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Speaker 1: Welcome to the mentor. I'm Mark Boris Damn Sam's welcome

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Speaker 1: to the mentor.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: And now you're the founder or your co founder, but

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Speaker 1: one of the one of the two co founders of

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Speaker 1: the brand basic or Basic or Basic. I don't care

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Speaker 1: what way you want to say it, but I would

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Speaker 1: say I would I'd go back to tours and I'm

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Speaker 1: going to say Basic, how's it go? Basic? It's good,

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Speaker 1: that's little to do. And you're a fashion brand, so

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Speaker 1: probably the most And I'm not a fashion person, so

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Speaker 1: i'd like you if you don't mind explaining to me

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Speaker 1: a what is a fashion brand? And what is the

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Speaker 1: basic fashion brand? What do you stand for?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's funny because I wouldn't actually, I mean, we're

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Speaker 2: a design lead brand. We're not necessarily we are a

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Speaker 2: fashion brand, but in a different sense, because it's.

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Speaker 1: A good point. You're not sort of doing what's ever fashionable,

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Speaker 1: is what you mean? It's more about maybe classic.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're not following trends. I'm trying to trying to

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Speaker 2: design purposeful clothing that's beautiful, that's luxurious, and it makes

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Speaker 2: sense that people need and it needs to be aspirational.

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Speaker 1: As well.

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Speaker 2: So there's a sense of luxury and a good feeling

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Speaker 2: when you buy our brand. But it's not necessarily people

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Speaker 2: buying it because they want to look super trendy or

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Speaker 2: super cool. That's my view on it. I mean, I

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Speaker 2: think our customer feels good in it, they feel safe

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Speaker 2: in it, and they aspire to look a certain way,

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Speaker 2: and they pay the money because it's not you know,

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Speaker 2: we're not fast fashioned. We're locally produced. So that's a

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Speaker 2: big part of what we do, the sustainability, the locally

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Speaker 2: produced timeless. I suppose classic and I think you know,

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Speaker 2: I design products that last. So a basic T shirt

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Speaker 2: you buy, it'll be a good T shirt, you wear

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Speaker 2: it only out, you'll save it, and then after two

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Speaker 2: or three years it'll become the T shirt that you

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Speaker 2: might wear to the gym and then maybe you wear

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Speaker 2: it to bed in ten years time, or polish your

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Speaker 2: car with it, you know what I mean. Like it's

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Speaker 2: Scott Longevity our brand.

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Speaker 1: Do you mind if we just lean into that whole

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Speaker 1: fashion bit and fast fashion. Fashion is when I use

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Speaker 1: the word fashion, I'm sort of talking about not necessarily

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Speaker 1: what's fashionable, but I'm talking about sort of clothes clothing brand,

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Speaker 1: clothing brands, I mean as opposed to it being fashionable.

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Speaker 1: Maybe just leaning Toto this for a second though. So

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Speaker 1: I've had a I used to have a mate I

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Speaker 1: still have made it still live. He's be in his

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Speaker 1: nineties now and his wife used to have a clothing

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Speaker 1: boutique in Double Bay. It was called Shirley B. And

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Speaker 1: Shirley used to sell high end brands. Her husband, George Bloomfield,

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Speaker 1: was a clothing guy. Maybe it's the best way I

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Speaker 1: could put it to. And he knew all the right

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Speaker 1: ways to get a suit made, likeself and travel overseas,

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Speaker 1: and he'd say it to someone to give me three buttons,

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Speaker 1: and you know, he's had all these sort of terminologies,

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Speaker 1: and he's very good at sort of helping me work

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Speaker 1: out because I'm an absolute bogan where I grew up

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Speaker 1: and I knew nothing about men's clothing, not a s past. No,

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Speaker 1: it's the truth. Because my very first suit with a

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Speaker 1: light green suit and I had a brown shirt and

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Speaker 1: I got it made at a place called Pineapple Joe's

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Speaker 1: in George Street, which is we're now where the QVB

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Speaker 1: building was is there used to be a whole series

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Speaker 1: of what George is a Jewish guy, and they called

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Speaker 1: his school Schmutters. There's a whole series of Taylor's and

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Speaker 1: they had this was an Indian guy there and he

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Speaker 1: had this shop and you walked in there when I

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Speaker 1: was eight, and he went to get a suit and

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Speaker 1: you choose your own material for the suit, then he

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Speaker 1: may your shirt. So I got a light green suit

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Speaker 1: because I thought the low ground looked nice. And I

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Speaker 1: got a pair of brown light light like pustachio green. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And was it summer No, I don't know. I just

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Speaker 1: it was sort of had I had won for my

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Speaker 1: first job. Yeah, and had a dark brown shirt, and

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Speaker 1: I had a brown Paisley tie brown Paisley brown and

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Speaker 1: black because it was a Paisley period and I had

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Speaker 1: a pear of brown shoes. I didn't realize you need

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Speaker 1: to get one or two suits, more than one suit.

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Speaker 1: And I used to get every Saturday take down the

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Speaker 1: same day dry cleaning joint and get it cleaned up

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Speaker 1: and pine auble Joe's and I can't It wasn't very

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Speaker 1: expensive suit one hundred and fifty bucks or something like that,

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Speaker 1: but I had no idea anyway. George used to sort

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Speaker 1: of helped me out over time. And he used to

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Speaker 1: have this saying, I can't remember how it went, but

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Speaker 1: it was something as classics is all about style, and

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Speaker 1: fashions about something else. But he used to always say, Mark,

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Speaker 1: whenever you get something, gets something that lasts through all

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Speaker 1: the fashionable periods. So maybe this year we got thin lapel.

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Speaker 1: Next year we've got a broader lapel for the suit.

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Speaker 1: I grew up in a suit period where everyone was

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Speaker 1: wearing suits to work. The ties were you'd have a

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Speaker 1: period of striped ties they go. You have a period

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Speaker 1: where Paisley ties of the go, then you'd have a

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Speaker 1: plain tie. He's just say he's get a plaine suit,

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Speaker 1: maybe blue, maybe a gray one. And maybe when I

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Speaker 1: was younger, I have a black suit as well. Get

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Speaker 1: a white shirt at all. Just get a tie that suits.

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Speaker 1: There's the same color solid I used to call it.

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Speaker 1: Solidities were the same as your jacket. If you've got

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Speaker 1: a blue suit, blue tie, and wear dark black shoes,

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Speaker 1: black shoes.

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Speaker 2: Perfect.

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Speaker 1: And he had this thing about classics versus fashion, and

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Speaker 1: it was about, like you just said, about being out

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Speaker 1: of wear every year, because if you get the fashion

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Speaker 1: this year, you can't wear anische because there's a different one.

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Speaker 2: And why I over complicate your life because you don't

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Speaker 2: want to have to make decisions every morning, because you've

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Speaker 2: got enough decisions to make that day on what to wear.

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Speaker 2: So that's what we do. We make it really easy.

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Speaker 2: And I disliked to design thing. I mean, there's a

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Speaker 2: perfectionism in what I do in terms of quality, quality,

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Speaker 2: cut everything, the make, the fabrication, it has to be

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Speaker 2: the best quality, and I'm really particular about that. So

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Speaker 2: something so simple as a T shirt, it actually takes

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Speaker 2: about eight steps to make a T shirt in Australia.

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Speaker 2: So we chose our own yarn, We designed our own fabric.

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Speaker 2: It's got a very dry handle. That's for a reason

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Speaker 2: a dry handle is it's from the type of plant

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Speaker 2: that it's from. So I wanted to have a bit

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Speaker 2: more of a vintage feel. I wanted it to be

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Speaker 2: super fine, but not too fine.

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Speaker 1: For the T shirt.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, for the jersey, because that's where we started. We

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Speaker 2: started as a jersey brand.

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Speaker 1: What's a jersey brand?

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Speaker 2: So jersey is a type of like it's a fabrication,

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Speaker 2: it's a knit, so cotton, the cotton T shirt is

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Speaker 2: a jersey. So When we started the brand, it was

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Speaker 2: like just a jersey collection, but we did jersey pants,

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Speaker 2: jersey oversized teas, jersey fitted teas, jersey dresses, and that's

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Speaker 2: sort of the premise of the brand. It was about

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Speaker 2: using organic cotton that was eighteen years ago, so we

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Speaker 2: had a choice. We could choose our yarn the supplier

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Speaker 2: we actually, funnily enough, we had a really great contact

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Speaker 2: the people that supplied Bonds their fabrics.

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Speaker 1: In Bonds Bonds Underwear and Stop.

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Speaker 2: Took us on. So they basically had two customers, Bonds

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Speaker 2: and a startup which was us, and we got to

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Speaker 2: go into their archive, which went back about two hundred

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Speaker 2: years and choose the particular type of cotton we wanted.

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Speaker 1: They get there, old Bonds, are they probably well, it could.

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Speaker 2: Be exactly whatever, but like old, I mean like we were.

