  That's the worst if you have like someone who's being like, oh, I'm not in it. Yeah. Awful. And I want to talk a little bit about like the struggles of building a fashion brand, because from obviously the outside perspective, you are building this amazing thing. You've got an amazing community. It looks cool. It's everywhere. But as we were talking about before, there are things that are hard about scaling a business to the size that you are. You're coming up.
• 42:24
  three years and it's starting to grow like exponentially you're starting to reach a point where there are other troubles um that you might not have thought about in the beginning yeah and i thought maybe we could talk a little bit about that and what that's been like for you scaling the brand yeah these problems uh have come you know with every success you don't realize what what comes with all of that success and no one had sort of said hey by the way
• 42:50
  It's going to be really hard when you get a whole lot of orders because you're actually going to have to pay for them. You know, you don't know that that's coming. So you go to these trade shows and you think, yeah, really, you know, you ultimately want to please more people and to have more people fall in love with this stuff and know that they'll sell that to their customers. That's the goal. And then when that happens and then you get this order and you think, oh, my goodness, without having any investors, without having any factoring or having any financial external basically –
• 43:18
  And our e-com is funding our whole wholesale business as well. So, yeah, it's an interesting thing because you are in fashion, you're...
• 43:30
  like you pay for your deposit to your factory when you, when you get your order from a wholesale from, from the trade show. And then you also place your own econ business orders at the same time. And then it takes sort of three months to produce most of the collections. And then most of the retailers actually pay 30 or 60 days after you've delivered. So that if it's on time, yeah, if it's on time, that's so true. And then you get penalties. If they're not on time as well, they'll charge you. So you'll,
• 43:59
  that's, you know, six to nine months, sometimes up to a year of production that you are paying for up front. So, and that's not just one collection at a time because you've got,
• 44:09
  autumn winter you've got resort you've got spring summer you've got high summer you've got all four collections um at the same time um whether they're sampling they're in production they're delivering or they're um you know just being in the middle of sale period like that's all our four collections all year round always like um so it's a lot of planning in advance
• 44:30
  Yes. And especially like for a non-organized person. Yeah. Like when I think about that stuff, I'm like, I just don't know how I would do that in advance. Yeah. You know, I can feel I'm obviously really early on in my journey. Yeah. But to me, I'm like, holy shit, that's like a lot. A lot. Yeah. Yeah. So that's when we got a Gantt chart and realized, okay.
• 44:52
  So if it takes us, we literally had to count it back and go, well, we know our production takes a good three months production and I know I need a good...
• 45:00
  sort of 10 to 12 weeks sampling to nail that sampling and to get the products perfect. So I've got to be like six months out from everything. Then you go and work out every trade show when, when you're going to be selling it and when all the buyers are likely to be investing into that next collection. And then you have to count back from that, six months to nine months before. That's crazy. Yeah, it is. I think I also read something about Samantha Wills, her brand when she was running
• 45:27
  running and she did 10 collections a year. And so imagine that cycle. She was just always like totally foreseeing like six months down the track law law. And I'm like, wow, that you just must have to have such a great support network to be able to keep that up kind of thing. Every time we hire anyone new explaining what we're working on, it takes, I think one whole,
• 45:52
  collection one whole season to get everyone to get like when we're talking about spring summer high summer which we met autumn winter because you you're talking about all four collection and then previous old collections all at the same time all it's literally thinking literally like a gantt chart like oh wow yeah all the time it does it takes a long time i would love to see your gantt chart yeah it's complex i would love to see it can't go on with the up the other and then that and so it all gets pushed out so it's like a lot yeah like a lot a lot yeah
• 46:20
  Yeah, gosh. And so then you have to have the capital to be able to get the new collection produced, to be able to give to the brand. Yes. And we'll be able to negotiate good sort of contracts. So maybe you could negotiate to pay a 30% deposit on ordering the goods and then hopefully you could do –
• 46:39
  you know, another 30% towards the end of the production. Then hopefully if you've got a really, if you've maybe done one or two seasons with your production or your factory, then maybe they would let you pay the remaining after. And that does help a little bit. It might not be when you get your full payment from most of your retailers because remember they pay...
