An overcrowded market and the cost of living crisis have made it harder than ever to capture the attention of consumers. Against this backdrop, a handful of UK-based independent and primarily direct-to-consumer (DTC) womenswear brands are grabbing market share and scaling fast, catching not only the aspirational luxury shopper who has downgraded their spending, but also the would-be fast fashion customer who is now looking for a longer-lasting product that delivers more value.
These brands have in common an innate understanding of their target customer, which has allowed them to develop hero products known for their fit and wearability. They have built strong communities thanks to their Instagram and TikTok strategies. And their pricing typically sits in the £100 to £250 range, to capture the customer that is graduating from fast fashion. “With the cost of living crisis, customers want to have higher quality pieces and invest in something that lasts, so they really get bang for their buck,” says Alie Mackintosh, founder of one such brand, AYM (which stands for Always Your Moment).
We break down the lessons to be learnt from some of these emerging labels.
Lesson 1: Develop a hero product
Odd Muse, founded by Aimee Smale in 2020 while she was working as an assistant buyer in British e-tailer Asos’s premium division, is known for its cinched blazers and sculpted mini dresses.
AYM was founded in 2012 by Mackintosh after she graduated from Central Saint Martins with a degree in product design, and is known for its well-fitting, functional bodycon dresses.
Peachy Den, founded in 2019 by Isabella Weatherby right after she graduated with a degree in international relations and affairs, rose to popularity for its vintage-inspired velvet trousers. Today, its cult offerings include the Kernel fitted jumpsuit, the Mimi cargo bottoms, the Romy drop-waist wool dress and the Deba puffball dress. These have been “instrumental” to the brand’s growth, says Weatherby (the brand has a seven-figure annual revenue and remains profitable).
How do you develop a hero product? Understanding the customer is key, as is eschewing the trend cycle. “We’re a team of 15 women, so we are inherently our customer,” says Weatherby. “We use our team as a sounding board for each capsule. Before it’s launched, we review each product in an open dialogue to help identify hero products and even cancel styles as well.”
While the process is quite intentional, Peachy Den has had to grapple with just how trendy its products should be. “In our third year of operation we focused on trying to hit every trend and actually lost our way slightly and our customer didn’t respond well to it,” says Weatherby. Now, the brand drops four capsules a year, focusing on items that feel more in line with the brand’s identity.
At Odd Muse, Smale says she designs in a bubble, ignoring external forces and hyper-focusing on her customer. Half of Odd Muse’s orders are returning customers, and the company is on track to reach £24 million in revenue this year. “We very rarely look at trend reports or what’s gone down the runway,” says Smale. “We don’t often design to reach a new customer, it’s about reaching the current customer and finding more women like that.”
There are challenges that come with having viral designs. Odd Muse has had to deal with dupes from fast fashion labels, which Smale often calls out on TikTok. “We just accept it now and also accept that it’s two different customers and two different products,” she says. There are also logistical challenges. “[Scaling so quickly] has come with some challenges in terms of hiring and having the facilities to get the orders out quick enough and reply to customer service emails quickly enough. This is probably the first year that we’ve perfected that and gotten past the growing pains.”
Lesson 2: Prioritise fit and wearability
The design of the product might be what draws a customer in, but fit and wearability are what keeps them coming back. Peachy Den has implemented adjustable waistbands to its skirts and trousers, and all of its mini skirts have built-in shorts (inspired by Weatherby’s team, who mostly cycle to the office). “I think that’s what’s been integral, is that the product feels like it’s for women, designed by women,” Weatherby says.
AYM’s bodycon dresses were designed by Mackintosh out of the need for supportive styles that also weren’t see-through. AYM offers built-in bras, double-layered garments for better support, adjustable elements and stretchy materials (which can add up to eight inches of leeway within a garment). “Particularly for women, our bodies change so often even just throughout the month, so it’s important to have clothes that are stretchy, comfortable, breathable and wearable,” she says. “From a business perspective, it’s important when we’re selling online because our customers aren’t able to try our products on and make sure they’ve selected the right sizes.” The business’s annual revenue is seven figures.
The tension that Mackintosh grapples with is sustainability: stretchy fabrics tend to be made from synthetic fibres such as elastane and polyester. “We’re waiting for innovation within the textile world because I don’t believe there’s a natural production to make [stretchy fibres] yet,” Mackintosh notes. In the meantime, the brand focuses on timelessness and its ITY (interlock twist yarn, a type of knit fabric) is made of 95 per cent recycled synthetic fibres (from plastic bottles) and 5 per cent elastane.
AYM and Peachy Den both partner with repairs and alterations startup Sojo. For AYM, since most of the products have some stretch, customers tend to use the service to alter the length rather than the fit. For Peachy Den, the majority of its customers that use Sojo’s services do so to alter the leg length of trousers (based on that, the brand is currently in the process of developing more length options).
