A heritage brand has decades of history and a clear sense of brand codes.

Australia however has a complicated relationship with “heritage”. Unlike the US, Europe or Asia which have clear cultural archetypes — prep, Americana, Italiana, European artistry, luxury maisons — Australia’s design lineage is comparatively much younger and coupled with the Australian attitude of self-deprecation and tall poppy syndrome, Australia tends to skewer rather than celebrates its own archetypes.

Which is why these brands are so fascinating — their success, or struggles, really tells you how they’re negotiating Australia’s cultural tensions between wanting to be fashion, on trend, but also, refusing to acknowledge that it could care about fashion.

Heritage brands are having a moment globally — here’s a good article by where she calls it Heritage Maximalism — because they offer:

• Clear sense of identity

• Longevity

• Craftsmanship

In a post-‘quiet luxury’ world, Customers now are prioritising timelessness and are seeking value — they feel like they’re getting this from heritage brands over luxury ones.

But, heritage maximalism isn’t quite right for Australia. What Australia is about is heritage that is grounded in utility and everyday emotionality. Heritage seems like it means luxury, but, in Australia, heritage is about practicality and durability — what I’m going to call Heritage Realism.

OROTON

History: Founded in 1938, it is considered Australia’s oldest luxury brand. It’s had some highs and lows; from the 50s its metallic mesh evening bags became a trend and it eventually saw it being stocked internationally. But by 2017 it had filed for voluntary administration and was later bought out by banking billionaire fund manager Will Vicars, and relaunched in 2019 with highly respected and lauded Sophie Holt as creative director. It’s estimated to be now making AU$16 million in profit with sales of AU$123 million from 2024-25 according to the Financial Review. As part of the 2019 relaunch, Holt introduced apparel.

Analysis: The quality is beautiful and apparel fits a gap in the market of contemporary (prices are around AU$400-1000 for a dress or outerwear) that is targeted for a demographic that’s more older millennial/Gen X/Boomer with a high disposable income. Their customer are looking for clothes that aren’t suiting, don’t just have black, and are appropriate for work or formal occasions whilst still being relaxed enough — it’s a very Australian proposition.

This demographic is a group sorely overlooked in Australia. I’ve noticed many senior female Australian leadership figures in business and politics wearing the brand, particularly pieces like matching sets or dresses for events like public speaking. Women like Holt herself. But do enough people know about the clothing?

I’ve noticed that they now have more lower priced apparel with an everyday approach which suggests they are addressing challenges in this space.

Brand codes: I’d argue that Holt has actually introduced brand codes via apparel: you know you’ll go there and find a full-sleeved shirt dress, a ‘stamp’-esque print (like below) or a blazer and trousers in an interesting colour like sage or saffron. The colour palette is now definitely a house code. But it’s very seasonally dependent, and, clothing is an expensive industry to be in; larger stores, logistics of handling different sizes of clothing versus one-size-fits-all of accessories.

Their handbags touch on their history but I don’t know if there’s a definitive handbag that customers will identify nowadays as distinctively Oroton. And, through apparel, there’s a stronger sense of brand codes in the polished brand imagery which has become very consistent, and establishes a sense of Australiana without having to rely on the usual beachscapes.

COUNTRY ROAD

History: Recently celebrating its 50 year anniversary, many of us in Australia grew up knowing the Country Road logo on sweatshirts and duffel bags. I see it like the J. Crew of Australia — it started out in women’s shirting and now makes clothes for men, women, kids, as well as homewares. Sophie Holt (now at Oroton) used to head up design there and I loved her version of Country Road back then.

Analysis: While Country Road as a brand has a lot of positive good will with my Australians very nostalgic about the brand with really fantastic partnership initiatives that celebrates the Indigenous community, the very elevated visual branding seen on Country Road’s digital channels doesn’t match up to the retail stores. The quality is there, but they have definitely gone more of the classic route than the trend route that I remember in my 20s. When I say trend, I don’t mean they need to slavishly follow what everyone else is doing in fashion — but they need to offer something different, or be able to explain their quality proposition. They’ve had a lot of management changes so give it time and hopefully it’ll come back around to a brand that is not just beloved, but something that actually worn widely. They have really strong casting, and really keep diversity in mind which is something that is lacking in Australia.