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Speaker 2: We were in like the bowels of this factory in

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Speaker 2: Wentworth going through this two hundred this very old archive.

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Speaker 1: And the Australian are they this is shit?

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Speaker 2: Well yeah, because I mean Bonds used to be locally manufactured,

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Speaker 2: so I think it went off for about fifteen years ago,

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Speaker 2: and we had this opportunity to access the whole archive

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Speaker 2: of their libraries, Yeah, from when they started. So it

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Speaker 2: was crazy, and we chose this fabric and this is

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Speaker 2: a really this is a well kept secret, but I'm

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Speaker 2: going to share it.

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Speaker 1: Brought to you first today on the mental.

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Speaker 2: It was chosen from a pair of women's cottontails.

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Speaker 1: Cotton tail, yeah, I remember those cottontail.

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Speaker 2: Really the really yeah yeah. And it just had the

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Speaker 2: right you know, it was not too fine, it just

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Speaker 2: had the right feel. So that's where our fabric came from.

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Speaker 2: Our yen came from.

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Speaker 1: For your T shirts, for our T shirt. So I'd

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Speaker 1: imagine therefore, if it's meant to be worn close to

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Speaker 1: your body, in that part of the region of your

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Speaker 1: body is probably soft.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, beautiful.

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Speaker 1: I mean can you can you do they grade fabric

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Speaker 1: by softness? Do they sort of say soft very soft,

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Speaker 1: like you know, like a diamond, very bright like?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean there's all different types of finishes. So

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Speaker 2: obviously the yarn, it starts with your yarn, and then

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Speaker 2: you can put finishes on your cotton like you can

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Speaker 2: mercerize your cotton. We wanted something that was really unique,

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Speaker 2: so I wanted to come out with this brand that

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Speaker 2: had this cotton that you couldn't get anywhere else. And

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Speaker 2: it was at a time in the market where there

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Speaker 2: was no one doing what we did. Luxury basics was

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Speaker 2: not a generic term. It is now everyone's doing luxury basics.

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Speaker 2: So we were one of the first cabs off the

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Speaker 2: rank in Australia.

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Speaker 1: How long are we talking about now? Eight years ago?

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Speaker 1: So eighteen years ago you got into the archives of

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Speaker 1: the Bond Clothing Company, which got nothing to do with

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Speaker 1: that bond but it's called Astracol Bonds I think it's plural. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and you chose something from there. What was the original

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Speaker 1: cotton toil underwear for women?

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Speaker 2: Men?

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Speaker 1: Walk contails women member granny unused, Yeah, sort I remember enough,

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Speaker 1: remember those ads and and you know, because those days,

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Speaker 1: you know, like briefs like they are today or g

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Speaker 1: strings and things like that, that that wasn't a thing

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Speaker 1: in Australia. It was cotton tails. And you chose that

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Speaker 1: that fabric I think the right term is fabric and

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Speaker 1: off that you built you well, you designed your T shirt,

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Speaker 1: So that's that's the fabric. Yeah, I mean, there's that's

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Speaker 1: a fabric, but there's whole lot of other stuff goes

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Speaker 1: with it too. There's the the actual guy design of

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Speaker 1: the Yes, how did you work that out? Let's go

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Speaker 1: back then, though I want to go back, but like

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Speaker 1: because you know what about how you started your business up.

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Speaker 2: So we had an esthetic and the whole inspiration behind

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Speaker 2: the brand was that Lou and I we lose your

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Speaker 2: founding partner, but we're no longer, so we we had this.

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Speaker 2: We had this idea because we were traveling overseas. We

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Speaker 2: were buying really expensive T shirts because they were the beautiful,

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Speaker 2: fine cotton. But you bring them home and you couldn't

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Speaker 2: wash them. You had to dry clean them and shrink. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and there were two they just wantn't they'd shrink, they

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Speaker 2: just wouldn't wear properly. So we came up with this

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Speaker 2: concept where we're going to do the same luxurious, minimalist

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Speaker 2: luxury tea, but we're going to pre shrink them for everyone,

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Speaker 2: so you can actually just put them in the wash

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Speaker 2: and the dryer and they come back the same size

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Speaker 2: as they did when you bought them.

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Speaker 1: Could I actually just not before I want to hear

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Speaker 1: the rest of the story of it. We're just just

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Speaker 1: whiles I think of it. Pre shrinking. Do you actually

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Speaker 1: wash them before you send them out? Is that how

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Speaker 1: it works.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's that's something probably people don't know. Do

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Speaker 2: you find that annoying when you buy a T shirt and.

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Speaker 1: Then kills me buying the next size up just in case?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so that doesn't happen with our T shirts. So

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Speaker 2: that was the whole concept and the premise behind the brand.

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Speaker 2: It was very much about luxury, but everyday luxury that

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Speaker 2: you could just launder, you could put in the dryer,

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Speaker 2: and it was just a no brainer. And we had

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Speaker 2: such great connections from like working in the industry for

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Speaker 2: so many years that we positioned it in high end

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Speaker 2: boutiques in Australia, and at that time there were many

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Speaker 2: because the economy was two thousand and six, it was

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Speaker 2: prest GFC, not GST, and it just went bang, It

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Speaker 2: just flew. And I think we had like forty accounts

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Speaker 2: in the first season.

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Speaker 1: Meaning forty distribution points.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, and this is like Kaien you know that

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Speaker 2: sold lots of different international brands.

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Speaker 1: For example currently agents for examples, David Jones an example.

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Speaker 2: Not then. I mean we stocked David Jones now, but

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Speaker 2: that was like a bit like oh no, we're we're

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Speaker 2: not stocking David Jonesans. Yet it was a bit like

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Speaker 2: I think it was five or six years until we relented.

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Speaker 1: Can you an example where.

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Speaker 2: So you know, remember the Belinda stores Belinda, No, okay,

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Speaker 2: there's you know stores like Puopka just really the fat

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Speaker 2: stores in Melbourne, Cactus Doam Island Lux. Have you heard

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Speaker 2: about it. Yeah, so we've stopped them. Yeah, we've stopped

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Speaker 2: them since day one our first season, we still stopped them.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, we positioned the brand very high end but

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Speaker 2: not unattainable. And then our price point was you know,

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Speaker 2: it was eighty dollars for a T shirt, so at

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Speaker 2: that time that was an investment, but it wasn't out

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Speaker 2: of It was actually okay for some people, and it

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Speaker 2: just went crazy immediately. However, there was one little slight

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Speaker 2: hiccup on the way through, so our first delivery three

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Speaker 2: months late and everything came in. We got the shrinkage

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Speaker 2: wrong on the continent. So it's actually really hard to

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Speaker 2: make a good fitting T shirt. Surprisingly you would think not,

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Speaker 2: but with jersey jerseys shrink there's a warp in a weft,

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Speaker 2: so they shrink very differently, and each batch also shrinks differently,

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Speaker 2: so you have to make a pattern check the shrinkage.

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Speaker 2: So you wash a piece of fabric, you see how

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Speaker 2: much it shrinks. You then apply that to the pattern,

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Speaker 2: just the pattern, Yeah, to allow for that shrinkage. However,

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Speaker 2: it was our first production run and we got that wrong.

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Speaker 1: Is it because you didn't shrink the fabric first?

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Speaker 2: I actually don't know that. I mean it could have

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Speaker 2: been a number of reasons, but it was like pretty diabolical.

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Speaker 1: How much had you invested?

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Speaker 2: I mean we had like big orders for a first season,

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Speaker 2: and so then our esthetic became a little bit more oversized.

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Speaker 2: So we basically had to turn this massive error error

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Speaker 2: I was going to say something rude, but into.

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Speaker 1: A fuck up you can see for Yeah, it was

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Speaker 1: a big.

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Speaker 2: Fuck up, and we had to turn that into like,

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Speaker 2: oh no, but you know it's a slouch it's a

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Speaker 2: slouch tea.

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Speaker 1: Which means oversized. Yeah. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Anyway, somehow we pulled it off. That all the stores

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Speaker 2: were hating us because it was Christmas time. They wanted

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Speaker 2: their deliveries, they were trying to cancel. They were like, okay,

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Speaker 2: we'll take it sale or return. So we were like, okay,

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Speaker 2: just take it.

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Speaker 1: Which means if they don't sell, you get it.

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Speaker 2: Back. Yeah, so they need pay for what they sell. Anyway,

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Speaker 2: Thank god we delivered, it's sold, they reordered, and we're

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Speaker 2: still in business.

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Speaker 1: And the name basic does that that sounds given what

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Speaker 1: you're just explained, it sounds quite purposeful in terms of

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Speaker 1: being able to identify the features you're trying to sell

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Speaker 1: or you're trying to you're trying to build into what

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Speaker 1: you're selling. Sounds to be. It sounds to me as

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Speaker 1: though you try to put it into the name.

