sass & bide founders Heidi Middleton and Sarah Jane Clarke started their business by selling clothes in street markets in the early 1990s. Fast forward two decades, and the fashion landscape has dramatically changed and today the markets are not physical, but set up in the digital space.
Brisbane based Thessy and Yiota Kouzoukas started out by writing a fashion blog in 2010. They swiftly attracted a cult following of fashionistas who demanded more than just snapshots of Thessy and Yiota’s daily outfits – and a business idea was born.
“As business majors at Griffith University, we couldn’t help but see the opportunity that was being presented before our eyes and decided to make these outfits available for purchase from our own online store. Once we decided on the idea, we started saving, researching and planning everything that we could. As we were giving up our full-time jobs at the time, we couldn’t afford for our shop not to succeed”, Yiota recalls.
Yiota and Thessy launched their online store in March 2011, and the rest is fashion history.
Sabo Skirt today is a global success story thanks to Yiota and Thessy’s successful use of social media. The brand has a cult following of fashionistas all over the world, including almost a million fans on instagram. Their strong social media presence has helped their online business grow into a global brand, and almost half of their customers are based in California, USA.
“Social media has been an amazing way to reach international customers, particularly through Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr. We have been able to engage with customers all over the world and provide them with exactly they are after,” Yiota said.
In November 2013, Sabo Skirt made the unusual move from click to brick (bricks and mortar), when they launched their exclusive line of clothes in David Jones department stores across Australia.
Stay tuned on @saboskirt, because these Brisbane based fashionistas have more expansion plans in the pipeline for 2014.
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