Businesses collaborating to succeed during and beyond COVID
- Written by Tess Sanders Lazarus
Australia’s largest online retailer of lingerie and swimwear for women of all sizes, Big Girls Don’t Cry Anymore (Big Girls), has secured a new Brisbane premises with a pop-up area to support emerging and growing likeminded businesses.
“The new site is huge – it is gives us the space equivalent of four full tennis courts. The opportunity for a pop-up area in this new site is what inevitably sold us the space,” Karen Edbrooke, the founder of Big Girls said.
“In fact, the space is so big that we have also installed a new coffee shop in addition to our new distribution centre, studio and working space.
“While businesses around the country have been affected by COVID, small businesses have definitely been hit the hardest. That is why we are excited to start collaborating with small businesses that complement our message, and to showcase their products in our pop-up area.
“Through our online live-streamed lingerie show, Big Girls TV, we have created an incredible community of hundreds of thousands of women. This beautiful community is the reason Big Girls has grown to the size it is today, over the last 28 years. We are always looking for fresh ways to support our community of mighty women, so we are excited to offer them something new with the introduction of our pop-up area and collaborations with likeminded businesses.”
According to Edbrooke, Big Girls has secured their first collaboration for the pop-up area with Lilly and Lime, a swimwear label for women with bigger busts, from 12 October.
“We are very excited to be the first pop-up at Big Girls’ new site. Their whole team has been incredibly generous with their time and their resources. What they’re doing is going to be game changing for so many small businesses – offering free rent in their pop-up area will support so many people,” Lilly & Lime Co Founder, Emma-Jane Hughes said.
Emma-Jane Hughes and Ashleigh Hill are bigger busted best friends who co-founded Lilly & Lime in 2016. Their label was created to bridge the gap between fashionable swimwear and great fitting swimwear for women with a bust above a D-cup, all in a stress-free shopping experience.
“We will be setting up our first ever Brisbane pop-up, at the Big Girls site, from October 12th until October 25th. We will be open between 9am and 5pm daily, so we hope there is a time suitable for everyone who wants to come along to say hello and check out our range,” Hill said.
“There is also a special guest who will be joining me at the pop-up – Brenda, our Lilly & Lime BRArchitect.
“We know that bra sizing around the world is inconsistent, to say the least, which is why Brenda is worth her weight in gold for anyone looking to experience the life-changing support of a perfectly fitting Lilly & Lime suit. Brenda is a wizard when it comes to choosing swimwear for different bodies. She will be coming to the pop-up to help with fittings and size checks, so that everyone walks away feeling their absolute best in their new swimwear.”
According to Hughes, all of the products listed on their online site will be available to shop at the Big Girls pop-up.
“We will have all of our styles available to try-on in every size – which is actually over 60 sizes. Our goal is to have a size to fit all of our bigger busted customers, which is why we pride ourselves in stocking sizes 6D, or 28D, through to 18HH/40HH, in our tops, and sizes 8 through to 22 across our bottom styles,” Hughes said.
“Our tops and bottoms are each sold separately so that our customers can mix and match to create their perfect bikini for their body, their unique style and their lifestyle. Whether it’s running around after the kids on the beach, shredding in the surf, or lazing by the pool, we want everyone to feel comfortable and confident in their swimwear.
“We have also committed to offering free express shipping from our online store to anyone who comes along to the pop-up and cannot find the colour or print they want from our range.”
According to Hill, the biggest trend in swimwear this summer is confidence.
“Our top piece of advice this year is to buy swimwear that makes you feel confident – because when you feel confident you tend to look your best too. Life is too short to wear ill-fitting swimwear that makes you feel bleh. We want women to get out there, and enjoy the water and sunshine this summer,” Hill said.
“In terms of colours and prints for this summer, we are loving our muted floral tones that can be mixed and matched to create super unique looks. Pairing with a soft lavender colour is a beautiful feminine look, whereas with a deep navy it is bolder and more vibrant look. All of our swimwear is designed to be worn together, so that you can seamlessly add to your collected throughout the year.”
Big Girls is Australia's largest independently owned lingerie and swimwear business, providing the country's most extensive range of fashion products. It also is one of the country's biggest retail innovators, offering virtual fittings and its latest innovation, Big Girls TV. Big Girls TV is an online lingerie show for plus size and curvy women delivered via the internet. Shows include the live streaming of lingerie fashion parades and other informational segments using real life everyday Australian women as models and the inclusion of a presenter who comperes the segments and responds to questions real time sent in from viewers during the course of the show. The team at Big Girls Don’t Cry Anymore affectionately call the new online TV channel ‘BGTV’. BG TV shows regularly attract hundreds of thousands of viewers. Big Girls has also expanded its virtual fitting service and now offers nine virtual fitting rooms during extended hours to assist women working and in isolation.
www.biggirls.com.au
https://www.lillyandlime.com/
