Co-founders Danika Rooney and Holly Emery both started in the fashion industry through modelling. The two thoroughly enjoyed the world of fashion and how it allowed them to explore their creativity. Rooney grew up in a small town called Opotiki and attended St Joseph Primary School before moving to Whakatane High School. Rooney then moved again to Auckland, where she went to Mt Albert Grammar School. Emery, however, was born and raised in Auckland and went to Kohia Terrace Primary School and then continued high school at Diocesan.
The duo have always been creative whether it’s been in or out of school and both have had an interest in photography from an early age. “It was probably when we began modelling and got to see and be amongst the creative individuals in the fashion industry that we began to appreciate and want to show our view of fashion and photography,” explained Rooney.
The first designs were inspired by their modelling careers, ideas about modelling in general and the social media world. “‘Support Your Local Models Meltdown’ and ‘Models Are So Last Season’ were the first tees and to us they were to be taken as a joke,” said Emery. “They were an experiment just to test the waters on what other people thought,” added Rooney. Together they spend a lot of time bantering about possible designs. Emery works on the mock ups for all of their designs to see how they would look. The duo have no official training even though they were both gifted with sewing machines when they were younger. “If we were able, we would for sure be designing and hand-making the tees ourselves, but for now we source all of our products in NZ,” Rooney said. They are looking into screen printing their garments themselves in the future.
Their favourite part is seeing the end product for the first time. “It’s always an amazing feeling seeing your vision come to life and we get so hyped seeing our customers in them,” said Emery.
Currently, they are working on their new online store, expanding their range and looking for new retailers. Heavily influenced by the New Zealand fashion industry, their goal is to bring a sense of humour into their designs from an industry they both love and appreciate. “We want to create products that we both genuinely love and are proud of.”
