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A mum and daughter duo have revealed the clever trick they used to save their retail fashion business from ruin during COVID lockdowns – and deliver the highest turnover ever.
Faye and Lauren Browne are the owners and designers of Motto Fashions, a Melbourne-based womenswear label with six bricks-and-mortar retail stores and accompanying eCommerce site.
But like so many businesses, when COVID hit, forcing their shops to close and straining their customers’ purse strings, they feared Motto would never recover.
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“We thought we were going to be dead,” said Faye, who launched the business 37 years ago, while six months pregnant with Lauren.
“We thought we were over in March (2020),” added Lauren.
“It was just so scary. Because when you’re in a family business it actually affects your whole family, no one’s got any money. So you can’t rely on your mum for a loan!”
So the women came up with a clever solution – creating their own homemade fashion reality TV show, delivered at 1pm every day from their living room, to thousands of viewers over Facebook Live.
The pair admit they initially had no idea what they were doing.
But as they showed off their collections, gave style tips, and conversed with their customers, they built a loyal following – with some streams accruing up to 30,000 viewers.
For some, the daily dose of laughter and light-hearted community fun was just what they needed to buoy their spirits through the trying isolation of COVID lockdowns.
“The best thing is we stuffed up so much we just gave (viewers) such a laugh,” Faye said.
“It was only yesterday that somebody said to me that watching our lives saved her life.”
Motto’s focus on building a dialogue with their customers flows through into the way they design clothing.
Rather than a fast-fashion and throwaway approach, they aim to create long-lasting garments and keep their customers through the decades.
And at the heart of everything they do is giving their customers the confidence to step out looking and feeling fantastic – no matter their age.
“Every single person who is over 50 at some point has said to me, ‘People start to not see me’,” said Lauren.
“But we’re going to make sure that that actually doesn’t happen to our customers because it can be quite lonely when you’re used to people looking at you, looking at your outfit, then suddenly no one looks at you.
“That’s atrocious.
“So our philosophy now is to actually stop that and give women back their power.”
To see the Motto ethos in wearable action, visit the ecommerce page
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