• 46:59
  net 30 after the delivery or net 60 but at least it's not having to do that whole 100% up before delivery yeah but it takes a couple of seasons and basically to build a trust good exactly that trust on both sides as well you know because it's not just like the factory
• 47:14
  they have to pay all of their staff every week. They have to pay every sewer. They have to pay all their electricity. They have to pay all of their, you know, whatever the maintenance is. They're running a business too. So they need to pay workers basically. How did you find your factory? Oh, gosh. Because this is also a tough thing. Like I've been through such a journey. I started producing in China. Then I shipped it to, I'm sorry, moved it to Bali in Indonesia.
• 47:39
  And now I'm in Bangkok in Thailand and it's been such a journey. It's been definitely my biggest struggle. Yeah. Full stop without a doubt. Yeah. And it's just takes such a long time to get that foundation. Right. And I think I tried to rush the whole thing. Yeah. And then that kept actually putting me like 10 steps behind every time. But it's not at all uncommon to do that at all. I feel like everyone has a bit of a journey. It takes you a long time to find the right people that you want to work with. And then
• 48:04
  Of course, it takes a lot of work to really maintain that relationship and keep on making it good for both parties as well. Yeah. So I – it's all through word of mouth. When I first did that sampling, that was – because I remember I was doing a little – I don't remember, but I was doing a little bit of styling in Bali. Oh, yeah, I remember. And one of the brands that I had done some styling for –
• 48:24
  I had met one of the ladies who did their production because she delivered some samples on the photo shoot, and then I met her for coffee and said, oh, can you make this little piece for me? And then that was how that started. But for me to make one piece with this lady...
• 48:39
  and her team were beautiful and they made this exquisite first-hand samples that I made, all of a sudden pieces. They were beautiful. But then when I went to make the next 10 and the next 20, their quality had changed dramatically in Bali. So Bali, I love for so many things. It's just the most incredible place and that's why we love living there.
• 49:00
  but when it comes to having a business in bali it's quite contradictive all the things you love about living there the people and the like the approach and that and the carefree sort of way of thinking not carefree actually very considerate and very um spiritual way of thinking is um completely polar to like having to be on time and work is the most important thing and about quality and all that because it's all about um people and the job isn't
• 49:27
  I don't know. It was, yeah, totally different thing. I totally get it. Yeah. It was a harder thing for my product. Obviously, a lot of people make beautiful production in Bali, and I still do a little bit of production there, particularly the screen printing. I love all the hand screen that comes out that we do there, and we've got a good...
• 49:46
  producer there now um but yeah so we moved on i met um a friend um actually i went to the rugby sevens and met a friend there who had another friend in vietnam and she's like oh you should go out to vietnam and so i did and then started producing there and then the quality was just incredible i've heard that from a few brands actually yeah vietnam is incredible this is
• 50:08
  beautiful and then just this dedication and passion for each piece that actually they're so proud of the work that they do and um uh yeah no incredible it's not by no means easy uh working like in any country again learning the language of the land like what i was saying before about you know yes means no and there's yeah you know timelines are completely you've really got to try and
• 50:33
  ears to the ground trying to figure out exactly what things actually mean and it takes a long time to really truly understand and get a honest dialogue honest but a true dialogue going yeah um but um how long have you been with the current factory for uh we've done it'll be oh this is our fourth season with this with this factory yeah so now you've really kind of figured out all of that language and you you fully get it yeah and they fully get it yeah yeah you're on the same page
• 51:00
  Yeah, it is amazing and they're really great for sampling as well. They have a whole sampling space with sustainability as well, which is a bit of a weird word at the moment because people are throwing it around.
