Australian women’s wear brand, casper+pearl, is making waves after announcing that they are re-branding into a fast fashion online shopping platform, THE SQUAD ONLINE, after six years of trading as a wholesaling ready to wear label.
The owner of casper+pearl, Stacey Hendrickson, created the brand in 2011 in South Australia when she was eighteen years old.
After six years, the self-taught designer at twenty-four saw her brand stocked internationally in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA in online stores Nasty Gal, Revolve, Urban Outfitters, Princess Polly, Peppermayo and The Iconic.
In 2015 casper+pearl showcased at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia under the New Generation title, and was on the way to becoming one of Australia’s biggest fashion exporters.
“Times are changing, and to stay relevant you need to change with those times” says Hendrickson, “every girl aged 15-30 is shopping online and wants to buy clothing for under $100.
If they want to wear a dress that costs as much as we were charging at casper+pearl, they’re going to rent it and wear it once.
The clothing rental industry is ruining fashion houses who charge upwards of $100 for items and I knew that I needed to make a change now before it was too late”.
“I understand it’s quite a controversial change because I am now competing with those stockists who were purchasing my brand – but business is business and I am looking forward to offering items with a difference.”
Hendrickson will be sourcing fast fashion to stock on THE SQUAD ONLINE, as well as continuing to produce items exclusive to the online store.
By eliminating the wholesaling process to stores, Hendrickson notes that she is able to charge less than half of what casper+pearl was retailing for by selling straight to the consumers.
The twenty-four-year-old entrepreneur also created Adelaide based modelling agency, AZALEA Models, in 2013 who have since been working closely with IMG Models Worldwide and Chic Management.
AZALEA are responsible for scouting faces such as Beck Hume and Australia’s first transgender model Gemma Cowling.
Hendrickson says her ‘Azalea Squad’ is what inspired the name for Australia’s newest online store. “The goal is to be likened to the Australian version of Nasty Gal,” says Hendrickson, “but with a cool point of difference because we would be the only online store that also owns a modelling agency.
We’ll only be using our AZALEA girls for shoots and all of our girls are really good friends so our campaigns are going to be genuine.”
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