Brand codes: Logos are doing the heavy lifting. Logos are tricky because they are polarising. There are many customers who abhor them, but, the fact is, they sell well. It’s a balance: the more logos you have, the more inundated the market can get and consumers can just as quickly turn off them because they’re seen as too mass. Not even ‘mass market customers’ consider themselves as ‘mass market customers’; everyone thinks they are unique with great taste. I’m sure the Country Road team are looking at J. Crew — they don’t have their logo emblazoned on sweaters, and instead have pulled out pieces like the rollneck sweater from the archive and call them Icons. They did the same with the barn jacket when it suddenly became trendy. Imagine if Country Road did that with a logo-less sweatshirt and called it The Perfect Sweatshirt! I’d buy it.

I noticed that they highlighted an in-house Country Road stylist on their social channels which gave a lot of life and personality to their brand — a bit like J. Crew’s Olympia Gayot. I noticed it being meaningfully replicated, but there’s something in there about having a sense of humanness to the brand and also talking through about how to style the items.

R.M. WILLIAMS/AKUBRA

History: Australian outback brand R.M. Williams has spent the past few years aggressively expanding but also overhauling they’re brand and product. Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest bought it in 2023 (do you see a pattern here) and has since expanded with international stores. Sales increased 11% but the costs to get those sales did, too — the holding company Percy Street recorded a loss of AU$2.14 million.

Percy Street also bought Akubra at the same time. It’s older, having been founded in 1876, and its brand are its product — when you say ‘you’re wearing an Akubra’, everyone knows you’re talking about the hats.

Analysis: R.M. Williams are in a tricky, but exciting position where they need to grow the brand beyond their existing customer base which they can’t neglect their rusted-on consumer base. The product is strong — the boots are truly iconic and I’m obsessed with their take on what they call a rodeo boot that recently came out. It’s going to be expensive to continue with this aggressive expansion — just a few months ago they announced that they’ve appointed an agency to do out-of-home media with more plans of international store expansions — but eventually, hopefully it will all come to fruition.

Akubra released its first women’s western hat just last year, which is saying something (though women could wear the original men’s hats, surely) but to have a defined, women’s category makes it more marketable and easier to get across to the female consumer. And like R.M. Williams there’s been expansion and an elevation in imagery happening here. These brands are being very aggressive with their expansion.

Brand codes: As above, the products are the hero, and the outback fantasy. R.M. Williams boots and Akubra hats are bought by tourists as souvenirs; Oprah bought herself one when she was in Australia last year. Both of these fit in the current fashion aesthetic of classic, timeless pieces that touches on workwear (denim and other hardwearing items) as well as the Western/cowboy trend.

What These Three Brands Reveal About Australian Heritage

Australian heritage brands thrive when they do these three things well:

Read more

In my time as a fashion writer, I’d see so many brands come and go. I’ve written many-a ‘next brand to watch!’ list, and then see them a few years later shutter or change direction entirely.

Then, there are the brands that are direct-to-consumer. We’d hear about them and pitch them as the NEXT BIG THING because direct-to-consumer was IT. Remember way back when? Well, you know how that story goes. The cost of customer acquisition went through the roof, metrics of success shifted (rightly so) from sales to profit and customers were becoming more dubious with the general public becoming aware of drop-shipping and being suspicious of suddenly everything looking the same. Algorithmic sameness.

In amidst this, I interviewed the Dôen founders in the first few years of their inception. It seemed like an idyllic tale; sister Margaret and Katherine Kleveland start a brand after working in contemporary womenswear design, which is a category of fashion that means it’s not as expensive as ‘luxury’ but priced higher than chainstore. Katherine was Executive Vice President of Design at Joie, Current Elliot and Equipment, and Margaret worked in design and development at B&B footwear design (from T magazine). They started Dôen after deciding they need to create work environment that was conducive to being mothers. They give six of their partners (Hilary Walsh, Katharine Hall, Phoebe Dean, Hilary Tisch, Allie Furlotti, and Courtney Santry) equity stakes; they started with US$480,000 raised from friends and family. When possible, they work with factories that are owned and run by women (as a note, Good On You rates them as ‘it’s a start’). Its philanthropic partners include Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, Room to Read, and Kindred Space LA / Birthing People Foundation. It sounded too good to be true.

