Mish mashing at meshea's

Tracey McEldowney reports.

Shelly Burrows is the first to admit her retailing success is due in part to the exploitation of cheap labour.
Husband Peter, and daughters Mischa and Chey have each offered their pound of flesh over the years towards helping the Sydney-based businesswoman get her various enterprises off the ground.
But it is Burrows herself who can take much of the credit for a fashion career that has, to date, spanned more than 25 years.
The energetic mother-of-two, a diagnosed dyslexic, began life working for Just Jeans, later switching to become a fashion agent for underwear brands Davenport and Calvin Klein.
After tiring of the monotony of a sales-based position, she turned her attention to marketing - learning the ropes during a stint at Accessory Street - before opening her own firm, aptly titled Burrows Fashion Marketing.
Yet it is in her latest incarnation, as the proprietor of a three-year-old thriving interior design-cum-wardrobe styling business on Leichhardt's Short Street, meshea lifestyle, and the four-month-old Norton Street-based retail outlet meshea lafemme, for which she is rapidly gaining attention.
Virtually unheard of three years ago, the lifestyle store alone turned over more than $100,000 last year and so far this year has experienced growth of between 20 and 30 per cent every month.
And it seems its sister store may be following in its footsteps.
Targeted at females aged between 25 and 75, meshea lafemme is an eclectic mix of vintage and modern womenswear.
Burrows says as one of the first stores in the area to focus exclusively on women, this was a deliberate ploy to create a reason for people to enter the store after doing their other chores.
"When we looked at the name meshea, what jumped out at us was the 'me'. And our customer is me, she's 15 years my senior and 15 years my junior. We're not fashion leaders, we're not fashion followers, but we understand fashion."
A hybrid of the name of her twin daughters Chey (who's in real estate) and Mischa (the manager of la femme), the store is positioned as a lifestyle haven with a mixture of cosmopolitan and classic offerings.
To this end, it is crammed with everything from lace knickers and jewellery to bags, bodycare and cushions. Brands stocked include Bracewell Basics, Metalicus, Wish, Mink Pink and Grab, but Burrows argues her selection is based more on point of difference that it is on reputation.
"We do and we don't do brands. It is more a consideration of 'is it different, is it unique?' We have also become known as being a gift store. We didn't set out this way but every day we have customers coking in and say 'I'm looking for a gift for . . . '"
It is partly for this reason the store receives between five and ten new deliveries each day. This allows it to change its stock and style every second week to offer customers a distinctive new feel each time they cross through the front door.
With price points starting at just $50, Burrows admits sourcing this amount of stock is almost, in itself, a full time job.
"[I source a lot] from Surry Hills as there are heaps of wholesalers on Kippax Street doing a great job. I go to [trade fair] FASHION EXPOSED, I walk the streets, I look in magazines. I also stop people on the street. I never stop listening to staff and other suppliers and ask a lot of questions." In an effort to up the ante, Burrows will next year travel to the US to source new ideas and stock.
A keen shopper who believes browsing around a great store is one of life's most under-rated pleasures, Burrows also places the design and fitting of her stores high on her priority list.
"All our fixtures are second hand vintage furniture. [My husband] Peter goes to the auctions and garage sales and buys Vinnies furniture all of which we sell. He does great paint finishes and we display and sell from these. We were so excited when we could afford to buy chandeliers and a carpenter to build a real cupboard. I knew that fixtures wouldn't put money in the register but the right product would. It was like renovating my home . . . little steps."
With windows and advertising outlays planned six months in advance, Burrows likes to avoid traditional "sales" periods, opting instead to drive visits via the website (meshealifestyle.com.au) and repeat visits through the stores' two in-house loyalty programs.
The first is offered to VIP visitors, each of whom is offered a meshea pink heart to use for ongoing discounts. A second card offers a free gift with every fifth purchase and an ongoing 10 per cent discount off all merchandise. In keeping with the "haven" theme, the eight staff across both stores - each of whom receive ongoing product training - are also instructed to gift wrap every purchase, each of which also comes with a free bag of vanilla or rose petals.
It is this effort to go the extra mile that has appreciative customers approaching Burrows to franchise her stores.
Having given it long and hard consideration, Burrows, with the help of her accountant, has instead chosen to develop a meshea concept store manual that will help would-be retailers open their own stores.
"Often franchisees are unhappy people. What we are proposing is a three-module offering where we can get you retail-ready. We can offer advice on running a successful business, marketing, advertising, buying and then we can mentor you on a monthly or quarterly basis."
If successful, plans are also afoot to push meshea's home styling and wardrobe styling service with the planned launch of group seminars advising women on how to create a wardrobe that embodies their own individual spirit early in the new year.


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