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Speaker 2: It's basic, Yeah, it is what it is. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: like there's no tricks, no. And that's the thing about

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Speaker 2: our brand. It is very simple. It is very honest,

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Speaker 2: it's authentic, it has its own brand in a and

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Speaker 2: it's simple. It's basic.

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Speaker 1: Can I just on that? Then if I was to

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Speaker 1: pick a couple of words to describe your brand, maybe

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Speaker 1: if you were to pick a couple words to describe

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Speaker 1: your brand simple as one would, what are some other words?

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Speaker 1: Is reliable, consistent, persistent? What are some other things that

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Speaker 1: come out?

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Speaker 2: I think we're designed?

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Speaker 1: Let what does that mean?

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Speaker 2: Well, we're not just there's a lot that goes into

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Speaker 2: the design, Like there's a lot of I mean, I'm

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Speaker 2: a perfectionist, and I have a certain way of seeing

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Speaker 2: things that others don't. I have a very esthetic eye,

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Speaker 2: so I know how a T shirt should fit. And look,

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Speaker 2: whether it's a snap.

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Speaker 1: We're getting worried now, a jacket off careful.

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Speaker 2: So you know, And there's nuances behind the way we design.

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Speaker 2: There's little details in our T shirts. So when we started,

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Speaker 2: we did everything with raw hems, not.

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Speaker 1: Sewed. Yeah, is that what that means? Hit a little

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Speaker 1: bit untidy.

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Speaker 2: And it just made the T shirt unique and it

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Speaker 2: gave it a point of difference and it was a

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Speaker 2: little bit more fashion, but it wasn't unwearable.

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Speaker 1: It was cool.

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Speaker 2: That was like a cool detail, and that was what

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Speaker 2: we were known for. And then there were things like

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Speaker 2: a chain stitch back neeck detail that we would do

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Speaker 2: this for.

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Speaker 1: No, I don't be just is for both male and female. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the brand is you don't have a male and a female,

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Speaker 1: it's just one for both your men's and women.

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Speaker 2: Right yea yeah.

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Speaker 1: And so did you apply those back then? Did you

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Speaker 1: apply that that those little nuances to both male and female? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And we wanted and that's the thing.

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Speaker 1: What are you trying to do? What were you trying

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Speaker 1: to do. How were you? What was the message you're

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Speaker 1: trying to teach everybody.

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Speaker 2: Trying to establish a brand?

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Speaker 1: DNA and what is that?

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Speaker 2: That's that's your what is your make yourself? What's the

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Speaker 2: word for it? I think.

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Speaker 1: Unique because I think T shirts a good T shirts cool? Yeah, absolutely.

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Speaker 2: I mean for me, I'm not into fashion people taking

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Speaker 2: themselves too seriously, you know what I mean? And I

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Speaker 2: often say that to myself when I get overwhelmed at work.

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Speaker 2: I'm like, you're not running the United Nations here, You're

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Speaker 2: making T shirts like zoom out like it's okay. And

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Speaker 2: I think I'm not into dressing, Like I am into fashion,

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Speaker 2: but I'm not into dressing too seriously. And I think

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Speaker 2: my customer. The way I like to see people dress

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Speaker 2: is just like like they're not trying too hard. It's

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Speaker 2: not like a big thing that I'm trying to impress,

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Speaker 2: but they do take pride in the way they look

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Speaker 2: and they want to look good. And that's that's our brand.

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Speaker 1: Just just on that this So is there danger and

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Speaker 1: maybe you did the work on it, but is there

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Speaker 1: danger particularly in clothing? I won't say fashion with clothing

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Speaker 1: and clothing for a manufacturer like you to make a

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Speaker 1: decision as to what everybody wants or what will work,

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Speaker 1: what will sell based on your own one or does

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Speaker 1: someone like you and your business partner of the time,

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Speaker 1: do you go out and survey what people? Mean? How

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Speaker 1: do you work out what everybody's happy with? Apart from

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Speaker 1: the fact that you know you think it's cool. How

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Speaker 1: do you get around that that issue?

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Speaker 2: Look, I think there's a lot of I mean, I

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Speaker 2: design very intuitively, so.

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Speaker 1: Based on what though, I mean, apart from your intuition, like.

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Speaker 2: Research, based on what I feel, based on what I see,

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Speaker 2: based on the reality of like where we live. Who

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Speaker 2: are customer is, what their lifestyle is, what sells? I mean,

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Speaker 2: I obviously I think fashion is about looking forward. I

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Speaker 2: don't think it's looking too far back. But at the

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Speaker 2: same time, your results are going to tell you what's

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Speaker 2: working or not. So it's important to tap into your

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Speaker 2: customer and understand what they want as well.

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Speaker 1: How do you do that? How did you and your

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Speaker 1: Mary Lou I think was your founder cover How did

382
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Speaker 1: you which one of you did that?

383
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Speaker 2: Did you we both did it? I mean I think

384
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Speaker 2: like ultimately, I think when you start up, like you're

385
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Speaker 2: creating something from the ground up. So it's about creating

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Speaker 2: something that is very unique and your own thing and

387
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Speaker 2: honest and not really looking too much around you. But

388
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Speaker 2: actually it's really quite a personal thing when you're starting up,

389
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Speaker 2: and you can do that to a point, and then

390
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Speaker 2: when your business gets a certain size, it's like, okay,

391
00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:36,760
Speaker 2: now this is like the game has changed here, don't

392
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:41,120
Speaker 2: there's not as much room for error. And so I mean,

393
00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:45,000
Speaker 2: we have nine retail stores in Australia, so there's a

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Speaker 2: lot of intel that comes through.

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Speaker 1: That as in feedback.

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00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:53,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot. We've got very engaged customers that

397
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:57,200
Speaker 2: give us feedback, Like we have people emailing all the time,

398
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Speaker 2: Oh can you bring back that pant from ten years ago?

399
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,520
Speaker 2: That my favorite? It's worn out. Now we get a

400
00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:07,000
Speaker 2: lot of that. And then it's just crystal ball stuff.

401
00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:10,240
Speaker 2: You know. I design a collection twelve months in advance,

402
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:15,159
Speaker 2: so I'm working on next winter. And so you just

403
00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:22,919
Speaker 2: need to really tap into into intuition, read, read the market,

404
00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:27,879
Speaker 2: understand you know what's going on with the economy as well.

405
00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:31,880
Speaker 2: Like I think for us we're lucky. When the economy

406
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:36,640
Speaker 2: gets tough, people lean back into heritage brands. That they

407
00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:40,280
Speaker 2: can trust. There's also the flip side of that, they're

408
00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:43,200
Speaker 2: go into fast fashion. So I think fast fashion brands

409
00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:47,560
Speaker 2: have never been is I think business is booming in

410
00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:51,560
Speaker 2: Australia for fast, fast fashioned brands really yeah? Oh absolutely

411
00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:59,280
Speaker 2: yeah yeah right now, absolutely yeah, because people don't have

412
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:00,960
Speaker 2: the disposable income.

413
00:24:01,359 --> 00:24:04,680
Speaker 1: So fast fashion being something is fairly cheap. It's sort

414
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Speaker 1: of you know, on theme.

415
00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:10,320
Speaker 2: And they're good, some of them are really good. So yeah,

416
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 2: I mean for us, we tap into a different customer

417
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:18,159
Speaker 2: and we have a very loyal customer and where our

418
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:23,840
Speaker 2: stores are positioned, we're accessible to that customer. So when

419
00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:29,280
Speaker 2: the economy slumps, yeah, we do feel it, but often

420
00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:32,040
Speaker 2: they come back to us because they know that they're

421
00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:34,320
Speaker 2: going to buy that three ninety five pant and they're

422
00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:37,000
Speaker 2: going to wear it to death, or the T shirt

423
00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:39,760
Speaker 2: that they can go back to, So they often go

424
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:43,120
Speaker 2: back to brands I think they know and trust, and

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00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:46,360
Speaker 2: so it works for and against us.

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Speaker 1: I think I'm going to gether break, going to come

427
00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:51,000
Speaker 1: straight back, but you just said something very interesting around brand,

428
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:54,440
Speaker 1: and I do want to talk about brand with you.

429
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:57,800
Speaker 1: You said the words no and trust, and I want

430
00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:00,919
Speaker 1: to know whether you may be actually able to do

431
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:03,760
Speaker 1: sort of dig a bit deep into that for us.

432
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Speaker 1: And my question, I would ask you, if I know you,

433
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Speaker 1: do I trust you? In other words, if I'm really

434
00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:13,640
Speaker 1: used to you, I'm familiar with you. Therefore I automatically

435
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:17,840
Speaker 1: give you my trust fairly or more rapidly more likely

436
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:19,840
Speaker 1: to give you my trust if I don't know you.