Ten years on, the brand is still around and seems to be thriving. Early 2025, Vogue Business reported that it had exceeded US$100 million revenue and e-commerce is up 40% year on year, and wholesale up 110% — its first wholesale partner was Net-A-Porter in 2019.

In June 2025 it was announced that Dôen raised a series A with Silas Capital that is earmarked for channel expansion and marketing (channel expansion means where it is available; at the moment it has only a handful of stores, its e-commerce and wholesalers; I’d assume this means it’s going to focus on more stores because their stores have outperformed expectations). Prior to this, it had only raised US$1 million in outside capital — this kind of capital efficiency is almost unheard of in DTC. They are also reportedly expanding into beauty — beginning with fragrance, one of beauty’s fastest-growing, highest-margin categories.

Behind the paywall, I go into:

1. The Dôen world: building it, and staying there

2. Visual consistency

3. Category expansion

4. Structuring the company that mirrors brand values

5. Purpose supports but isn’t the main event

6. How Dôen is the atypical DTC company

Read more

What’s the difference between Australian Fashion Week 2025 and previous years?

In late 2024, the American-based company IMG exited from holding Australian Fashion Week (AFW) with the leading reason cited was lack of profitability. By the way, as of March 2025, IMG as part of Endeavour is owned by pri…

Read more

Online, Rhode feels big. It dominates feeds, sets trends, and sells out within minutes. But in the wider beauty industry? It’s still a small player. That may soon change. With rumours of a move into wholesale distribution (Puck’s Line Sheet has reported that it’s going to Sephora in the US), Rhode is on the brink of something bigger — access to more customers, a shift in positioning, and potentially, a new chapter in its brand evolution.

So, how exactly did Rhode get here? This deep dive focuses on the marketing and creative strategies that have set it apart. It’s polished and well thought out and has really propelled sales of product that is, well, according to a lot of people in terms of efficacy… fine? I have a few products which I like but I wouldn’t say they were makeup bag must-haves.

Hailey Bieber has been clear from the start that she’s invested her own money in this, but she’s not doing this alone. Rhode’s strength lies in its curation, from the tight product edits to the expert advisory board she’s assembled. And if there’s one thing Rhode gets right, it’s knowing exactly how to capture (and hold) attention.

Strategy 1: Skincare Positioning at Launch

Let’s be honest: Hailey Bieber was technically a model, but she wasn’t exactly walking every major runway like Gigi Hadid or Kendall Jenner. Before Rhode, she was best known for her last name (Alec Baldwin’s niece) and then, of course, as Justin Bieber’s wife. A level of fame, yes, but not quite the built-in celebrity of a supermodel.

So how does she rebuild her reputation?

The paywall begins here. As this edition includes advice, analysis and critique that I’ve developed from my experience working in both editorial and brand-side which I do charge as part of my consulting work, the rest this article is paywalled.

If you can see this — thank you so much for supporting my work, and comment to let me know what you think.

If you can’t see the next section, you can upgrade your subscription to access the rest of this newsletter as well as other Brand Deep-Dives, Style Strategy (my series about evolving ones personal style) and so much more. I do a brand deep-dive once a month, so if you find this interesting, you can consider becoming a paid subscriber here.

Read more

Read more

How many makeup brands does the world need? I ask myself this question a lot, especially when there seems to be replicas after replicas, calling to mind something you’ve seen before — another brand talking about self-expression being their core tenet on TikTok, another brand talking working with a celebrity, let alone celebrities launching their own brand.

I was contacted a few weeks ago to be given the heads-up that MERIT Beauty will soon become available in Australia from September 18, which has inspired this particular brand deep-dive. Prices will range from $32 for the eyeshadow blush, and $61 for the serum and complexion stick.

This isn’t paid/sponsored and while I was sent a PR gift of four products to try ahead of launch, there was absolutely no obligation to support the brand on any of my channels. (Oftentimes, when you are given something, they explicitly say they require an IG story/grid post.)

But the more I dug into it, the more I realised that it was a bit more than another beauty brand. Behind it, it’s got a founder who has extensive expertise in several other industries but isn’t so forwardly brand facing, it talks to the older millennial rather than targeting ‘The Youth’ which is basically refreshing nowadays in beauty, and, its aesthetic ethos really speaks to what I’m drawn to.

