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Another Australian example is Realisation Par, which launched in 2015 with six dresses. It has stuck to a DTC model and grown an Instagram audience of 700,000, which has fuelled collection collaborations with the likes of Claudia Schiffer and Elton John. Faithfull The Brand came a little earlier, in 2012, and, although its manufacturing started in Bali, these days you’ll find it stocked by prestigious retailers such as Net-a-Porter, Neiman Marcus and Selfridges.
Cult bikini brand Triangl, established by Craig Ellis and Erin Deering in 2012, is the one that’s made the most waves: predominantly DTC, apart from a Bondi flagship, the brand was selling 2000 pairs a day at one stage. In interviews, Deering has said Triangl was making $200,000 a day in profit. Although she has left the brand since separating from Ellis, the settlement landed her a spot on the Financial Review Young Rich List.
A zillion fashion start-ups are out there attempting this now, but eight to 10 years ago these founders were essentially fashion “outsiders” with a business model that shattered the status quo. In June 2014, Campbell and Coote went to Bali with nothing but a name (S.I.R. is an acronym for Separates, Intimates, Ready to Wear), their pooled life savings of $15,000 and an inkling there was a market gap for minimalistic pieces that had an elevated feel.
“Chuck it in your suitcase, wear it to the beach, wear it to a bar . . .” Coote recites. Campbell adds: “We spent a month whipping up samples, returned to Australia, gifted them to our style influencer girlfriends and then placed a small production order to be manufactured in Bali.” Photos of samples, along with imagery that evoked an aspirational vacation vibe, were uploaded to Instagram and by October 1 they had 10,000 followers.
Just 15 days later, the brand’s debut collection dropped – 30 androgynous, monochromatic pieces. By the following morning it had sold out, netting the women a tidy $10,000 in profit in less than four hours. Not bad when you consider most clothing brands define a good season to be a sell-through of 60 per cent (the other 40 per cent goes on sale), and new fashion businesses bank on trading at a loss until at least year three when they’ll finally break even or, if they’re lucky, make a small profit.
“I stayed up all night watching it go crazy,” says Coote, “and the next morning rang Nicki and said, ‘Guess I’m moving back to Sydney!’”
On reflection, the pair recognise they’d probably struggle to achieve the same cut-through launching with those tactics in 2022. The challenge now is to sustain the brand, stay relevant and uncover new techniques to reach consumers in a web that’s increasingly crowded and expensive when it comes to marketing.
Instagrammers Tahnee Atkinson and Brooke Testoni in Sir pieces, building a loyal following for the label.
“Being a brand now and trying to get that same resonance on social media, you’d need $500,000,” says Campbell. “In 2014, 10,000 Instagram followers meant 10,000 sets of eyes saw every post. The algorithm has completely changed; we know our customers see less than 10 per cent of what we’re posting.”
The women knew content was key, so they called on their tight-knit 20-something Insta-babe tribe – names like @brooketestoni (129,000), @sahara_ray (1 million), and Tahnee Atkinson (153,000) – to help promote the label and develop what would become a loyal and engaged following.
The Gigi wrap dress and Brooke wrap top became Sir’s bread-and-butter bestsellers, and what followed was a formula of cuts that were flesh-revealing without being overtly sexy. Open-back dresses, crisp white shirting in broderie anglaise meant to be buttoned low, and polished linen LBDs that were structured without feeling stiff are now well-recognised Sir designs.
The idea of community had started to grow as a cornerstone for the brand, but by 2018 the market was saturated with lookalikes. Coote and Campbell knew they needed to break the mould with a bolder aesthetic.
Their sales and PR partner at the time, industry heavyweight Robyn Catinella, connected the pair with creative director Bruna Volpi, a Sydney-based stylist who encouraged them to focus on the narrative and storytelling elements that now permeate their campaigns.
An early shoot took place in Kangaroo Valley and proved a unique selling point. “It’s about showcasing Australia to the rest of the world,” says Volpi. “We favour remote locations because there’s a certain narrative linearity to the campaigns, where the world ends and starts anew with these small communities of like-minded people.”
Looks from the Sir Resort 2023 collection, which will be launched in October.
Sir has been featured in British Vogue, and The Impression, a respected online publication for creative professionals, ranked the label on its Top 10 Fashion Ad Campaigns list several times alongside others such as Burberry, Celine, Chanel, Dior and Gucci. And sales soared.
