Pip Edwards steps down from the brand she founded
Pip Edwards loves a good mic drop. In May, the fashion entrepreneur relaunched the athleisure brand she cofounded, P.E Nation, at Australian Fashion Week, to widespread acclaim. Less than three months later, in the early hours of Monday morning, she announced she was quitting.
“My time leading the brand as creative director has been an incredible run, and while I am handing over that role, I am maintaining my P.E Nation directorship and substantial shareholding,” Edwards announced on her Instagram account while holidaying overseas. “I am forever grateful for and proud of what we have created, and P.E Nation will always be in my heart and soul.”
Pip Edwards, with models at Australian Fashion Week, is stepping down from P.E Nation.Credit: Getty
Edwards took the reins of the business in March, following the departure of her cofounder Claire Greaves, who also retains a shareholding and board position. The brand, which the pair founded in 2016, is majority-owned by the Sydney-based fashion group Hotsprings, which also owns the Rebecca Vallance brand.
Under Edwards and Greaves, who had worked together previously at sass & bide, P.E Nation experienced a meteoric rise, winning the 2018 National Designer Award. The pandemic was also a boon for the brand – indeed, for the entire activewear category – but expansions into menswear and ski wear were less successful.
Last year, rumours circulated of a souring in Edwards and Greaves’ relationship, before the latter confirmed her departure from the day-to-day operations of the business.
In March, P.E Nation was honoured with the Grand Showcase at the Melbourne Fashion Festival, but initial plans to relaunch the brand at the event were scuppered in favour of a Sydney spectacle in May. The Sydney show was billed as a success that would help to revive the at-times flagging brand, whose graphic, colour-blocked designs were traded for something more pared back and tonal.
After the Sydney triumph, Edwards told this masthead: “You make such a stance to evolve … and then you’re like, ‘Is this going to be different enough?’ It’s that risk, but with that risk comes great magic.”
Now, in another magic trick, Edwards has vanished into a cloud of smoke (or a Swedish beach, according to her latest social media posts). As yet, no successor has been named.
Edwards and Hotsprings have been contacted for comment.
The big question on the industry’s lips on Monday was whether a P.E Nation without Pip Edwards could survive. Hotsprings will certainly be banking on it. One fashion industry figure likened it to sass & bide after the departure of founders Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke. “It will never be the same,” the insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
In her post, Edwards, 44, says she is leaving P.E Nation to “pursue new creative challenges”.
While it’s unclear what that could mean, she has relationships with luxury brands, including Bulgari and Rimowa luggage. She boasts 194,000 followers on Instagram and is represented by global talent agency IMG.
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