HOW IT BEGAN

Katherine Powers, the founder of MERIT, has an extensive list of brands she founded:

• Who What Wear was founded in 2006 with Hillary Kerr. They met while working at Elle US magazine and both realised that women were starting to consume media differently.

• Versed in 2019: an affordable skincare line available only in Target and its own DTC. Prices are all under US$20.

• Avaline, a natural and organic wine company that launched during COVID in 2020. Fellow co-founder is Cameron Diaz, naturally.

Plus, she is a partner at seed-to-growth venture capital firm Greycroft and operating partner at Sonoma Brands, a private equity firm.

The serial entrepreneur knew white space when she saw it.

Yet, for all her entrepreneurial accomplishments, she found herself wanting something personal — a makeup line that suited her needs as a 40-something, busy professional.

It was 2017, and Power was starting to think up of what this dream line could be, and what it definitely wasn’t. The makeup on the market felt too heavy and too time-consuming. 2017 was also the year of the ‘Kardashian contour’ phenomenon, but it wasn’t for Power, especially when she was pregnant and reacting to the ingredients in her existing products. As she puts it in a podcast interview with Bobbi Brown: it wasn’t appropriate to be at a work meeting and notice her highlighter had iridescent glitter in it.

The solution? A line that delivered luxury, minimalism, and ease, with a side of ‘clean beauty’ sensibilities.

“I didn’t fit into the bronzed and contoured Kardashian look, and I was older and maybe a little more professional than a Glossier customer,” Power said. And with that, MERIT was born in 2021, four years later since Power first had an inkling of the concept.

Within a year of launch, it had raised US$20 million in a Series A funding round led by L Catterton. By 2023, the brand hit the US$100 million sales mark, and it’s only growing — just earlier this year, they hired former MAC Cosmetics president, Philippe Pinatel, as CEO. Power, now chairperson of MERIT, wants her latest company to be a billion dollar brand.

This year, it has also engaged Goldman Sachs to explore deal options for MERIT.

It expanded in to the UK in 2023, where one product was sold every 30 seconds on launch day, and in fact doubled its UK revenue projections in the first year.

Pretty impressive for a company that’s been around for under five years.

As this edition includes advice, analysis and critique that I’ve developed from my experience working in both editorial and brand-side which I do charge as part of my consulting work, the majority of this article is paywalled.

I do a brand deep-dive once a month, so if you find this interesting, you can consider becoming a paid subscriber here.

What I’ve covered about MERIT Beauty:

• Brand positioning

• How they eschew gen Z targeting and instead go for the older millennial

• Their subtle launch

• Strategic and style-driven partnerships

• Distribution and ecomm

• Absence of hero product (not a bad thing!)

• The beauty trends that MERIT Beauty are addressing

And, explore the other brand deep-dives I’ve done here.

Read more

The global beauty industry generates US$430 billion in revenue. By 2027, it is expected to reach US$580 billion.

For an industry of this size, and with that much consumer appetite, doing this brand deep-dive into Summer Fridays highlighted the lack of critical analysis in the space.

My past brand deep-dives have included fashion brands Khaite, Toteme and Reformation and there is plenty of critique and commentary and business news to draw from. Summer Fridays is my first beauty one, and to me, it is one of the most exciting beauty brands out there:

• It has received a strategic investment from TSG Partners announced last month.

• Its Lip Butter Balm was the most searched-for lip care product on Google in 2023 and one is sold every eight seconds worldwide.

• While celebrity influencers have been found to have the lowest level of trust among consumers, Summer Fridays bucks the trend: working on this has made it so clear to me that it is perhaps the most successful influencer-founded skincare brand. I’d even go so far to say that it has surpassed most other celebrity-founded skincare brands.

• It had the highest EMV of any beauty brand in 2023.

• Retail sales in 2023 were US$150 million, and for 2024 they are on track for US$200 million.

I know I’m biased but maybe this is my favourite brand deep-dive yet??

Working on this really highlighted to me how there is just not that much business and marketing analysis out there. The brand founders themselves have been interviewed at length, but it’s more about their morning routine or their favourite beauty picks rather than their business savvy, which they clearly have a lot of. Either that they’re coy about it, or… people just don’t think to ask? Who knows. 