437
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:21,679
Speaker 1: In other words, I don't see your shops, and I

438
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:23,800
Speaker 1: don't see your advertising, I don't see your marketing, and

439
00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,199
Speaker 1: I haven't bought from you before. It takes a bit

440
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:27,960
Speaker 1: of time to build up trust, but knowledge and trust

441
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:30,679
Speaker 1: seem to be linked to me for me, but I

442
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:41,040
Speaker 1: want to go to the break comes straight back. I'm back

443
00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:44,320
Speaker 1: here with Debs Hams, and she's the founder of Basic,

444
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:47,360
Speaker 1: and we've talked about sort of how the business kicked

445
00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 1: off a lifetime ago, nearly a lifetime ago. And today

446
00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:57,239
Speaker 1: you have nine outlets you mentioned, I presume still are

447
00:25:57,240 --> 00:25:59,560
Speaker 1: you selling online as well? You can buy on line.

448
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:02,800
Speaker 1: Are you still distributing through various stores as well? Yes,

449
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 1: so you know, and I'm sure there's a lot more

450
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 1: stores today than a lot more retail stores today than

451
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:12,399
Speaker 1: we're around. You were distributing through eighten years ago. But

452
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:19,920
Speaker 1: if I might just ask you this question, because we

453
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,800
Speaker 1: haven't covered this off. We were talking about T shirts.

454
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:27,520
Speaker 1: How many product lines or whatever the word excuse I

455
00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 1: think you guys call them. What do you do now

456
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:30,720
Speaker 1: apart from T shirts?

457
00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:36,080
Speaker 2: So the evolution of the brand from a product level,

458
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,119
Speaker 2: we started with the jersey, the T shirts. Then we

459
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:42,200
Speaker 2: had an opportunity to work with a Japanese denim supplier.

460
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:46,840
Speaker 2: And do you know much about jeans, Well, I have jeans,

461
00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:54,600
Speaker 2: but so the Japanese denim is arguably the best in

462
00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 2: the world.

463
00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 1: Okay, I didn't know Japanese there was a thing. There's

464
00:26:57,119 --> 00:26:58,800
Speaker 1: a thing called Japanese denim. Yeah.

465
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:03,879
Speaker 2: So it's made different looms in Japan. Yeah, very traditional looms.

466
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,600
Speaker 2: So they're narrow, more narrow than the ones that they

467
00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:10,639
Speaker 2: use now for mass production. So you get more just

468
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:13,160
Speaker 2: more beautiful denim, more authentic dinner.

469
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:16,439
Speaker 1: I've never heard denim called beautiful before. Well authentic, yes.

470
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean I'm passionate about this stuff. And so

471
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:26,760
Speaker 2: we had this opportunity to work with this beautiful denim

472
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:30,040
Speaker 2: maker in a place called Kojima in Japan.

473
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:32,439
Speaker 1: How does an opportunity come about? Like so people were

474
00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:34,439
Speaker 1: just go, oh my god, I never had an opportunit

475
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:37,040
Speaker 1: my life. Do you chase these things or your emails?

476
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:42,600
Speaker 2: We didn't. I think we just had really great connections

477
00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 2: with people and Japan. Well know, actually in Australia and

478
00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:50,800
Speaker 2: this friend of ours who was a fabric supplier, had

479
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:54,040
Speaker 2: this and he was into Japanese fabrics in Italian fabrics,

480
00:27:54,720 --> 00:28:00,600
Speaker 2: and he introduced us to a denim mill and factory, Codima,

481
00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:05,760
Speaker 2: and so this is like a best spoke downer making factory.

482
00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:12,159
Speaker 2: They had fourteen machinists. The it's like third generation. Like

483
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:14,760
Speaker 2: it's honestly, this place is like going back in time.

484
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:19,479
Speaker 2: It's like the most amazing place to visit. And so

485
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:21,480
Speaker 2: we started making denim out of Japan.

486
00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:28,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, just explain something to me. Sorry, just looking at it. SAMV.

487
00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:33,199
Speaker 1: Just explained something to me. Please, Japanese down lake. So

488
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:35,400
Speaker 1: you just go back a few steps. So we're talking

489
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:37,119
Speaker 1: about denim's cotton, isn't it.

490
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:37,560
Speaker 2: Yes?

491
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:40,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So the cotton comes from Japan, or cotton

492
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 1: comes from it where all cotton comes from? I don't

493
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 1: even know where that is, but.

494
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:47,080
Speaker 2: Not Japan, but yeah, comes from a different place.

495
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:51,440
Speaker 1: Okay, So but what's Japanese in what is it so

496
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:54,160
Speaker 1: tidal or yes, blue or something? I don't know.

497
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:58,920
Speaker 2: Okay, So it's the weaving process. So they make them

498
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:06,120
Speaker 2: on a much narrower loom loom so yeah, and they

499
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:09,200
Speaker 2: often come with a selvage And what's that. It's the

500
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:14,000
Speaker 2: it's the side of the denom, which is it's hard

501
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,200
Speaker 2: to explain, but it's just the site. It's basically the

502
00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:19,720
Speaker 2: end of the denom, which is, if you have a

503
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:22,600
Speaker 2: selvage denom, it's a lot more expensive. It's a lot

504
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:25,800
Speaker 2: more luxurious than a regular denom. It's not mass produced.

505
00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 1: And if I was wearing it, which I'm not, does

506
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:32,120
Speaker 1: it feel different or is it more a look?

507
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:36,320
Speaker 2: Does feel different? Yeah? And it's a look too, and.

508
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:37,320
Speaker 1: I think, what are we looking at? What are we

509
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 1: talking about here in terms of feel and look?

510
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:46,160
Speaker 2: So it feels how do I It's really hard to

511
00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:48,920
Speaker 2: describe because it's it's one of those things that until

512
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:52,080
Speaker 2: you actually put it on, I suppose it's like driving

513
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 2: a Masara, you know, an a sorry, a really good

514
00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,520
Speaker 2: luxury car. Was about to say Aston Martin because that's

515
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:02,520
Speaker 2: my favorite car, or.

516
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:04,400
Speaker 1: Kia.

517
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 2: It's the same thing. And you don't know the way,

518
00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 2: but you know, you get behind the wheel, you don't

519
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:15,080
Speaker 2: really know. So you know, you put on a pair

520
00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:19,720
Speaker 2: of jeens. You know it fits, the fits perfect. It

521
00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:23,560
Speaker 2: looks amazing and it feels right, And I think.

522
00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:25,440
Speaker 1: That's that's lighter. Is it lighter?

523
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:29,920
Speaker 2: No, not necessarily, it's it's probably softer. And it's the

524
00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:34,720
Speaker 2: way it wears and washes out is and the washes

525
00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:36,680
Speaker 2: that you can do on it, so the different washes

526
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:37,320
Speaker 2: you can do it.

527
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:42,640
Speaker 1: And the women, generally speaking, and some men, perhaps not

528
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:47,920
Speaker 1: all men, as you would say, know that Japanese denim

529
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: is it in a category above all the others.

530
00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:53,960
Speaker 2: Look probably a very small percentage of.

531
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 1: People, right. It's a sort of a specialist.

532
00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:58,920
Speaker 2: It's like a purest thing, like you're either denim purist

533
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:00,920
Speaker 2: or you're not, you know. And I grew up in

534
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:03,719
Speaker 2: the industry because my dad was in the industry in

535
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 2: the seventies and eighties. Remember the days of AMCO.

536
00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, I sure do jeans.

537
00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:10,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, he was one of those.

538
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:14,280
Speaker 1: I remember the seventies. And I actually remember when surf

539
00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:16,840
Speaker 1: Divans Ski opened their first door out where I was living,

540
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:22,200
Speaker 1: and and I was dying to get a pair of

541
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:27,360
Speaker 1: AMC jeans. Well that was from there, and my mum said,

542
00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:29,880
Speaker 1: you've got to go on earn some money to buy them,

543
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:32,720
Speaker 1: because that's a pretty expensive for us. And I can't

544
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 1: remember what they cost, but they were. I thought they

545
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:37,440
Speaker 1: were pretty expensive anyway, but everyone's everyone seemed like to

546
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:39,480
Speaker 1: me anyway as a kid rolling up everyone else's buying

547
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:43,200
Speaker 1: them felt that way. But I have a flair or

548
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:48,280
Speaker 1: they were fair and high our kids a high waisted

549
00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:51,320
Speaker 1: floor were nice. That'll come back.

550
00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:52,520
Speaker 2: Do I need to find a picture.

551
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:56,480
Speaker 1: Definitely. There's no phones there. There's no no phone cameras.

552
00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,680
Speaker 1: At least there were. There was telephones, but they were

553
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:01,120
Speaker 1: sort of sitting on the little a little table in

554
00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:03,560
Speaker 1: the in the hallway, and you sat down next to

555
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:07,640
Speaker 1: the phone to make all yes. So I know. Actually

556
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:11,440
Speaker 1: I diverted you from telling the story about because I

557
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:15,600
Speaker 1: got so fascinated by this thing called Japanese DNIM. But

558
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 1: now we've established it as pretty special stuff. What happened

559
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:21,680
Speaker 1: with this Japanese DNIM introduction opportunity?

