As a teenager, Rebecca Rasool was set on being a fashion designer. Growing up, Rasool could be found practising Judo, going to rock concerts or hanging out at the local skate park in Upper Hutt, Wellington. “My mum loves to say I stopped playing with dolls at a late age. I just loved dressing them up. I wanted my dolls to have a wardrobe for every occasion, and I used to make little DIY outfits for them,” Rasool said.
After the sixth form at high school, she left to study at Massey University where she finished her Diploma in Fashion Design & Technology. Her menswear collection opened their graduation runway show. Ironically, Rasool chose not to take the lingerie paper in order to do her menswear collection. Rasool interned at twenty-seven names and shortly after became the store manager at Andrea Moore, which gave her a lot of insight into how to run a business. Her Girl Club started in early 2014 after her husband purchased a new overlocker for her. “The first thing I sewed on it was a pair of undies, and it grew from there after my friends started wearing the bralette style,” she said. While working at Andrea Moore, Rasool was looking to start her own line. “I needed something that could be made quickly at night,” she added. Now, Her Girl Club has well over 54,000 followers on Instagram.
Her Girl Club is now launching a new sleepwear range. Rasool is also looking at adding underwire styles on top of expanding her collection. Adding underwire is a big move away from the brand’s current style but some of their customers need underwire pieces for work and Rasool wants to provide a comfortable alternative that still reflects the brand. Everything, apart from the Basics cotton range, is made-to-order by Rasool. “It allows more customization for our customers and no left over stock. I would say 85% of our lingerie sales have different sized cups to the bodice size,” she added. Currently, Her Girl Club is run solely by Rasool. She would love to open a pop-up store at some point to offer her customers a chance to try the lingerie to see and feel the difference. Her next goal is to hire a PR company to focus on the US market, magazine and celebrity placements. Her Girl Club is stocked in online boutiques in the UK and UAE, the new shopping app ‘luv.it’ and is currently in conversation with a New Zealand department store.