• 51:13
  it's completely solar energy. There's completely fields and fields of solar power that are, um, that's actually set up by the government, which is incredible. For that particular factory or the whole area? No, for the whole area, which is a commercial. Like, yeah, it's amazing. So it's all, and then all of the, um, rain harvesting as well. So actually they collect all of the water then to be used for the dying. Yeah. That kind of thing. Yeah. So that's really great and quite rare to be, I think,
• 51:41
  but it's wonderful that these things are actually happening now people are actually making people care yeah exactly yeah 100 yeah wow so i met yeah this lady and then produced with her and then also got introduced to someone else i tried a little bit in china as well the quality was amazing i truly loved working in china but then
• 52:03
  knockoffs started to happen and oh my gosh i've heard this my school your factory becomes your biggest competitor well they literally were making my actual products yeah so there's shops yeah with that and i the reason how i know but people are still tagging me in these knockoff pieces no it's not yours yeah because there's five tiers not not six
• 52:22
  Um, yeah. So all those, remember when we went to the Far East Plaza and there was all those knockoffs everywhere in between knockoffs in those places now. I've heard no way. It's one of those things where it's like, you're so flattered because you know, you've reached a point where now you're like, okay, I'm a recognized brand. So of course I'm at that point, but then you're like devastated. Yeah. I mean, yeah.
• 52:46
  But also, there's no control. Like, you don't know who was sewing those pieces. Like, I know who makes my pieces. I know exactly. You know the whole line. Exactly. Line. Chain. Line. Yeah. Line chain. Yeah. But, yeah, when they're making knock-ups, you don't know who actually is sewing those pieces, what the circumstances are, what factory it came from.
• 53:05
  You don't know what chemicals are used in the dyeing process. You don't know anything. Yeah. You're like, that's not my brand. No, precisely. It's not what I'm all about. Yeah, exactly. I heard the same story. I was listening to a podcast of the woman who started the brand Shush Silk. And her factory in China, again, like they became her competitor because once they started realizing the volumes that she was doing and she was doing really, really well. Yeah. And she is doing great.
• 53:34
  amazing things they started then producing the same kind of thing and and i've heard that for like multiple different brands who i mean so many brands yeah all of it yeah i've got friends as well same thing yeah no touch ones yeah and so what do you do in that situation
• 53:52
  So we're hand numbering our pieces now. So, yeah. Wow. Yeah. So, and I love it, actually, because that's what I originally did. The lovely customers will remember. I used to hand number every single piece that we made, and so we're going back to doing that. That's so nice. Yeah. I love that. Yeah.
• 54:09
  I don't know, just being, I don't know, keeping on our toes and keeping the production smaller and when that's sold out, making it very clear that that's sold out that it isn't anymore. But you can't, like, sue them or something. Is it a big, like, fish to kind of go after or is it possible? We did invest some legal into finding out who it was and we actually went, I think in the end, the lawyer had gone to the...
• 54:36
  um internet provider and had said they're actually creating because they were using our content our images to sell different copies of our product oh my gosh yeah and then customers were then writing to us saying hey i bought this dress it doesn't look anything like i'm like yeah you you bought a fake dress about it's like there's nothing we can do here i'm really sorry that that happened but then and then the other thing was they were actually
• 55:02
  using our photos and then somehow targeting our Instagram followers, both my personal and my brand's feed, with knockoffs and paid ads on Instagram. And the reason why I know it is because I was getting screenshots of it for months on end. Every day I'd get about eight different people saying, hey, I don't know if you know, but this person is selling a knockoff of your product with your picture. And they'd locked us. So, yeah. So that was happening for a long time. It still happened?
• 55:33
  They're definitely still selling this. There's a brand in South Africa that's still selling our product. And I think Alibaba for sure. There's no boss floating around. But, yeah, I think it's important to know that, yeah, there's no – you don't know who's making those pieces. It's actually a really sad situation where it comes from, what circumstances are. And, yeah, it's a sad thing. But also it seems to be the way of the land, unfortunately.
