Woo-ing a global audience
@di1:They have been creating clothes for more than a decade but it wasn't until 2004 when the trio behind High Tea With Mrs Woo really hit their stride, as Tracey McEldowney discovered.
Instant success was not something that came easily to Rowena, Juliana and Angela Foong.
While each had been making their own clothes since before they hit their teens, all turned their back on early thoughts of a career in fashion design to focus on what they felt were more "stable" jobs.
For 28-year-old Rowena, the oldest of the trio, this meant spending the early part of her working life earning a crust as a graphic designer. Younger sister Juliana, 26, opted for visual communications while the youngest of the siblings, Angela (24), elected for a career in economics.
It was not until 1997 when the girls opted to follow their true calling and venture into designing clothes for profit.
Having always had a passion for what Rowena Foong describes as "making and designing things", they began by selling clothes to local boutiques, later combining resources to set up and run a second-hand store.
"Having sold out of designs we made from vintage fabrics and realising that it was impossible to support three partners selling second-hand goods, we decided that starting our own label - realising our dream of running a fashion business and seriously producing our designs - was the only option to continue our survival in the trade. We launched High Tea with Mrs Woo at the start of 2004," Foong says.
Targeting their womenswear label at women of all ages - with a core concentration of ladies aged between 30 and 45 years - the girls looked to their Asian heritage for inspiration, incorporating a sense of traditional craft aesthetic to their work, and adding bold prints and colours to give their designs more of an Oriental appeal.
Foong says this focus has translated through to buyers resulting in the label, whose clothing sells for anywhere between $200 and $800, now attracting consumers who are not only "proud and quietly confident" but also artistically-inclined.
"Like the name of our label, our collections are the simple craft of making and telling stories. Our designs carry the same philosophy as high tea - full of variety, versatility, attention to detail, distinction and purpose."
In 2005, less than a year after launching at Mercedes Australian Fashion Week (MAFW), the label won the NSW state final of the Mercedes Start-up Awards. Later that same year the girls were also invited to exhibit their collection at the Object Gallery in Sydney as well as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Today - aside from its own store in Newcastle - the label is now stocked in 15-plus stores across almost every state in Australia including Strelitzia (NSW), Department of the Exterior (ACT), Kundalini Rising (VIC), Tea Lily (QLD) and Urban Depot(WA).
High Tea with Mrs Woo's participation in a group showing in April's MAFW spring/summer 06/07 led to a host of new domestic stockists but more importantly, orders via buyers from Quinns of Merivale (Christchurch, New Zealand), as well as Lazarri and Morena Gandini's Mix (both in Italy), offered it its first real opportunity to export.
"The international delegates that came through our showroom had heard and seen our previous collections from our participation with MAFW so it reinforced to them that we still existed and perhaps this season appealed more to them."
Foong says the biggest challenge the label has faced to date has been in terms of production with time and money an ongoing issue.
"We're working 120-hour weeks at the moment and it's really tough. Managing our cashflow, finding inspiration and trying to continually produce good design is bloody difficult."
Keeping its manufacturing onshore has also presented problems, she says, with few Australian manufacturers willing to produce small runs.
Believing persistence pays off, however, the label has hooked up with national trade body Austrade's new exporter program which Foong credits for much of the label's early international success.
Foong says the label decided early on it would start small with its plans to export, focusing on New Zealand first and then later South East Asia.
Anything else was an unexpected bonus.
"We have had interest from Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the US and the UK. We have a good feeling about exporting and Australia is a small place. We feel Australian consumers are affected by the global appeal of a label and we want to tell our stories to anyone in the world who wants to listen.
"We'll start with what we have now and in the near future aim to have our designs represented in Asia, Japan and UK as they are indicating strongest interest. We've had good advice that the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time."
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