Australian label Spell is preparing to host a warehouse sale in Brisbane for its thousands of loyal fans.
Teaming up with fellow Aussie fashion brand Assembly Label, Spell will have reductions on exclusive samples, seconds, faulty and past season collections – with nothing over $100.
It will run from November 3 to 5 from 8am-7pm on Friday, 8am-6pm on Saturday and 8am-4pm on Sunday at John Reid Pavilion, Brisbane Showgrounds.
Catch the best deals and products hand-picked by our team at Best Picks >>
Spell founders and sisters Elizabeth Abegg and Isabella Pennefather have turned their wildest fashion dreams into reality with the label.
Isabella came up with a business idea, selling handmade jewellery to a select few boutiques in Melbourne and then Byron Bay when she moved there in 2005.
By 2009 Isabella had garnered a strong local following selling her designs at the Byron Bay markets and required the assistance of her sister Elizabeth to see it grow, the latter confessing the pair were in “the right place at the right time”.
Now Spell is a multi-million dollar enterprise, employs 50 people, has a brick-and-mortar store in Byron Bay, one million Instagram followers, and can be spotted on the likes of Blake Lively, Sienna Miller and Elsa Pataky.
Now an Aussie staple, Spell is looking to expand its wings further north and bring its signature flair to the US, UK and Canada.
Recently, the team celebrated becoming B Corp Certified, another string to their all-important sustainable bow, joining just 31 other apparel companies in Australia and New Zealand.
B Corp businesses are those that meat high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.
It is no small feat. Organisations must go through extensive assessment, with evidence-based verification in order to show this.
“The more we learn about sustainability the more we understand how critical it is that we are continuously improving and looking for innovative materials and business practices to reduce our impact,” Elizabeth, who Chief Branding Officer at Spell, told Best Picks.
“We also see the value in cross pollinating knowledge and ideas with fellow business owners.
“The B Corp community offers opportunities for collaborative learning between businesses, and in our experience a collaborative approach toward positive impact is a far more successful approach – it is a together we can move mountains kind of thing.”
While there are a number of ethical and bohemian-themed clothing brands born out of Byron Bay, Elizabeth feels that the brand’s strong storytelling is what sets them apart.
“Blogs and Instagram were the perfect place to share the campaigns that we were producing,” She said.
“We garnered quite a strong community who loved the imagery we were putting out there and our followers on Instagram turned into a community of eager customers and the brand grew from there.
“By 2016, we had gone from a small market stall to an actual fashion business.”
But that doesn’t mean Spell’s founders have never made mistakes along the way.
Elizabeth acknowledges there have been “plenty” but they have always been open and honest about them with their loyal shoppers.
“We once had to ‘recall’ a dress we’d made a printing error on. We alerted our customers and they responded with such understanding,” she said.
“We realised it wasn’t meeting the level of perfection they expected from us and we wanted to be transparent. That lesson has served as a bit of a guiding light for us, when in doubt we are 100 per cent honest with our community and they appreciate it.
“Our community have been very patient over the years, we’ve had website crashes on sell-out launch days, times we’ve stuffed up shipping or product descriptions – and it has been our honest and often vulnerable relationship with our community that has gotten us through.”
While Elizabeth and Isabella are still entirely consumed by Spell day-to-day they have been able to take a half step back every now and again to enjoy the fruits of their labour – and their families.
“We probably don’t see each other out of work quite as much as we would like but family is at the core of everything we do,” Elizabeth said.
“Be it with our own children, parents, nieces, nephews and all the beautiful friendships in between. It’s a funny thing when you start a ‘lifestyle brand’ you realise how important moments with family are and prioritise that above all else.
“The business has grown in a way that allows us to do that – we now have a CEO and a Creative Director and they have allowed us to prioritise time with our families.”
To see Spell’s latest collection and to shop online, visit their website here.