But, my brand deep-dives are more than just re-hashing research because anyone can do that. Instead, I want to look at what’s happened, and reflect and analyse on strategies, their marketing, how they did it.

As this edition includes advice, analysis and critique that I’ve developed from my experience working in both editorial and brand-side which I do charge as part of my consulting work, the majority of this article is paywalled.

I do a brand deep-dive once a month, so if you find this interesting, you can consider becoming a paid subscriber here.

I read Teri Agins’ landmark 2000 book, The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever when I was in high school which transformed how I viewed fashion. It’s more than the clothes you put on your back, and yes, while it is a craft, it really opened my eyes to the world of business and the marketing the propels it.

Basically, the fashion industry can survive the way it is because of the beauty industry. Most fashion brands are likely not making money from its ready-to-wear let alone couture. What’s funding it? Its beauty line. Most women won’t be able to fathom buying a Chanel suit, but a lipstick or nail polish or to splurge on a fragrance? Sure! No wonder Hermès launched their own beauty line in 2020. Beauty is big business.

HOW IT STARTED

Let’s take you back to Instagram in 2016. Do a scroll on your own account. Cringe, I know. We all used some overly saturated filter, thinking we had moved on for Valencia. 2016 was the year when Instagram had changed its logo from a vintage-looking camera lens to a two-dimensional line logo with a pink and orange ombre background. Instagram users were unimpressed, with New York Times publishing an article about it titled, “The Great Instagram Logo Freakout of 2016”.

Fashionista, then one of the reigning digital-first fashion publications, released a list of top fashion bloggers including Chiara Ferragni, Aimee Song and Chriselle Lim. The word ‘influencer’ in terms of social media and digital marketing was still not in mainstream use, beginning in 2015 and only picking up in 2017. 

This is the year when Marianne Hewitt and Lauren Ireland started talking about starting a beauty brand together. 

They were both bloggers as they were called back then; Hewitt also had a Youtube following and both had burgeoning careers as television hosts, which likely took a backseat with their growing Instagram platforms. They didn’t have the type of backgrounds that one might assume would found a multi-million dollar beauty brand.

Skincare founders are often:

a) Subject experts, like aesthetician Kate Somerville or dermatologists like Dr Dennis Gross. The list for this one is long.

b) Beauty industry alumni like Amy Liu of Tower 28 who worked in marketing for Kate Somerville, L’Oreal and Josie Maran, or Laney Crowell of Saie who was in global communications for Estee Lauder. Sasha Plavsic of Ilia worked in branding for fashion and beauty.

c) Former beauty media, such as Emily Weiss who came from W and Vogue prior to starting her editorial platform, Into The Gloss, Julie Schott of Starface who used to be a Elle magazine beauty editor, and New York Times beauty writer Bee Shapiro who started fragrance line Ellis Brooklyn. And of course, Australia’s own Zoë Foster Blake who has Go-To.

d) Former corporate world. I know I’m conflating a lot here; Fiona Co Chan of Youthforia came from enterprise sales, finance/bankers. Nancy Twine of Briogeo was an investment banker and New Zealand’s Emma Lewisham was at technology company Brother.

e) Celebrities, like Hailey Bieber, Miranda Kerr. Or you know, Rihanna and Gwyneth Paltrow. At every level of celebrity, there will be a beauty brand.

Influencers on the other hand are more likely to collaborate with an existing brand or launch a makeup, such as Huda, since the first wave of beauty bloggers started off as makeup aficionados. The visual impact of makeup meant it was ideal for social media, whereas skincare blogging lagged behind. I’m actually struggling to name another major skincare brand founded by an influencer.

Leave a comment

The paywall begins here. Subjects I have covered include:

• influencer brands

• EMV

• social media-first

• DTC/wholesale

• wellness

• how Summer Fridays addresses 5 major beauty industry trends

• hero product

• Gen Z beauty

As this edition includes advice, analysis and critique that I’ve developed from my experience working in both editorial and brand-side which I do charge as part of my consulting work, the majority of this article is paywalled.

I do a brand deep-dive once a month, so if you find this interesting, you can consider becoming a paid subscriber here. As a paid subscriber you will have access to all archives, the brand deep-dive, and a my special series on evolving your personal style and taste as part of your identity, Style Strategy.