• 56:01
  Yeah. Yeah. It's like one of those things where I've also seen a lot of people on social media, like artists having their work ripped off and seeing it on AliExpress or Alibaba or whatever. And then being like, yeah, I can't do a lot about this. There's no, it's a bit untouchable. Yeah. And then there's also like the Australian seed heritage and, oh yeah. You know, what do you do in that situation? Do you contact and be like, what the heck? Not sure.
• 56:30
  That's a tough one. It is, yeah. Country Road also. No way. The comments section is like, in the community, in the community, like customers, loyal customers were following, but they didn't turn off the comments, which was interesting, but I don't know if I can say that or not. Yeah, I think you're allowed to say whatever you want. Yeah, we actually had, obviously, won't, yeah, it's a quite interesting thing. Yeah, we had a, I don't know if I can say this or not, but one of the,
• 56:57
  designers had reached out and said, look, I used to work in that design room and that the business. That's the strategy. Yeah. That's the model. Exactly. It's actually what they do. Yeah. And I think the pressure of these designers, they're hired straight out of, you know, university or college or whatever. And they have, you know, I'm managing four collections a year. I'd say they're probably doing something similar to what you were saying before, like 10 collections a year and they have to produce, you know,
• 57:23
  100 to 200 SKUs every time. Oh, my God, yeah. It's not even possible. So they're probably scrolling Pinterest and they see something that they think is, you know. On trend or something. Yeah, able to be. It's a commercially acceptable piece or sellable piece.
• 57:40
  They're not even researching who it's from or where it is or what. They're just like, this is the inspiration. And also probably from senior management, that's probably the model, as in like find the trends, pick the pieces, copy it. Yeah, or you lose your job. Yeah, and you need 200 by next week. So these poor people are put under a lot of pressure. So I don't think it's like a personal vindictive thing, we're going to copy you, we're going to take your business down. Yeah. But it is...
• 58:04
  Yeah. The nature of the landscape they work in. Yeah. Ugh. Icky. Interesting. Really icky. But it's very, very common, I feel like. Yeah. Across multiple industries. Yeah. I know, like, Jasmine Dowling is someone who's obviously such a celebrated Australian artist, and she's so amazing. I love everything that she does. And she talks a lot about her work being copied, and she really, like, pioneered, like, particular style and typography and graphic design and all that kind of stuff. And then...
• 58:33
  for her it must be really difficult to see all these brands just knock off her quotes and her like her heart and soul. Yeah. Her heart and soul of what she's built and created. And it just must be a really tough thing. I can't imagine what that's like. The cool thing is,
• 58:53
  it's untapped. Like if it's from your heart, there is always more, you know. Yeah. You truly mean it. And you evolve. You do. You do. You're on your toes. You keep on. It keeps you moving forward as well, I guess, because it pushes you to be like, hey, well, what else? Yeah. And what's next? And what is next? What's next for you? What's this year? Well, we're at the end of the year. Not this year. What's 2020? What's next for you? Pop-ups. I just love, I've cherished. In fact, all of us, we've cherished everything.