“We had our biggest year in 2021, growing 110 per cent,” says Campbell. “Our own e-com sales channel accounts for 60 per cent of sales – 38 per cent being domestic and 17 per cent global.
“We’ve also established a wholesale strategy that has us in physical stores like Le Bon Marche, Harrods, Browns, Selfridges, and partnering with online retailers like Farfetch, Matches, Ssense and Moda Operandi. Our wholesale increased 233 per cent from 2020 to 2021.”
Sir has expanded into swimwear, denim, tailoring, sweats and menswear and there are plans to add evening wear and intimates by the end of this year. Over the past 12 months, Australian sales have grown an impressive 42 per cent, but it’s the US that has the founders excited; their site shows sales from America have increased 83 per cent year-on-year.
“When we started going to the US, Americans were confused, associating linen with old ladies or dismissing it because it was hard to iron,” says Coote. “They’re still wanting to buy into those bestselling linen shapes we started out with, but that’s because they’re seeing the label for the first time.”
Those staples – such as the Alena Maxi cross-back dress ($350) – were a hit among laid-back Angelenos when Sir did a Melrose Avenue pop-up in April last year; ditto for Sir’s oversized suiting in the Crosby Street New York pop-up last September.
Margot Robbie wears Maxine bike shorts, black bralette and Andre blazer for a TV appearance.
“It’s an amazing way to test the retail market and grow our online customer market database,” says Campbell of the pop-ups. “They’re profitable at the time, but the after-effects in that region really kick in around two months later.”
Then there are the sales spikes when Kendall Jenner rocks your Amerie-print slide-triangle bikini ($180) on holidays. Or Margot Robbie gets her legs out on the James Corden show wearing the Maxine bike shorts, black bralette and oversized Andre blazer.
“What Sir has mastered is unique in that they manage to toe the line between broad appeal to a commercial audience, yet the cool girls still clamour to wear it,” surmises Australian stylist and luxury brand consultant Caroline Tran. “Their designs look good on a broad range of body shapes. And they know their customer. That’s reflected in not only their product offering but through the different tiers of campaigns they’re creating.”
For Tran, a milestone for the brand was when Sir’s Aries dress – a lace-trimmed cut-out silk negligee-like gown that remains its No. 1 bestseller – became a certified viral sensation in 2019. That dress alone has generated more than $1 million in revenue and has 381 “notify-me” sign-ups on Sir’s e-commerce site. “Aries is seductive, but in a tasteful way. These are dresses you’d happily let your daughter leave the house wearing.”
On the ground floor of Sir’s three-storey Rosebery office that accommodates 45 staff, a group of women in their early 20s is rustling through boxes, fulfilling and packing customer orders that have come in overnight.
The Sir Resort 2023 collection will be launched in October.
Upstairs, the design team is working on the Resort 2023 collection led by Campbell, who is pointing to a design pinned to the wall. “With this one we’re playing with that update on the Aries element again, pulling the lace again into the silk, but we’ll do it in different colours,” she says.
The Celena drape dress is another style still selling huge volumes, six years on from when it launched. “We’re open to keeping pieces in collections, but every season has to have elements of surprise,” says Coote. “Maybe it’s hardware, a new fabric, a pintuck, an unexpected pop of colour or a print we haven’t done before. We’re also working on size inclusivity, extending our size chart from petite up to size 16.”
Press the pair on what their biggest challenge has been so far and – considering the growing number of Gen Z fans – their answer comes as no surprise.
“Growing sustainably,” they chime in unison. Campbell adds: “We’ve appointed a head of supply chain and sustainability and a huge focus will be next-gen materials, plus we are working with fabric certifications like Good Earth Cotton and a pilot program called FibreTrace.”
Working towards a B Corp certification is also in Sir’s long-term sustainability strategy along with an ambitious gradual shift to a 100 per cent plastic-free supply chain, meaning no poly bags.
Fashion circularity is another focus. “We’re planning to create our own resale model, which will hopefully foster the life cycle of one piece,” says Coote. It’s early days and they don’t know what that looks like yet – and whether it’s even a customer loyalty channel or a revenue driver. But imagine the fervour that would ensue on the slim chance an Aries dress ever made its way there. Cue October 2014 all over again.
The Fashion issue of AFR Magazine is out on Friday, August 26 inside The Australian Financial Review.
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