560
00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:26,360
Speaker 2: So we created all these quite unique out there shapes,

561
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 2: like our own signature between genes. Genes one in particular

562
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:36,600
Speaker 2: called the low slung.

563
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:39,800
Speaker 1: The low slung is that like down low.

564
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:43,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, low, yeah, and it's slung, you know, it's slung

565
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:50,240
Speaker 2: and a universal gene, which was a men's or a

566
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 2: women's gene, so you know, like genderist clothing is now

567
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:56,320
Speaker 2: a thing, like you often go into a boutique and

568
00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:59,040
Speaker 2: it's it's all together, and so we were doing that.

569
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 2: Then we may this gene. So that became a bit

570
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:05,240
Speaker 2: of a staple for us, and all the right people

571
00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 2: were wearing it globally like I've still got I'll send you.

572
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:12,720
Speaker 1: And yeah.

573
00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:15,600
Speaker 2: It was really successful to a point, and then it

574
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:20,280
Speaker 2: became not commercial anymore because we couldn't get the right

575
00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:22,200
Speaker 2: margin to wholesale.

576
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:24,640
Speaker 1: It because it was expensive viewed by super expensive.

577
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we were so passionate about it, and you know,

578
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:32,360
Speaker 2: as a founder you would know this. You get emotionally

579
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:35,160
Speaker 2: connected to things and then you don't want to let

580
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:36,880
Speaker 2: go of them, and then it comes to a point

581
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 2: where you just have to be like, Okay, this is

582
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:41,920
Speaker 2: no longer working for us, what are we going to do?

583
00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:44,320
Speaker 1: Tell me about that. But the decision or that period,

584
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:49,760
Speaker 1: like when you had to say it's time to discard

585
00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:51,360
Speaker 1: this particular product.

586
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:54,680
Speaker 2: I think it just got to a point where like,

587
00:33:55,520 --> 00:33:58,040
Speaker 2: you just look at your margin, you look at your profitability,

588
00:33:58,040 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 2: and you're just like, what the hell what are we doing?

589
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:04,200
Speaker 2: You know? And I worked out they were probably making

590
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:09,000
Speaker 2: no money out of it and possibly losing and it

591
00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 2: was stupid.

592
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:16,719
Speaker 1: So you can ask you a question to could you

593
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:18,800
Speaker 1: have at some stage said, look, we'll just keep selling

594
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:21,640
Speaker 1: this as a lost leader, just to get people in

595
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 1: because you know they might buy the jeans because they're great.

596
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:27,000
Speaker 1: And we did that. Yeah, and then I buy a

597
00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:30,640
Speaker 1: two shirt where I make my money. Yeah, okay. Why

598
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:32,280
Speaker 1: did you then say I'm not going to do it anymore?

599
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:34,879
Speaker 2: Because we were just missing an opportunity because we were

600
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:38,520
Speaker 2: very good at making denim and people wanted it and

601
00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:42,680
Speaker 2: our wholesale accounts wanted it. So we are about eighteen

602
00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:45,319
Speaker 2: months ago, moved it back to Australia and we've got

603
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:48,760
Speaker 2: an amazing factory in Australia. We still buy the Japanese

604
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:53,920
Speaker 2: organic denim, and the Janes are as good, if not better, So.

605
00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:58,280
Speaker 1: Still the same denim, just you're making here whereas before

606
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:01,360
Speaker 1: you're making him in Japan. And I mean by the

607
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:04,280
Speaker 1: time you got it here it was too expensive. Yeah, okay,

608
00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:09,400
Speaker 1: so you still sell pants the jeans made out of

609
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:12,879
Speaker 1: Japanese dinner manufactured here in Australia. Yeah, okay, and so

610
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:17,160
Speaker 1: that actually was so was really I can understand why

611
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:19,040
Speaker 1: then you decided to run it as a lost leader

612
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:20,880
Speaker 1: because you can make the same proactive for cheap and

613
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 1: make more money and you can still have the product.

614
00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:25,240
Speaker 1: So I get it. That makes sense. Yeah, no brainer,

615
00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:27,600
Speaker 1: totally no brainer. But eighty months ago, so it took

616
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:29,520
Speaker 1: you like fifteen years to make the decision or.

617
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:32,880
Speaker 2: Yeah it too, because I mean we were making money

618
00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:34,440
Speaker 2: and then it got to a point where it was

619
00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:39,239
Speaker 2: just it just got more and more expensive and it

620
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:41,760
Speaker 2: just yeah, we just needed to make some calls.

621
00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:45,440
Speaker 1: So how many? So you've got jeans, you got t shirts? Obviously,

622
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:46,600
Speaker 1: what are the things you're doing now?

623
00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:49,800
Speaker 2: So we do tailoring, like it's really beautiful tailoring.

624
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:52,480
Speaker 1: You made to measure sort of thing, not.

625
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:56,960
Speaker 2: Made to measure, but like I traveled to Italy twice

626
00:35:57,000 --> 00:35:59,840
Speaker 2: a year and going to the fabric mills and develop

627
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:07,319
Speaker 2: bricks out of Florence and Milan and then design like

628
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:13,280
Speaker 2: a full tailoring line. We do ready to wear, which

629
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:19,719
Speaker 2: is just everything like we do pants, jackets, knitwear, shirting,

630
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:25,640
Speaker 2: We do everything now we do accessories, and I think

631
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:30,239
Speaker 2: the thing about me is I'm super particular about fabrication

632
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:34,840
Speaker 2: and quality, and it's probably to my own detriment in

633
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:37,840
Speaker 2: a way, because I think how business probably could have

634
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:41,560
Speaker 2: been more successful and more profitable if I was.

635
00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:49,040
Speaker 1: A little more chilled. Well not yeah, maybe when it

636
00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:52,280
Speaker 1: comes to the I just yeah.

637
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:57,400
Speaker 2: I'm super fastidious about quality, and it probably is to

638
00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:00,480
Speaker 2: my own detriment. But on the flip side of that,

639
00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:04,040
Speaker 2: maybe that's what's built our brand because the quality of

640
00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:07,359
Speaker 2: our fabric means that everything lasts and it is more

641
00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:11,200
Speaker 2: beautiful and you can see the difference. So yeah, we

642
00:37:11,239 --> 00:37:16,040
Speaker 2: do it where like we do beautiful Kashmi collection, we

643
00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:17,680
Speaker 2: do Dana, and we do shirting.

644
00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 1: Yeah.

645
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 2: Everything.

646
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:23,439
Speaker 1: Now, So if we could just talk about your brand

647
00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:29,040
Speaker 1: for a second. So in terms of what your brand

648
00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:33,000
Speaker 1: stands for, I was obviously clothing, but I want to

649
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:37,040
Speaker 1: get to the experience, So the experience someone would associate

650
00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:39,279
Speaker 1: with your brand. What do you think the experience is

651
00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:43,920
Speaker 1: that someone associates with your brand as opposed to the

652
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 1: utility I've got a dress or I got a pair

653
00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:47,680
Speaker 1: of jeans, or whatever the case may be. And it's

654
00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 1: Japanese danim What is the experience that people would associate

655
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 1: with the brand like yours. How do they feel?

656
00:37:55,239 --> 00:37:57,319
Speaker 2: I think they just feel really good in it. I

657
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:02,040
Speaker 2: think they feel good. I think it's easy for them

658
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:07,280
Speaker 2: to wear. It makes sense with their lifestyle, It fits

659
00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:11,520
Speaker 2: into their lifestyle, and they feel safe with it because

660
00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:14,279
Speaker 2: they know that, you know, they're going to wear it.

661
00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:18,400
Speaker 2: And I think that's the big thing for me designing clothing,

662
00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:21,719
Speaker 2: because there is waste, and you know, we are sort

663
00:38:21,719 --> 00:38:24,320
Speaker 2: of leaving a footprint on the planet, but at least

664
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:26,359
Speaker 2: we have to wear clothes. So at least if I'm

665
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:30,200
Speaker 2: designing things that people are going to wear and wear

666
00:38:30,239 --> 00:38:33,120
Speaker 2: and wear and wear and not by a dress that

667
00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:37,200
Speaker 2: is one like once a year or once, that for

668
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:40,040
Speaker 2: me feels good and I think for a customer as well,

669
00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:42,440
Speaker 2: I think that's what they're looking for with our brand.

670
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:47,799
Speaker 1: And your brand is pronounced basic, but it's not spelled basic. Well,

671
00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:50,320
Speaker 1: it is spell basic, but it's not spelt the basic way basic,

672
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:54,000
Speaker 1: So what's the thinking behind spelling and be a doabless?

