Eleven years today we opened the doors to our first shop in Mt Lawley. Eleven years! Time has definitely flown. It feels like yesterday that we were frantically trying to tick tasks off the to-do list so that we could open our doors. With the help of our friends and family we pulled it together and it has been the most exciting journey!
Once we got the keys to the premises we spent hours cleaning concrete dust out of the new build. We enlisted our mum to help us paint. We were painting the walls with brushes because the uneven brickwork made rollers impossible. To this day we still recoil at the idea of painting - yet we had to pick up brushes again when we moved to Northbridge 6 years later!
Next the electricity went in. It was the first time we worked with Michael and his business MJ Smith Electrical Solutions: he helped us design a lighting plan and installed it all. Michael is still our electrician 11 years later and is such a dream to work with.
A little bit of building work came next, plus putting up racks with our dad and then styling the shop with new furniture and some favourite pieces that we brought from home. We got it all together in a fortnight, but both of us had other jobs at this time so we'd get up at the crack of dawn - earlier actually, it was still dark - and do what we could before showering, working then coming back in the afternoon.
The day before we opened it was time for our friends to help. There was Jelena hanging up the clothes and writing on tags (she ended up being our first ever employee later that year), Julia scrubbing the floor and bringing duck pizza for some much needed sustenance, Jessie ran errands too.
The next morning the first sale of the day was a headband to Gemma. The days and weeks that followed were absolutely amazing - the support we received from our friends and family was so humbling.
So a very big thank you to all the people who helped get us off the ground - and an equally big thank you to everyone who has shopped with us over the last 11 years. We might have been around for a while now, but we are still a small business where every customer counts.
Here's to the next year - we aren't going anywhere!
Claire & Isabelle x
