1 min. with superhero(s): The girls from ‘TWO’
by Fred Roed on 23/07/08 at 3:16 pm
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Take two talented red-haired sisters, one of them a graphic designer, the other a fine artist. Mix in a passion for fashion, an eye for aesthetics and an innate understanding of how to mix trends with wearable, functional clothing. What do you get? An innovative, highly desirable range of gorgeous designs for women of all ages called TWO.
This morning, we chatted to Caren and Gina from a new fashion label that’s making big waves in a notoriously difficult industry to crack.
How do you differentiate TWO from the countless other labels out there?
Caren: We never studied fashion. So we make what we like. We make comfortable wearable clothes and we don’t feel like we have to ‘prove’ to the fashion world how talented we are. Our clothes are simple, wearable, affordable and functional items with a fashionable twist. Most often designers come out of college and want to use the most expensive fabric in the most complicated way and often the garment turns out to be unaffordable, or too fashionable for a mainstream client. We design clothes for everyone.
Fashion, especially in this country, is a tough nut to crack. How did you get into this industry?
Gina: Well coming for different backgrounds we kind of feel like we happened upon fashion. We started making underwear and that led to something else and led to grow bigger and bigger. We never dreamed we would have made it this far. But even as little girls we always LOVED fashion.
Yep, yep. I have a three year old daughter. She’s already picky about what she wears, which is giving me nightmares about what lies ahead. What about your job makes you lie awake at night?
Caren: Like any business (especially growing businesses) CASH FLOW
What education do you have?
Gina: Masters in Fine Arts, Wits University, Johannesburg
Caren: Bachelors in Fine Arts, Parsons School of Design, New York
Wow, you’re a pretty design centred team. From a business perspective, what do you think has been your secret to success?
Caren: Relying on team effort. We have an amazing production team. We have incredible support of Sanlam SA fashion week and the Department of Arts and Culture. We have almost a family relationships with our fabric suppliers, crafters, our silk-screeners, printers, etc. We have an amazing synergy that goes beyond normal working relationships. I think everyone benefits because the more we grow, the more they grow. The more money we make, the more money they make. The word is symbiotic. This is a huge part of our success.
What kind of marketing are you doing at the moment?
Gina: We are getting lots and lots of press at the moment. We are really being interviewed and profiled. Sanlam SA fashion week has arranged lots of press for us. So we are really relying on that to give us wings.
Caren: We also have a website www.twotwo.co.za where we have our full catalogue up for stores to order from.
What is your best marketing tool?
Caren: The website is an amazing tool. We get so many people contacting us from the website.
What’s the TWO target market?
Gina: Women aged 15- 90 although our target market is quite young and fashionable, we do lots of basic items that can be worn by anyone.
It sounds like you’re having a lot of fun. Of course, there must be a downside. Tell us some pitfalls to avoid in your industry.
Gina: I think that the biggest pitfall starting out is starting too big. We started out making underwear and it grew from that. Choose one item and base your range around this item. And grow slowly. So many designers have bombed by staring with a full, usually expensive range, wanting to make it big in a week and hinging their hopes on selling out in one month. And when that doesn’t happen because their clothes are either impractical or unaffordable, they have close down shop. We have been going slowly and steadily for 5 years and the business has to be able to be durable enough to take a few knocks.
It’s amazing how many wannabe entrepreneurs want to start a coffee shop or create a fashion label. People seem to think that your industry is all fun and roses.
Caren: It is a myth that we as designers sit all day and design by making pretty drawings and swan about with underwear models running around the factory. Most of the time we do admin and costings and distribution (yes mark, tag, pack) and invoicing and all the other stuff that everyone else who is not creative does. And no, there are no underwear models wedged between the machines.
Crunch time. Tell us something that no one knows about you.
Gina: That we eat like horses in the office.
Caren: Really, lunch time is the best part of our day.
Boring. You need to do better than that… tell us a disaster story then.
Caren: Ooooh. Well we were interviewed by a TV program and they had this weird low angle camera. We were in the first stages of the company and we were explaining our panty designs. Lets just say that the panties we were demonstrating in our hands were not the only panties that were seen by viewers that day…..
Eish, hectic… although that could possibly have helped brand awareness. As they say any publicity is good publicity! So, in between all the underwear models, photo shoots and equestrian quantities of food, what happens on the average day at TWO?
Caren: No no no. No such thing. It changes daily according to tasks and season. Most of the time though we are planning or doing admin. Today we did our casting for Sanlam SA fashion week. So we chose the models for our show. Last week we were in Kimberley for our fashion fusion project sponsored by the Department of Arts and Culture and SA fashion week. We do workshops with crafters from the Northern Cape region and they embroider, embellish, silk-screen, bead and applique our fashion show pieces. Other days we put orders together or design or order fabric. It is just constantly changing.
What is the best business / industry lesson you’ve learned so far?
Caren: To trust our instincts. We know when a style is going to do well by how much we personally wear that style. We have also had to learn to be consistent. And continue with the same style.
How many people do you have in your team?
Caren: In the office- Caren and Gina plus Jackie (manager) plus Tumi (intern). In terms of the whole scheme- lets see… We would say a minimum of 100 people are part of the whole picture.
What is your BHAG?
Gina: We want our own shop. Just need to come up with funding.
Caren: Anyone interested?
And, finally, a word of advice to Ideate readers – is there a lot of money to be made in this industry?
Caren: Yes. There is lots of money to be made, especially with export. But the product has to be perfect. We export to Germany and to Australia and they are very fussy about quality and sizing. You have to do your research and quality control is very important.
Thanks ladies. All the best with the company. We at Ideate hope to see you soar internationally and fly the flag high. Good luck!
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. Fred is the CEO of web marketing company World Wide Creative and the co-founder of online learning portal Heavy Chef. Fred loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. Follow Fred on Twitter here. View more articles by Fred Roed.