673
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:59,080
Speaker 2: Okay, So that was a decision based on trademarking, and

674
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:01,960
Speaker 2: when that was it was actually difficult to choose a

675
00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:05,200
Speaker 2: name we'd already designed the collection. It was the name,

676
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:10,000
Speaker 2: which was the hardest thing, and we I don't know

677
00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:11,600
Speaker 2: how we came up with it, but we did. And

678
00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:14,400
Speaker 2: then we had to go through the trademarking process to

679
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:17,560
Speaker 2: make sure that we could sell it in the US,

680
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:21,480
Speaker 2: sell it in Europe that the brand had the name

681
00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:25,200
Speaker 2: hadn't already been used. And that was a real process actually,

682
00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:27,399
Speaker 2: and it's taken years and you have to renew.

683
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:29,160
Speaker 1: It and it's it's expensive, too.

684
00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:33,120
Speaker 2: Super expensive, you get you know, there was one point

685
00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:35,800
Speaker 2: where we had so many ripoff versions of our brand

686
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:39,760
Speaker 2: coming out of China, people using our logo, people spelling

687
00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:45,239
Speaker 2: it with one s BA SIK with a dot, like

688
00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:48,600
Speaker 2: I mean, I just used to have It was almost

689
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:50,600
Speaker 2: like I had a spies on the ground, Like people

690
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:52,600
Speaker 2: just sending me stuff all the time. And it was

691
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:55,160
Speaker 2: like I used to get really annoyed with it, and

692
00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:57,640
Speaker 2: then it was just like, you know, what can you do.

693
00:39:57,680 --> 00:40:01,879
Speaker 2: You're not going to fight every every brand that pops up.

694
00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 2: It doesn't happen that much anymore, so Touch would so well.

695
00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:08,600
Speaker 1: They used to say there was an old saying that

696
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:11,719
Speaker 1: the greatest form of admiration is emulation, and you know,

697
00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:14,919
Speaker 1: if you're doing well and you're admired, someone will try

698
00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:17,880
Speaker 1: to do the same thing. I do remember also because

699
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:19,520
Speaker 1: when I was still working in the law firm, we

700
00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:22,760
Speaker 1: had a lot of rag trade clients, and I remember

701
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:26,040
Speaker 1: quite often they would go overseas to Milan or something

702
00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:28,360
Speaker 1: like that, one of those sort of places, sometimes Asia,

703
00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 1: and they would bring they're gone by a whole lot

704
00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:35,319
Speaker 1: of stuff, clothing, and they'll bring it back and they

705
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:38,040
Speaker 1: when they came through customs. I remember because I came

706
00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:39,400
Speaker 1: back with the client one time and he had a

707
00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:41,040
Speaker 1: bag full of stuff. He'd been to one of these

708
00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:45,560
Speaker 1: shows whatever, but everything was cut so that you couldn't

709
00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:47,680
Speaker 1: wear it, so you didn't have to pay customers studio.

710
00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:49,799
Speaker 1: But what they do is they take the things and

711
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:51,640
Speaker 1: they would copy them. They would say, well, this is

712
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:52,880
Speaker 1: the latest thing going on.

713
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:56,279
Speaker 2: Oh no, that's standards all the time.

714
00:40:56,400 --> 00:40:59,359
Speaker 1: So that would happen, so people would see your basic

715
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:00,520
Speaker 1: stuff and the same thing.

716
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:03,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you can't like, I mean, we've done this

717
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:05,960
Speaker 2: pant that we cannot keep on the shelves. At the moment.

718
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:10,919
Speaker 2: That has basically revived our business because there was one point,

719
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:14,759
Speaker 2: you know, after the GSC that was a nightmare, and

720
00:41:14,800 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 2: then we had COVID and everyone pivoted to casual clothing.

721
00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:21,440
Speaker 2: So we did really well during COVID because everyone was

722
00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:26,000
Speaker 2: working from home wearing like elevated basics. And then every

723
00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:29,359
Speaker 2: other brand decided to do that concept, so then the

724
00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,040
Speaker 2: whole market was flooded with it, so we had a

725
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:38,400
Speaker 2: pretty tough time coming out of COVID. Anyway, We've designed

726
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 2: this new pant. Some customers have like fourteen pairs of

727
00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:46,240
Speaker 2: them in different colors. I'm not kidding like it's crazy anyway.

728
00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:52,080
Speaker 2: Kmart's done a version of it, and you just I mean,

729
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:55,080
Speaker 2: I don't get hung up about it anymore.

730
00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:57,360
Speaker 1: But it's just part of being successful.

731
00:41:57,400 --> 00:41:59,600
Speaker 2: It's fine, I'm cool with it.

732
00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:02,960
Speaker 1: Weren't doing it that probably may indicate you that you're

733
00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:03,839
Speaker 1: not doing anything right.

734
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:09,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, true, I know, Like I think, as you gain experience,

735
00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:13,440
Speaker 2: you learn what to where to put your energy, don't you.

736
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:15,920
Speaker 2: And it's not into that kind of stuff anymof.

737
00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:18,359
Speaker 1: Try not to try to chill out a little bit

738
00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 1: because you can't be worried about that sort of stuff

739
00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:21,759
Speaker 1: all the time. But it's also about it can you

740
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:26,279
Speaker 1: once step ahead of everybody exactly and sticking by your

741
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:28,759
Speaker 1: own brand and your own brand values, the values of

742
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:31,560
Speaker 1: your brand, so you know you've done a great job

743
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:34,800
Speaker 1: at that. I do want to quickly ask you about

744
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:41,080
Speaker 1: the the intellectual property registration of your trademark? Has that?

745
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:47,600
Speaker 1: Nothing technical? But has that? Do you think that's worth

746
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:49,759
Speaker 1: the payoff? Is there a payoff on that? Because it

747
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:51,600
Speaker 1: is expensive? Is an exciting to get a.

748
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:57,320
Speaker 2: Trademarktly worth the payoff? I mean you have to invest

749
00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:00,799
Speaker 2: in that from the start. I mean I've worked for

750
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:08,600
Speaker 2: brands that had big intellectual property cases in the past.

751
00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:10,719
Speaker 2: You have to do that. You have to get things

752
00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:13,879
Speaker 2: right from the start. You have to invest, Like we

753
00:43:13,920 --> 00:43:18,040
Speaker 2: invested in a CFO in our first two years of.

754
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:19,880
Speaker 1: Business, someone to run your numbers.

755
00:43:20,040 --> 00:43:22,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, and she got paid ten times as much as

756
00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:24,560
Speaker 2: us didn't pay ourselves, but she was and she's still

757
00:43:24,560 --> 00:43:27,719
Speaker 2: with us today. And you have to invest in the

758
00:43:27,800 --> 00:43:33,680
Speaker 2: right areas. And that's something that we've always done and

759
00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:38,720
Speaker 2: it saves problems down the track, I think, like big

760
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:40,640
Speaker 2: problems that you don't want to be dealing with. Like

761
00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:42,960
Speaker 2: it's very hard to change your name after like five

762
00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:46,359
Speaker 2: years of being successful in business. I mean that is

763
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:47,080
Speaker 2: just a headache.

764
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:49,520
Speaker 1: You don't want Well, that's true, and because you've got

765
00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:53,080
Speaker 1: to deal with your or your distribution points just about everybody.

766
00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:58,080
Speaker 1: If you no longer in business with your original co founder,

767
00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:02,120
Speaker 1: are you able to talk that? I mean, it happened.

768
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:06,919
Speaker 2: Oh I was wondering if you're going to ask me that. Look,

769
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:10,960
Speaker 2: I think partnerships come to a natural end. And lou

770
00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:15,360
Speaker 2: and I did really really well together for eighteen years

771
00:44:16,040 --> 00:44:19,239
Speaker 2: or seventeen years to get the brand to where we did,

772
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:21,640
Speaker 2: but you know, she wanted to do other things and.

773
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:25,040
Speaker 1: Within your business, I mean, do you just sort of

774
00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:26,880
Speaker 1: say I don't want to do that, I'll buy you

775
00:44:26,960 --> 00:44:30,040
Speaker 1: out or how does it all work? How does a

776
00:44:30,080 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 1: partner exit when you've been there together for seven eggs?

777
00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:35,120
Speaker 2: I mean, it's like a divorce.

778
00:44:35,719 --> 00:44:36,600
Speaker 1: It must be like a divorce.

779
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:42,160
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a lot, you know. I'm I'm not going

780
00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:45,560
Speaker 2: to talk too much about it, but yeah, it was.

781
00:44:45,640 --> 00:44:51,360
Speaker 2: It was difficult, and the company's reset now and we're

782
00:44:51,680 --> 00:44:55,480
Speaker 2: really in a good position. So basic two point zero,

783
00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:56,800
Speaker 2: it's good.