Read more

In fact, if you’ve been subscribed to my newsletter, you’ll also know that I do like the brand as a consumer, too. Khaite pricepoints this is not.

While what they make is fun for its on-trend quality, my fascination for Reformation comes less from the product but more its brand mission and values and how they communicate this to the customer, particularly how it speaks about sustainability in a now very-crowded and busy space. And of course, its marketing. (Truthfully, I haven’t bought Reformation since about 2020; a tie-dye pink long-sleeve T-shirt that I wore on internal work video calls during Melbourne lockdown.)

The appeal of Reformation tells us a lot about consumer behaviour in fashion, and outside of fashion. Humans are sometimes so simple, at the end of the day!

I’m keeping this for paid subscribers, and will be covering:

• How it all began

• Manufacturing and lead-times and how it is surprisingly inspired by the Zara fashion chain business model 

• Marketing and tone of voice, and how it communicates its sustainability pillar

• Timeline of financials including outside investment; fascinating, and a bit nerdy. The numbers itself are meaningless, but noticing the big jumps and seeing what was happening at the time tells you a lot.

• Controversies — as almost a ‘legacy’ brand, there have been some questionable moves which have resulted in its founder and CEO stepping down in 2020

• Takeaways for brand owners, founders, marketers, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs

I gave myself a week to research and write this, but it has taken more like three weeks. I hope you enjoy it.

(Below: wearing a Reformation dress circa 2019.)

Read more

Following this deep-dive, I’ve broken down key takeaways from a branding and business perspective that really makes Toteme, Toteme, for paid subscribers only. (And no, it’s not just me saying that I still wear their silk monogram pyjamas, EVEN THOUGH I DO.) I mean, do you even remember that Elin Kling started out as an influencer? It is long and in-depth, and covers everything from paid digital marketing, to inventory management, raising capital and more.

Thank you to Louise Phillips of Glow Words, a professional freelance copy editor who I engaged to proofread, for working over the long weekend on me with this. This isn’t sponsored or a paid post by the way, but just an appreciation for her services.

This was an incredibly interesting for me personally, and this took, well, longer than I expected, so I apologise for the tardiness of this week’s post. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed researching and writing this. [Pictured below: Toteme boots.]

In 2011, I had suggested to interview Kling as part of a feature about street style luminaries which included Miroslava Duma (who I interviewed over a breakfast of waffles, berries and cream) for the publication I was working for. We met at a restaurant in New York’s Columbus Circle with a handful of her team.

Kling was a big name in the then-relatively nascent blogging industry, first starting out working in fashion media in her native Sweden before launching her blog. She had founded her own print magazine Styleby which still exists today, and also co-founded Fashion Networks International (FNI), which was best known for NowManifest, a platform which housed blogs by Anna Dello Russo, Bryanboy, Rumi Neely’s Fashion Toast, Derek Blasberg and Susie Bubble.

In a coup, FNI ended up being acquired by Condé Nast in 2012. It was a big move by the legacy media company — Condé Nast bought FNI outright in a period when most of Condé Nast investments were minority stakes. It’s assumed that Condé Nast wanted to get in on the advertising potential of individual bloggers which would pose a threat to their own advertising revenue model, and the appeal of a network providing scalability may have been tempting for Condé Nast, who was attempting to gain dominance in online advertising. This probably wasn’t the wisest financial decision for Condé Nast, which ended up closing NowManifest in 2015 — though by then, Kling had sold her stake in the company in December 2013.1

The interview was scheduled right before she was due to go to a fashion show. She wore a 3.1 Phillip Lim long-sleeved shift minidress and incredibly high heels with a Nike cap. Even back then her style was consistent — looking at old photos of her (the cons of being a blogger is that there’s so much documentation) you can see while she was so of the era, what she creates and wears now is not so much of a departure. Back then, bloggers/influencers looked great but so much less preened and polished — they were more like ‘normal girls’ who looked naturally great, like someone who you would have seen at uni. Their clothes have creases. Their faces look less touched-up. Their smoky eye is a bit messy. There’s a lot of high flash and not-so-flattering. There’s an air of attainability still there.