• 59:22
  meeting our customers first to face. So we just want to do more. We want to have a retail space in Bali. Everybody comes to Bali and writes, Hey, I'm finally here. Where's your shop? I'm like, I don't have one. Whereabouts are you thinking? I don't know. Probably Brawa around that way in between. It makes sense because it's sort of where we are mostly. And I really can't stand getting over to the Cangri shortcut. It's just that extra shortcut. I don't ride a motorbike. But yeah, somewhere in that area, there's lots of little bits of vans. Rent is pretty high, but yeah,
• 59:51
  I really think it would be lovely to have a space there. And a permanent space that you can bring to life and reinvent all the time. I think, like, that experience of building a store and building this tiny little nook that's yours that you can constantly add to. And I know that you're really, from when I was at your house in Singapore seven years ago, your space is always brought to life in such a way. I always remember your wall at the time had, like,
• 1:00:19
  it was just full of those different framed photographs and paintings and artwork and it's just amazing I can only imagine what you would put in your store yeah oh and I can't wait to actually have a physical space yeah meeting people is is yeah
• 1:00:34
  the most important thing. So I think we've got to do that quick smart. So if anyone knows of any land. Hit her up on Instagram. That's it, that's right. At Inika or Inika Chu. That's what's been happening with the pop-ups as well. We sort of say, hey, just letting you know we're coming to Byron Bay or we're going to be in Sydney. And then in the DMs, we'll get, come to Sydney. Oh, come to Melbourne, come to Melbourne. I'm like, sure, got any suggestions where we should go, you know. And so it's lovely for people to be recommending one lady
• 1:01:02
  had recommended a place in Sorrento. She's like, there's spaces here. We'll let you know. And this is the person's stuff, you know, all these like, Oh my God. That's so cool. I love these little, you know, wonderful interactions and everyone's sort of,
• 1:01:14
  part of it, you know, part of the journey. We will sort of reach out to our community. I love that. I am big on like on my Instagram. I ask my community a lot of like, do you like this or do you like this? What do you think about this? Like what about the bags? What about the cards? All that kind of thing. And by having input, I just feel like people are so much more connected and they're more like, yeah, this isn't some corporate brand. Just trying to like do a thing. It's like a real person who has a real care and she's trying to build something. Mm-hmm.
• 1:01:42
  for herself and for her community kind of thing. Amazing. It's really nice. Amazing. So fun. Well, thanks so much for chatting to me. I loved this. Sorry for waffling. Oh, my God. I mean, I love waffles and I love waffling. So I'm all about the waffles. Oh, my God. No, not at all. What are you talking about? I reckon this is great. It's full of gold. Where can people find you? I mean, I know because I stalk you. But, like, where can other people find you?
• 1:02:10
  Um, my brand Instagram is at Inika2 and I have a personal account at Inika and my website. Great. Inika2.com. I will link everything in the notes, of course. So fun. So nice to chat. Yes. So lovely to chat. Thank you. Thank you.
• 1:02:33
  Okay, you've been listening to us for a while now, but stick with us. At the end of every episode, I ask the same six quick questions to get more tactical advice directly from the founders. If you want to see the filmed interviews, you can find them on my Instagram at Doon Roisin. I want to get started with what's your why? Why are you doing what you're doing?
• 1:02:53
  I just love, I don't know, it's really important to wear and to feel amazing in clothing. And I make pieces that I want other people to feel amazing in as well. That's pretty much every single garment. It's like, how would I feel if I looked like I wanted to?
• 1:03:12
  if I walked into a room wearing this piece, would people turn to a room, you know? You know, if one of my customers was wearing one of these pieces, would they go home, like, feeling, you know, like they had a beautiful day and they felt great wearing it? That's the one. Yeah. Your brand is essentially, like, giving women confidence.
• 1:03:29
  Yeah. Lifting them up. Or tapping into the confidence they already have, you know, and just making them, like, you know, I look really beautiful. Sparkle brighter. Yeah. I feel beautiful. And I, or, you know, I don't know, I'm a bit more confident to do that thing or talk to that person or just what a beautiful, memorable day. And I felt so lovely. This is something as simple as that. Or, you know what, I didn't even try too hard today. I just stepped out wearing this dress. And it just happened that, you know, I looked okay doing that. Yeah. So question number two is what was the thing that made your business pop?
• 1:04:00
  my business problem. Or a big deal moment that you were like, this was a big deal for me. Yeah. The first time I had my first really big wholesale order was, you know, actually my first ever order to be honest. That was the biggest deal. When someone actually, like my first ever customer's,
• 1:04:18
  bought my piece. I made something that other people wanted. It was an incredible moment. But then to be able to sell to our first wholesale customers and then to see those come online was incredible. That was definitely a mind-blowing experience. But also to share that with my customers as well.