784
00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:59,839
Speaker 1: Do do you? But do you miss because a lot

785
00:44:59,880 --> 00:45:02,480
Speaker 1: of when they're starting up, they like a lot of

786
00:45:02,520 --> 00:45:05,600
Speaker 1: people talk about having co found it because it's comforting

787
00:45:05,600 --> 00:45:08,640
Speaker 1: that have someone you can cry on each other's shoulder,

788
00:45:08,719 --> 00:45:10,640
Speaker 1: or you can sort of both bitch to each other

789
00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:14,839
Speaker 1: about how difficult a supplier is or whatever. That that

790
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:19,799
Speaker 1: comfort thing. Does it get to a certain point when

791
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:21,960
Speaker 1: you no longer need that sort of thing because you

792
00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:23,480
Speaker 1: know you're success for you've been at it for a

793
00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:26,439
Speaker 1: long time, You're not as young anymore, You're you're less

794
00:45:26,440 --> 00:45:29,440
Speaker 1: susceptible to perhaps you know you're not going to fail,

795
00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:33,640
Speaker 1: you know, because you've already succeeded. Do you does that

796
00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:38,000
Speaker 1: co founder relationship evolve into something totally different?

797
00:45:38,080 --> 00:45:40,319
Speaker 2: I think people you know you evolved, don't you as

798
00:45:40,560 --> 00:45:44,120
Speaker 2: a human being? And you you've either come together or

799
00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:47,759
Speaker 2: you go apart, grow apart. And I think you know,

800
00:45:47,880 --> 00:45:56,640
Speaker 2: alignment is key, particularly in leadership positions, having alignment we

801
00:45:56,640 --> 00:45:59,440
Speaker 2: we really need, Like I have a great alignment with

802
00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:02,240
Speaker 2: our seeing my CEO, he's been with me for fourteen years.

803
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:06,880
Speaker 2: He's amazing, he teaches me so much, He's built this

804
00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:10,680
Speaker 2: beautiful culture in our company. He's hard, but he's soft

805
00:46:10,719 --> 00:46:16,480
Speaker 2: at the same time. And I think it's really important

806
00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:23,399
Speaker 2: to have that alignment and that same vision, particularly as

807
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:26,520
Speaker 2: your brand gets to a certain your business gets to

808
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:30,239
Speaker 2: a certain stage, and it's critical then to get to

809
00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:34,040
Speaker 2: that next point, like critical for us, like we've we've

810
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:37,560
Speaker 2: for three years we've had the same turnover, we have

811
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:40,720
Speaker 2: not we've been stumbling at the same sort of stumbling blocks,

812
00:46:40,880 --> 00:46:44,040
Speaker 2: and so now it's like our time to get to

813
00:46:44,080 --> 00:46:46,560
Speaker 2: that next point. And I think that's the hardest part.

814
00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:48,840
Speaker 2: You know, it's like getting from a certain turnover to

815
00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:51,799
Speaker 2: the next, Like how do you do that in a

816
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:55,080
Speaker 2: market that is so volatile? Like you think about what's

817
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:59,000
Speaker 2: happening with the global economy, and you know, fashion is

818
00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:02,600
Speaker 2: some thing that is switched on and off based on

819
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:07,080
Speaker 2: what's happening with the economy. And I think for us

820
00:47:07,120 --> 00:47:12,239
Speaker 2: supply chain tariffs, like there's just so much instability in

821
00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:16,680
Speaker 2: the world and lots of things that are out of

822
00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:17,320
Speaker 2: your control.

823
00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:21,400
Speaker 1: So sure, what are you doing something out of your control?

824
00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:22,600
Speaker 1: How do you approach it?

825
00:47:23,600 --> 00:47:27,200
Speaker 2: I think you make decisions on things you can control.

826
00:47:27,600 --> 00:47:32,920
Speaker 2: So for us, we had quite a strong international business

827
00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:38,160
Speaker 2: pre COVID, so we were in stores like Bergdorf Goodman

828
00:47:38,280 --> 00:47:41,000
Speaker 2: in New York. We had a really great business and

829
00:47:42,360 --> 00:47:46,080
Speaker 2: COVID hit and then it was just like no shipping.

830
00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:48,080
Speaker 2: We don't want to take orders we're not paying you

831
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:50,920
Speaker 2: for I mean, we just put our business was at risk,

832
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:53,680
Speaker 2: you know, and so we made a decision at that point, Okay,

833
00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:58,200
Speaker 2: we're closing down international. We can control our own destiny

834
00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:02,200
Speaker 2: by having bricks and waterer stores, our own online. So

835
00:48:02,239 --> 00:48:07,200
Speaker 2: we just pulled everything back into local and that's been

836
00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:10,960
Speaker 2: our strategy. And then it's just understanding like how much

837
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:14,279
Speaker 2: growth can we have in this market and where does

838
00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:18,040
Speaker 2: the growth come from next. I think, you know, online

839
00:48:18,080 --> 00:48:20,960
Speaker 2: is a huge thing that you can control because of

840
00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:25,480
Speaker 2: the the money that you can spend on marketing, so

841
00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:27,520
Speaker 2: you can switch that on and off. It's different to

842
00:48:27,560 --> 00:48:31,640
Speaker 2: bricks and mortar, where you're investing in you know, rents inventory,

843
00:48:31,880 --> 00:48:35,239
Speaker 2: Like it's to open a store, like a fit out.

844
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:36,919
Speaker 2: You know, you can't do a fit out for undred

845
00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:42,600
Speaker 2: million dollars. Wow, you cannot. Like you can, but it's

846
00:48:42,600 --> 00:48:45,200
Speaker 2: not going to it's not going to look to the

847
00:48:45,360 --> 00:48:47,359
Speaker 2: level that you want it to look. So, I mean,

848
00:48:47,880 --> 00:48:52,320
Speaker 2: you know there's things you can control. We can control

849
00:48:52,360 --> 00:48:56,120
Speaker 2: our supply chain, you know. So it's looking at things

850
00:48:56,160 --> 00:48:58,000
Speaker 2: like that, it's looking at your margin, it's looking at

851
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:03,920
Speaker 2: your profitability. We can control our well, our expenses to

852
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 2: a point. Yeah, so there are those things. I can't

853
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:11,880
Speaker 2: control how many stores are going to close down next week.

854
00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:15,360
Speaker 2: I can't control my wholesale business. Like I can create

855
00:49:15,400 --> 00:49:20,600
Speaker 2: great relationships, I can create create great products that sell,

856
00:49:21,320 --> 00:49:23,920
Speaker 2: I can have great marketing, and I can create brand

857
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:27,160
Speaker 2: brand demand. But I can't control anything else. So that's

858
00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:28,560
Speaker 2: the stuff that we focus on.

859
00:49:29,160 --> 00:49:31,600
Speaker 1: And so just so what you're saying though, and I

860
00:49:31,640 --> 00:49:33,840
Speaker 1: think I think what you're saying is, don't focus on

861
00:49:33,840 --> 00:49:37,319
Speaker 1: those things you can't control. Actually actually identify those things

862
00:49:37,320 --> 00:49:39,040
Speaker 1: you can control and put your time and iff into that.

863
00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:42,880
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And it's like a four prong approach. You know,

864
00:49:43,040 --> 00:49:46,400
Speaker 2: it's like we're looking at profitability, we're looking at margin,

865
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:50,480
Speaker 2: we're looking at product mix, we're looking at people. Having

866
00:49:50,480 --> 00:49:52,759
Speaker 2: people in the right roles doing the right things like

867
00:49:53,160 --> 00:49:57,960
Speaker 2: that is key. Like there's no point in having this

868
00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:01,560
Speaker 2: great sort of st to do around people if you

869
00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:04,640
Speaker 2: don't have the best talent, and if that you don't

870
00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:08,120
Speaker 2: have the right leadership and the right energy in the business.

871
00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:12,560
Speaker 2: And and that's one thing for me that I work

872
00:50:12,640 --> 00:50:16,160
Speaker 2: really hard on personally, like bringing the right energy into

873
00:50:16,200 --> 00:50:20,120
Speaker 2: the business. I do a lot of work personally on that.

874
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:24,439
Speaker 2: I'm in the gym really early, three or four days

875
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:27,880
Speaker 2: a week. I meditate, I just do all that textbook stuff.

876
00:50:27,920 --> 00:50:34,520
Speaker 2: I swim every day. I because leadership is key and

877
00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:37,520
Speaker 2: people want to come to work and be inspired and

878
00:50:37,680 --> 00:50:39,799
Speaker 2: have a good time as well, you know, like you've

879
00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:41,080
Speaker 2: got to enjoy the journey.

880
00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:44,640
Speaker 1: And I think the best version of yours TLF.

881
00:50:44,640 --> 00:50:48,040
Speaker 2: I really do. And I take that pretty seriously. And

882
00:50:48,120 --> 00:50:50,760
Speaker 2: I'm like a human and I'm I've got all sorts

883
00:50:50,800 --> 00:50:58,040
Speaker 2: of like flaws, I really do. But I'm super close

884
00:50:58,080 --> 00:51:01,920
Speaker 2: to my team and that I think is key, like

885
00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:07,200
Speaker 2: always checking in making sure they're okay. Like I don't

886
00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:10,680
Speaker 2: work as a boss so much. I work beside them.

