Tell us a bit about Talbot Avenue and how you started the brand.
We first met as housemates over 5 years ago, this relationship quickly turned into a very strong friendship, which then evolved into the two of us working together in another fashion house. (The name Talbot Avenue is a shout out to the street which our first shared house resided on). After years of working together, playing together and travelling together, we saw an opportunity to transfer into the activewear industry where we saw huge potential and growth. We worked behind the scenes for about two years sourcing and developing, it was very important to us to focus on sourcing the highest quality fabrics with the best performance qualities for our customer, alongside developing our own colour palette and prints that were true to us and our vision for Talbot Avenue.
What goes into designing your range? What are your inspirations?
Our first step is to develop a colour palette for the collection. We tend to stick to bold yet delicate colourways that are very wearable (think greys, navy, nude, black, white). You won’t see any neon in our collections! This process is always a fun one for us and involves sitting on the floor with a glass of rose in one hand and a plethora of fabric swatches in the other. We’re very sensory humans, all facets of life inspire us – from natural materials with interesting textures to haberdashery to body movement and mother nature.
The leisurewear and activewear market is very hot right now. What makes Talbot Avenue different?
We stay very true to our aesthetic and don’t pay too much attention to “what’s hot right now”. We’re more of an evergreen brand, our colourways and fits aren’t “fashion-now”, they’re effortlessly cool, allowing you to mix and match for your weekly yoga class, or team back with a pair of high tops and a soft leather jacket for after work drinks with the girls. The common thread through our designs, our marketing, social media and our campaigns is that we are not just a sportswear brand, we’re a fashion brand too. To be a Talbot Avenue woman we don’t care if you’ve never stepped foot in a gym, a lot of our customers are coming to us for their everyday street style looks (and if you asked some of them, they would have no idea what a downward dog even is).
Brooke Hogan looks amazing in the current campaign for Talbot Avenue. What was behind the look of the campaign and why did you choose Brooke to be the face of the range?
Isn’t she amazing?! When we developed the range and the direction of the campaign, we wanted to do something that was a bit risqué but still demonstrated key qualities of the Talbot heroine: 1) She is strong, 2) she is confident, 3) she is fearless. As shown in our campaign, when we cast Brooke, we really felt upon meeting her that she embodied all of the above qualities, both in her personality and in her physical demeanour. The woman has a body to die for and a personality to match!
Do you have any tips for budding female entrepreneurs?
1. Don’t forget to laugh
2. Call upon as many mentors as you can to give you sound advice
3. Never leave anything to chance
4. Be open-minded to all opportunities that present themselves
5. Often the moment you’re ready to give up is the moment before something great is about to happen – don’t give up!
6. Hustle! Hustle! Hustle!
6. Drink Rose and lots of it!
What’s next for the brand?
We’re very grateful and encouraged by how far Talbot has come in the past 12 months, and excited to spread our wings and delve into budding local and international opportunities. Stay tuned for more updates on this! As always the creative process never stops for us, so expect to see lots of new styles being dropped across new categories, the sky is the limit!
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