• 1:04:35
  people who I hadn't already had this relationship whether it was online or in person they're like I saw your stuff on mental quarter that's so amazing so exciting yeah that was so proud of you yeah yeah people yeah absolutely since um it's a very shared thing or even for my friends or my family to say hey I was walking down the street the other day and I saw someone wearing your dress and it was so exciting to see that that is a bit
• 1:04:59
  It's a really shared, beautiful feeling, very exciting for everyone. I've spoken about this before, but I listened to the podcast of how I built that with Tobias, who started Shopify. And he talks about why he built Shopify in the first place was because he had his snowboard,
• 1:05:17
  e-commerce business and he then created the software from that because he realized other people needed it but what was important to him was the profound moment that you have when you sell your first thing and you go from being someone who was just doing a thing yeah to selling something and becoming a business owner and you realize oh my god i actually made this crazy thing and people like my stuff and there's a profound moment that you can never replicate and that one moment is why he built shopify to like
• 1:05:42
  give millions of people that, I think there's a million Shopify stores now, hundreds of thousands of people that profound moment, which is so special. So special. What's really cool is that it's not just me who felt that, it's my husband.
• 1:05:58
  It's my family, my mom, my father. It's like anyone who had ever sort of, I don't know, that's a really incredible thing. Everybody sort of wins in this little arrangement. It's so nice. What do your kids think of your label? Total breaking of the format. There's an extra question that I'm popping in here. There's any questions.
• 1:06:16
  Yeah, they love it. They love on mommy's dresses. And Edie comes in and she has her own little tech pack drawings. She could barely even write her name. She was drawing garments and having little arrows to the thing and then telling me about the details that she wanted. Oh my gosh! Yeah, so Edie is... I love that! Yeah, particularly...
• 1:06:37
  in tune with things like she'll see someone walking down the street and just say, I love your brooch, you know, I love that. No way. I love that. She's very like particular. Oh, wow. And then Maddie just loves how it feels. So yeah, definitely. They've always got clothing hanging in Dante, so it was probably quite used to having dresses in our lounge here, or dresses hanging in all of our samples in our kitchen.
• 1:06:58
  or the kitchen office. It must be such a, when those girls and your son gets older, like looking back and being like, oh, I had my mum's like wardrobe to dress up in. And then he was like this crazy experience. It just must be such a nice thing when they look back to think of like,
• 1:07:14
  all the jewelry and the shoes and the dresses and all the things that you have such a nice situation to be in I don't have it any other way it's just more friends to play dress-ups with than my kids truly I love dress-ups I love dress-ups we love that question number three is how do you win the day and that's around mindset and your rituals and the things that you do in the morning or the evening that kind of help you succeed in life
• 1:07:39
  My God. Can I say I don't win the day? Can I say that? Can I say I haven't figured that out? It's the hardest thing in this work-life balance. It's like, obviously, this is my passion. This is what I live and breathe for. So I do it until I literally fall asleep. So I actually need to find that beautiful thing where I turn it off.
• 1:08:00
  And you're a full-time mom as well. Like you've got all of the things going on. Well, obviously, like to see my kids happy or just to spend time, so I would love to them. That's obviously peace for every mother. And we could also see my husband, who works with me,
• 1:08:16
  to like, you know, if he gets a little bit emotional or proud, they're massive wins. I don't know. Any people who I love, see them proud or to be, you know. It fuels you. That's. Keeps you like ignited to keep going and keeps lovely. Absolutely. I love that. Even just to reflect on, you know, what we've done at this little amount of time, the connections we've made, the relationships we've made.
