Page 13: Triangl swimwear founders Craig Ellis and Erin Deering confirm split
Despite a fairytale beginning to their relationship, successful Triangl swimwear label founders Craig Ellis and Erin Deering have quietly called it quits.
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Theirs was the modern-day Melbourne rags-to-riches tale. An AFL-playing handsome bloke goes from hero to zero after finishing on the footy field.
Boy and equally easy-on-the-eye girl meet and fall in love.
She struggles to find a low-cost bikini on their second date (we did say it was a modern-day Millennial fairytale).
Boy and girl then create a swimsuit brand off the smell of an oily beach towel.
After initial struggles, they turn said swimsuit label into a multimillion-dollar global brand.
Boy and girl move to Monaco, get married, become rich-listers and have two sun-kissed children.
But even the best modern-day fairytales don’t always have a happily-ever-after.
Triangl swimsuit founders Craig Ellis and Erin Deering have quietly separated.
The genetically blessed pair split amicably recently, with Deering moving back to Melbourne with the kids for summer.
Ellis, a former defender for the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne, is known as a “ripper bloke”.
Beset by injuries, he called time at the Demons in 2002. He became part of the sartorial set with his then good friend and former teammate Nathan Brown.
They launched T-shirt company Lenny but, after some early success, it went bust.
Along comes future wife Deering and a date to Half Moon Bay.
“Erin went around looking for a bikini that morning,” Ellis has said.
“When she finally arrived at the beach, she said it was unbelievably hard to find a nice bikini.
“I said I didn’t quite understand it either. Most bikinis are expensive and it’s a small bit of fabric. So one day we thought, ‘stuff it, let’s just quit our jobs and give it a crack’.”
The couple did the hard yards in Hong Kong, but by 2012 they had created Triangl swimwear. Soon the celebrity pull of Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears pumping Triangl on Instagram had transformed it into a global juggernaut, now valued at $36 million amid claims it’s the world’s fastest-growing bikini brand.
Business is booming — but the founders have drifted apart.
Ellis, nicknamed “The Horse” back in his footy days, and Deering confirmed the split to Page 13 but declined to comment. While it might not be the fairytale ending, it is quite the modern-day one. Friends say the couple are still “super close” and focused on “co-parenting”, with Ellis returning to Melbourne from their Monaco base so they can spend Christmas together as a family.
One pal confided to Page 13: “They’ve been through so much. Theirs was such a unique situation, they will always be close.”
BRONZE DUO TURNS GOLD
Triangl is not the only homegrown “Insta-brand” using celebrity pull to push out globally.
The Kardashian effect has also rubbed off on Aussie tanning brand Bondi Sands.
Four months after Kylie Jenner posted a shot of the product on Instagram, the brand has landed a major distribution deal with American pharmacy retailer Walgreens.
Locals Shaun Wilson and Blair James launched Bondi Sands in 2012 and in the UK three years ago.
Meanwhile, athleisure line Jaggad, co-owned by Chris and Rebecca Judd and Stephen and Michelle Greene, is also looking at expanding into the US market.
It’s understood Jaggad will branch out next year with whispers of an “activation” (apologise for the Millennial-thinkspeak) popping up at Coachella music festival.
Page 13 touched base with Bec Judd, who landed in Dubai last night to holiday with her young family for the week before heading home for Christmas.