Taking on the world

A 23-year-old from Baulkham Hills built an online fashion business from her bedroom.

Will and Argylica Conditsis at their Baulkham Hills warehouse. Picture: Peter Kelly

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A 23-year-old who built an online fashion business from her bedroom said dropping out of university was “the best decision” she ever made.

Argylica Conditsis’ fashion journey began in 2012 when the university student started decorating shoes in her bedroom.

“I used to bejewel shoes because I couldn’t find shoes in the market that I was looking for,” she said.

As friends and family started noticing her shoes — and putting in their orders — Ms Conditsis, of Baulkham Hills, began selling her creations online.

She soon began selling clothing as well as shoes and sales “just skyrocketed”.

“It grew so organically, so fast, that I had to drop out of uni and drop any jobs I had and put all my attention into the brand,” she said.

The Gilroy College alumni made the decision to quit her half-finished visual communications degree in 2013 — despite family and friends trying to convince her otherwise — and focus on her business, Babyboo Fashion, fulltime.

The sister-brother duo behind online fashion business Babyboo Fashion.

“At the time it was a bit of a difficult situation, but I don’t regret it one single bit,” she said.

“It’s the best decision I’ve ever made.”

A year later, her brother William also left his business and commerce degree to join the company.

“He saw the brand rapidly evolving and just thought he could contribute so much more … so he came on board,” Ms Conditsis said.

Ms Conditsis said the brother-sister duo now head up a team of eight other staff and stock more than 3000 items of clothing, which they ship to customers around the world.

The online-only company, which has a combined social media following of more than 450,000, sells a mixture of about 60 per cent of their own designs and about 40 per cent sourced from suppliers, a balance that Ms Conditsis hopes to increase to 90 per cent of their own designs by the end of the year.

Rapid expansion has required a few moves — the company recently outgrew its second warehouse and will soon shift into its third in Baulkham Hills.

Ms Conditsis said the success of Babyboo Fashion was a result of “trial and error” and “learning from your mistakes fast”.

“There is no real rule book in how to set up a business,” she said.

“ ... I’d try something and it didn’t work, so I’d try something new.”

Ms Conditsis said while her business faced “challenges every single day”, her passion has kept her focused.

“You need to find something you enjoy doing so that it makes it worth it when challenges pop up, because it’s so easy to give it all away,” she said.