“A lot of bigger brands are so disconnected from their customers and their experience of wearing the items. When you’re close to your customer, you’re close to their problems,” says Sojo founder Josephine Philips. “[Offering tailoring is] a really nice nod to the care and commitment to their customers. From a brand point of view, they’re sometimes looking at it strategically as an investment that will reduce returns or convert to a sale.”
Lesson 3: Bring your customer on the journey
All three founders use social media to connect with customers on a personal level.
At Odd Muse, many customers are invested in Smale’s story because they have followed her since she started the business at the age of 22. “I’m always on my Instagram stories talking to customers, whether I was packing orders [when I was starting out] or even now; I was just making videos of the progress for the pop-up store we launched in New York and taking them along on this journey,” she says. “That real behind-the-scenes founder-led content is one of the biggest things people like on our social media. It was quite unintentional at the beginning, but it’s become a huge factor in our success.”
Peachy Den shares private Instagram stories with top customers that it has selected as “close friends” to connect with them and get feedback. “We use it as an open dialogue, either posting competitions or asking about preferences — whether they like this colour or that colour, how they feel about the name of this product. They can give their feedback and then it’s integrated into the design and marketing,” says Weatherby.
Mackintosh messages customers directly and conducts surveys to get feedback on design, sizing and order times. AYM runs on a pre-order model, so it’s essential to keep customers engaged given that they often wait a few weeks to receive their order. “The main thing is that our customers understand the process and that we’re being really communicative about when they should expect their delivery,” she says. It can be hard to manage expectations if an order is delayed and a customer was planning to wear a certain dress for a special event, though.
The benefit of the pre-order model is that it offers a more tangible indication of what customers actually want to buy. “It’s funny because sometimes we post a new design on social media and people love it, but it doesn’t actually convert to sales. With the pre-order model it helps because it’s kind of like you’re voting for a design with an order, so you can see in real time what customers are willing to invest in,” says Mackintosh.
Lesson 4: Be selective with your retail strategy
Like with many successful young brands, Odd Muse, AYM and Peachy Den are digital-first and sell primarily DTC.
This makes it significantly easier to expand internationally. “We’ve grown organically and have been able to reach an international customer base, whereas if we had relied on bricks-and-mortar we wouldn’t have had that scalability,” says Mackintosh. AYM’s overseas sales have grown 761 per cent between 2021 and 2023, with the US, Canada, Europe and Australia accounting for around half of sales. AYM is launching its first pop-up store in London’s Soho from 16 to 22 December, and plans to launch another in spring — either in London or the US.
Odd Muse launched with DHL’s shipping services from the beginning to make it easier to expand worldwide. Currently, all products are shipped from the UK but the brand plans to expand its logistics to have an operation in the US next year, and potentially keep its New York pop-up, which generated $200,000 in sales in just two weeks. Its first pop-up in London’s Covent Garden eventually led to the brand opening a permanent flagship in the same neighbourhood.
Peachy Den has also launched multiple pop-up stores, with its most recent opening in Truman Brewery in East London becoming a permanent fixture. “It’s been such a success for us, it’s a really profitable channel. It’s such an amazing way to meet customers and get to know feedback on product in real time, and it’s in a great location so we’ve seen a huge spike in new customers,” says Weatherby. The brand offers community activations at the store such as a biweekly film club and a swap rail, which allows customers to switch out old Peachy Den designs for new samples or older styles to refresh their wardrobes. The brand plans to open a flagship in 2025.
That doesn’t mean they’ve disregarded wholesale entirely, though. Peachy Den is now stocked at retailers including Selfridges, Liberty, End and Revolve, and has two additional wholesale partnerships planned for next spring. Wholesale currently accounts for 20 per cent of its sales. “Peachy Den was set up as DTC; and because of that, we’ve had to do so much hard work to get to a place where we have the brand identity and the margin to offer wholesale,” says Weatherby.
The trick is to use wholesale sparingly and strategically. Odd Muse has just one stockist in each of its key markets, but has seen significant benefits in terms of customer discovery — and grabbing market share.
“A lot of our customers will say that they used to shop fast fashion and now they prefer to spend on an Odd Muse piece,” says Smale. “In the UK, even higher income consumers are cutting back to this mid-price point. We’re stocked at Harvey Nichols in the UK and David Jones in Australia, and the feedback is when Odd Muse sits next to these luxury brands it presents such value for money. Luxury brands might dominate the accessories market and leather goods, but with clothing there’s so much opportunity.”
Correction: Peachy Den s annual revenue is seven-figures, not six-figures. (2/12/24)
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