Let’s talk numbers

From various sources, I’ve been able to do an approximate timeline of the brand’s reported revenue over the past few years; according to this Business of Fashion article, it has been profitable since 2015, a year after it launched.

• 2018/2019: prior to the pandemic, revenue was reported to be around €10 million (approximately US$11.2 million according to the average 2019 exchange rate).2

• 2019/2020: revenues estimated at US$22 million.3

• 2020/2021: revenues forecasted at US$24 million, with 45% revenue coming from direct online sales.4

• 2021: a press release from Altor in this year announced its minority stake in the group, stating that sales had reached SEK350 million )equivalent to about US$40.8 million using the average 2021 exchange rate).5

• 2022: revenues surpassed €100 million, approximately US$108 million,6 which is basically a crazy x10 increase since 2018, and more than double that of the preceding year. Yes, the pandemic may have had something to do with it, and went hand-in-hand with the growing trend for more ‘classic pieces’. BUT STILL. This is a crazy increase.

• 2023: €129 million which is about US$139 million.7

A 2022 Vogue Business article listed the top 20 ‘influencer brands’. It included Skims and Kylie Cosmetics; I’d argue that they’re less influencers and more celebrities. It doesn’t have Toteme on the list, because I’m assuming they don’t consider Kling to be an influencer anymore. The list itself has few fashion brands — beauty, apps, food and drinks are far more lucrative. In fact, the only comparable brand is Chiara Ferragni’s (and we all know what’s happening to Chiara now… if you don’t, watch this TikTok explainer) which is estimated to have an annual revenue of US$12.5 million.

Launching Toteme in 2014

A Wall Street Journal article8 announced the launch of Toteme in 2014, which Elin Kling co-founded with her then-fiancé, now-husband, Karl Lindman. What it showed wasn’t much different to what it does now, there’s a lot of sleek lines, a monochromatic palette and ‘wardrobe classics’.

Great, you’re probably thinking. That’s not anything new. But I’d like to cast your mind back to what else was happening in fashion in 2014.

While I’m not saying that this is what everyone was wearing, I just want to remind you that 10 years ago, ‘classic minimalism’ which abounds today (I refuse to use the term ‘quiet luxury’) was not the dominant aesthetic.

I remember when Toteme launched, there was some interest, but it wasn’t fervent. It was considered a blogger brand still, and there were so many of them out there at the time, as there are still today.

Kling in 2014 was no novice in fashion labels, having started Nowhere with her Fashion Networks International co-founder Christian Remröd and she had also collaborated with H&M and Guess on her own lines. Her former designer at Nowhere, Nhu Duong, ended up being Toteme’s head of design from 2013-2016. Comparing her work for H&M, Guess and Nowhere, it’s within the same aesthetic realm.

Furthermore, starting a brand is really hard, even if you have the financial means to do so and the recognisable name. Alexa Chung (again, no secret how I feel about her and her style) started her own brand which ended up closing after five years in March 2022, and one could argue that her fame and influence has always far surpassed that of Kling’s. While winding down a fashion label doesn’t mean it’s an immediate failure, one can assume that she wasn’t having the kind of momentum and sales figures as Toteme. From the Standard:

“Documents filed with Companies House in 2020 show that for the tax year starting April 1 2019, Chung’s umbrella firm Alpha Charlie Limited had losses of just under £2.3 million. Back in 2016, before the brand officially launched, Pembroke Ventures, a consumer-focussed venture capital firm, acquired a 24 per cent stake for £4.1million, valuing the business at just over £17 million. In its latest accounts from September 2021 Pembroke VCT had written down their stake to £250k, valuing the total business to circa £1m.”

And Rihanna closed Fenty in 2021. Fenty may have garnered lots of headlines, had investment from LVMH, but did anyone actually remember what the clothes looked like, or, even wear them? As that saying goes, even with all the money in the world…

FIVE LESSONS FROM TOTEME

1. HAVE A FOUNDER STRATEGY

Founder strategies are one of my favourite kinds of projects to work on.

Read more

The Khaite obsesssion is not new a new thing — we all know this. I feel like it’s been a constant namecheck since I started this newsletter back in 2021, and I did deliberate over whether to include this piece in this edition at all, but I decided that it was Important because it just says so much about what’s happening now in fashion.

It’s something I’v…

Read more