Fashion entrepreneur Briella Brown makes her dream come true
AFTER three years online and an investment secured on TV’s Shark Tank, young businesswoman Briella Brown has opened her first shopfront in Neutral Bay.
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BRIELLA Brown is the well-dressed proof you should never underestimate a determined teen. The 22 year-old is the creative force behind designer gown hire business Your Closet.
After three years online and an investment secured on TV’s Shark Tank, the young businesswoman has opened her first shopfront in Neutral Bay, catering to young professionals attending social events including weddings, work galas and formals.
Twenty-eight high-end labels, from Alex Perry, Thurley and Camilla and Marc to Badgley Mischka and Nicole Miller, are available to hire for a snip of the retail price.
Brown had the idea when she was in Year 12 at Loreto Kirribilli.
“I was 17 and wanting to attend formals in cool dresses,” she said. “I realised there was this dress swapping between girls and I saw dress hire being done overseas in Europe and America and thought, ‘How cool would it be if we had a service like that in Australia?’ I finished school and decided to give it a crack.”
Dress hire costs 15 per cent of the retail price, ranging from $69 for a Talulah mini dress, to $199 for a $1600 Alex Perry gown, and includes insurance and dry cleaning.
Sometimes there is a waiting list, especially if a gown has been spied on a celebrity. “There was this Thurley yellow lace dress Isabel Lucas wore for spring carnival. Everyone was like ‘Where’s the Hollyhock dress?’. We had an 80-person waiting list before we even received the stock,” Brown said.
“We’ve learnt what works — what colours, what shapes. The silhouette is really important. We know our customers want something really dressy.”
Brown reasons that customers don’t want a little black dress because that’s something they would invest in. “You might wear a little black dress 20 times, but how many times would you wear a hot pink Thurley tassel dress?”
The online side of the business sees gowns sent Australia-wide, including far-flung rural towns. “We send to places I have to Google,” Brown said. “We have a lot going to Townsville and Darwin. They don’t have a David Jones round the corner, but why shouldn’t they wear cool clothes?”
The shop, on Young St, offers a couple of things the online store doesn’t — easy parking for one. There is also a register for big events, especially formals, to avoid several girls turning up in the same frock.
“It means that if, say, Ravenswood girls come in for their formal dresses, there won’t be six other girls wearing the same dress on the same night. The girls respect it and the mums appreciate it, too,” Brown said.
“Customers are respectful. We’ve never had anything come back trashed. Maybe the odd cocktail spill, but nothing dry cleaning can’t handle.”
Brown’s career stared out in an office (“well, a room with a desk in it”) in her parents’ Balgowlah home.
“We had these fluoro green fake tanning tents my dad bought from a hardware store. Even though it was online, sometimes people would ask to try something on. I’d be like ‘yes, but you have to come to my house!’ They’d be trying on a $2000 dress in an ugly tent.
“It was exciting, but stressful — the printer would break and I’d have to run to Balgowlah Heights deli and get them to print labels, then make it home for the shipping cut off.”
Brown was studying creative direction at Whitehouse and media at UNSW at the time. She didn’t finish the course — something she regrets.
“My parents never said anything negative — it was just like, ‘That’s what Briella does’. My dad owns his own business, and he knows nothing beats real life experience.”
When Brown approached her first client, Alex Perry, she didn’t even have a website. (“You can’t build the website without product, it’s a chicken or egg situation.”)
She didn’t tell the designer’s sales team her age. “No one knew how young I was. I did everything over email and on the phone. I pitched the idea that I could put their product in the hands of influential women in their 20s and 30s who might not have the income to buy an $1000 dress but wanted to look great and tell their friends, ‘I’m wearing Alex Perry’.
“It’s not taking away from retail, but opening it up to a new demographic they may not yet have reached because of the price point.”
Once Perry was on board, kaftan queen Camilla Franks followed suit. “Then I approached Christopher Esber and it went from there,” she said. “It’s easy once you have brands on board.”
Brown took a loan to buy her first collections, but also has her appearance on Season 2 of Shark Tank to thank for promoting the business and building it from online to bricks and mortar.
The show came about fortuitously. “McGrath real estate has a ball every year and I was sending dresses to the head office. One of the girls told John McGrath, who was on the show’s panel, about me and he said I should try out.
“It was a great opportunity to sit down and learn the numbers and the intricacies of my business because I would have ruined it all if I went on TV and didn’t know.
“It was a scary, but I thought, ‘You’re young, they’re not going to rip you to shreds’.”
As it was, Brown held her own and was awarded $80,000 by mentors Naomi Simson and Janine Allis.
They are just two of Brown’s mentors. “Being young is an advantage because people are so willing to help.
“I go to my dad multiple times a day. He doesn’t know the difference between a skirt and a dress, but the principals of business are the same across the board,” she said.
The businesswoman also finds support from her boyfriend Chad Alston.
“He’s a clinical research analyst so he gives a different perspective. He listens. We were out recently and someone asked what the most popular dress was and he immediately said, ‘The Nicholas Painted Floral Mesh Ball Gown’. I must have been talking about it so much!
“I think about work all the time — I dream about it. I have learned so much, but I still don’t think I’ve scratched the surface.”