• 1:08:40
  manage to share with all these people i think that's that's the win that for me is what's keeping us alive at the moment but i definitely need to work on the work like that so you can go to bed earlier and do yoga or something i love yoga i need to do more yoga and meditating i haven't nailed the meditating thing that i really want to do
• 1:08:59
  I don't know either. It's really hard. Yeah, my mind's racing. Yeah, I can't calm down at like a million miles an hour. No, it's hard. It is hard. Question number four is where do you hang out to get smarter? Books, podcasts, online, people, all of the things. My customer service inbox.
• 1:09:20
  Oh, I love that. Yeah. No, it's the feedback I get from my customers, without a doubt. That's what shaped my collections, whether it's, you know, I was saying before about the hemline just, you know, a few centimeters longer or customers wanting a little less volume than the side or customers wanting it in pink. Hey, I really love that color. That is where, that's what shapes what kind of product I'm creating. And because I live for...
• 1:09:43
  that satisfaction for me is when my customer's like oh my god I love that you made it in this color I was desperately wanting to have this color and then we can we can actually do that so my customer's without a doubt and that's not just my email the heythereatindikichi.com send us an email send us an email tell us what you want um but it's also my igdm or even the public messages so yeah very much um customer um related yeah so
• 1:10:09
  Question number five is when you're faced with failure, how do you deal with it and what have you learned? And it's either something specific or just like your general approach to crisis management when things aren't great 100%. Yeah.
• 1:10:24
  I don't sleep. There's this amazing 3am, zing, and I'm thinking it all out and I'm solving it and working through it. I don't know. How do I work it out? I wish I had that. If I'm tired, I'm tired and I'm out. No, I cannot. My heart is on the line with everything. It's all from the stomach. It's all broken.
• 1:10:47
  I guess working through problems which happen every day in business, and I think it's only taken me into our third year of really running this fucking business to realise that...
• 1:10:57
  it's not unusual to have challenges thrown at you every day. You know, when you first start a business, you're like, Oh my God, everything's going wrong. This is all like, what am I doing? It's so hard. What is it? But actually that is business. It's just learning. It's problem solving. It's problem solving. It's like your actual job is problem solving. Without a doubt. And there's always going to be challenges and there's always going to be
• 1:11:17
  you know, things that you know you could have done better and things that you know that wasn't fair and you didn't really get a good deal on that. And, you know, next time you'll know, you'll learn it from your mistakes or be a little wiser or not do that again or say no or instead of saying yes. Or I guess reflection, maybe that's it. That's how you get through it is reflect on all the mistakes you've made to where you are. I've always said I think I need to write on what not to do because I've done everything wrong along the way.
• 1:11:45
  as a person the guide of what not to just starting a label I love that don't do it I feel like we should definitely I would buy that I need that yes no in life anyway but that's but reflection definitely take note reflect and have a word with everyone around you and I guess have a wine yeah have a wine wine is great
• 1:12:08
  Was that question number five already? We've zoomed through this. We're up to question number six, which is the gimmicky question. If you only had $1,000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it?
• 1:12:21
  would be sampling. I would get to, I have a great relationship with my country in Vietnam and I haven't got a technical background, but the way we do do sampling is I have my pieces, like a piece that I've sold previously or worn previously and I'll say, okay, I've got this, but I know that my customer wants it, like I said, a little bit longer or I
• 1:12:45
  detail over detail and want this like this, this like this, and then we come up as a concept. I think I would put everything into making a piece that I've had or I've got a whip of that everybody else wants. Then I would photograph it, take photos of it, and it's all very low budget because it's just on me and my husband will probably be.
• 1:13:04
  the one taking the photos and then maybe it's the flights to get to Vietnam but yeah that's um yeah back into sampling or taking new products and um new products that people will keep and wear and go forever I think that's it yes I love that that's a great one I haven't heard that as an answer before cool well that's the six questions
• 1:13:32
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 1:13:57
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 1:14:19
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
• 1:14:36
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 1:15:01
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 1:15:23
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.