887
00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:12,920
Speaker 2: I sit next to them, and we work together.

888
00:51:13,080 --> 00:51:17,359
Speaker 1: But that's a decision you made as the boss to yeah, yeah,

889
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:19,880
Speaker 1: I'm going to I got one final question for you,

890
00:51:20,200 --> 00:51:26,040
Speaker 1: if you don't mind, one final question for you. Would

891
00:51:26,080 --> 00:51:30,520
Speaker 1: you think is it fair to say that to reach

892
00:51:30,600 --> 00:51:37,160
Speaker 1: the success that you have enjoyed in the basic brand

893
00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:39,520
Speaker 1: and all the stuff that you do, and all the

894
00:51:39,560 --> 00:51:42,200
Speaker 1: staff you employ, and all the places you have as outlets,

895
00:51:42,239 --> 00:51:46,560
Speaker 1: and all the supplies and distributeds that you use, and

896
00:51:46,680 --> 00:51:49,000
Speaker 1: the success of the brand and all the other stuff,

897
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:51,879
Speaker 1: the ip et cetera in selecial property. Is it fair

898
00:51:51,920 --> 00:51:56,000
Speaker 1: to say that no point trying to do these things

899
00:51:56,080 --> 00:51:58,719
Speaker 1: unless you're prepared for it to be all encompassing.

900
00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:04,000
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely, it's like all or nothing. And that's the thing.

901
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:07,040
Speaker 2: There's a lot of sacrifice. But I'm fortunate to do

902
00:52:07,120 --> 00:52:12,000
Speaker 2: something I love, and without sounding like a cliche, I'm

903
00:52:12,239 --> 00:52:15,320
Speaker 2: really grateful for that. And I'm surrounded by the most

904
00:52:15,320 --> 00:52:19,319
Speaker 2: incredible people, like internally externally.

905
00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:22,919
Speaker 1: So but is that a mindset? You have to put

906
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:29,960
Speaker 1: your mind set, your mind in that position to acknowledge

907
00:52:30,640 --> 00:52:33,160
Speaker 1: that you are there are things there that you should

908
00:52:33,200 --> 00:52:35,400
Speaker 1: be grateful for. In other words, you have to position

909
00:52:35,560 --> 00:52:36,720
Speaker 1: yourself as that person.

910
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:41,120
Speaker 2: Absolutely, because there's so many things every day that can

911
00:52:41,160 --> 00:52:46,279
Speaker 2: get on top of you. Yeah, and the motivation, the

912
00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:50,560
Speaker 2: getting up that you know, I mean, it's a long time,

913
00:52:50,600 --> 00:52:54,720
Speaker 2: it's a marathon. Having a business, like eighteen years goes

914
00:52:54,800 --> 00:52:56,680
Speaker 2: like that, but it feels like a long time. And

915
00:52:57,080 --> 00:52:59,799
Speaker 2: I always feel like I've just started. I always feel

916
00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:00,799
Speaker 2: like I'm not good enough.

917
00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:02,960
Speaker 1: I have to do better, and sometimes we've got to

918
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:03,560
Speaker 1: start again.

919
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:06,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's what it feels like. Now like the

920
00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:09,360
Speaker 2: basic two point zero, I am starting again building the

921
00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:13,719
Speaker 2: business from the ground up, and I'm pretty flattened, I

922
00:53:13,800 --> 00:53:18,879
Speaker 2: must say, like I'm tired. But I think it's the mindset.

923
00:53:19,040 --> 00:53:22,239
Speaker 2: It's just like positive, positive, positive, just focusing on the

924
00:53:22,280 --> 00:53:26,719
Speaker 2: good and not overthinking, just getting up and doing it,

925
00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:27,040
Speaker 2: you know.

926
00:53:27,560 --> 00:53:31,239
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think as your point to you can't

927
00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:36,040
Speaker 1: overthink it because there's too many possibilities. You just can

928
00:53:36,120 --> 00:53:38,640
Speaker 1: be really simple. No, I get up, it's this time,

929
00:53:38,800 --> 00:53:41,000
Speaker 1: I do blah blah blah blah, I get a gym,

930
00:53:41,040 --> 00:53:42,759
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be, and I go to work

931
00:53:42,800 --> 00:53:46,080
Speaker 1: and I'll be my best, happiest self based on the day.

932
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:48,759
Speaker 1: And I perform as well as I can, and I

933
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:53,160
Speaker 1: look after my people and I do what I can. Yeah,

934
00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:56,080
Speaker 1: but it's all encompassing. There's no shortcuts.

935
00:53:57,080 --> 00:54:00,640
Speaker 2: There's no shortcuts. And I really when people ask me

936
00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:03,600
Speaker 2: about you know, what would you say to any person

937
00:54:03,640 --> 00:54:06,960
Speaker 2: that's going to start their own label? And I feel

938
00:54:07,360 --> 00:54:12,400
Speaker 2: part of me feel sorry for them because it's like hard,

939
00:54:12,680 --> 00:54:13,600
Speaker 2: it's hard, and.

940
00:54:13,480 --> 00:54:14,960
Speaker 1: It's harder you ever expected.

941
00:54:15,120 --> 00:54:19,120
Speaker 2: It's way harder now than it was then. Like it's

942
00:54:19,480 --> 00:54:22,680
Speaker 2: complicated and you have to be in it for the

943
00:54:22,719 --> 00:54:26,440
Speaker 2: long haul. Like it's not glamorous, it's not fun. It

944
00:54:26,560 --> 00:54:28,600
Speaker 2: is fun. I mean I get to do great things.

945
00:54:28,600 --> 00:54:30,840
Speaker 2: I get to travel, like do something I love. But

946
00:54:32,040 --> 00:54:36,240
Speaker 2: it's a grind. And you know, I'm designing four collections

947
00:54:36,280 --> 00:54:38,680
Speaker 2: a year every three months. I'm on a treadmill of

948
00:54:38,760 --> 00:54:42,560
Speaker 2: like one hundred and fifty pieces every three months of design.

949
00:54:43,120 --> 00:54:45,360
Speaker 2: And you've got deadlines and you're not sitting under a

950
00:54:45,360 --> 00:54:49,840
Speaker 2: tree getting inspiration. You're in an office with deadlines, having

951
00:54:49,880 --> 00:54:53,120
Speaker 2: meetings all day, trying to come up with creative ideas,

952
00:54:53,280 --> 00:54:56,480
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So it's a grind. However,

953
00:54:57,080 --> 00:55:03,480
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, keeping it simple, being grateful and enjoying

954
00:55:03,520 --> 00:55:08,920
Speaker 2: the process and doing good work. That's what you need

955
00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:10,279
Speaker 2: to do, good work that you're proud of.

956
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:13,520
Speaker 1: And stick to your and it's also about sticking to

957
00:55:13,560 --> 00:55:16,560
Speaker 1: your original theme. Don't lose sight of what the hell

958
00:55:16,640 --> 00:55:20,640
Speaker 1: you're doing. You're trying to provide clothing, which is blah

959
00:55:20,640 --> 00:55:26,680
Speaker 1: blah blah blah what you explained before, simple, comfortable, cool,

960
00:55:26,920 --> 00:55:29,560
Speaker 1: whatever your words are. You just don't lose sight of

961
00:55:29,560 --> 00:55:32,200
Speaker 1: what you're doing, because that's important.

962
00:55:33,040 --> 00:55:35,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's really easy to do. I think losing

963
00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:36,960
Speaker 2: sight of what you're doing.

964
00:55:37,280 --> 00:55:42,799
Speaker 1: So Debra Sam's co founder now the only founder of

965
00:55:43,360 --> 00:55:46,279
Speaker 1: Basic Clothing. Way, is that probably the best way to

966
00:55:46,280 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 1: describe it. Thanks very much. That was actually very insightful.

967
00:55:49,920 --> 00:55:53,799
Speaker 1: Pardon me not know much about your industry, but you've

968
00:55:53,800 --> 00:55:56,800
Speaker 1: guided me through. You've taken me through. But like your business,

969
00:55:56,920 --> 00:55:59,239
Speaker 1: like every other business, apart from the factor in the

970
00:55:59,239 --> 00:56:02,960
Speaker 1: clothing game. You know, it's the theme, similar sort of

971
00:56:02,960 --> 00:56:07,000
Speaker 1: theme for a founder. You know, stuff like some of

972
00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:08,560
Speaker 1: the things that happened to you have happened to me,

973
00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:11,560
Speaker 1: and you know a lot of that stuff resonated with

974
00:56:11,600 --> 00:56:12,880
Speaker 1: me when you were talking to me about it, and

975
00:56:13,120 --> 00:56:15,080
Speaker 1: I really appreciate your honesty. Good luck to hear.

976
00:56:15,320 --> 00:56:15,680
Speaker 2: Thank you,