Interviews
33south creates design to take off overseas
15 Feb '06
2 min read
Australian Trade Commission said if you think of suits and ties, you think of Italy; for high couture, you think of France; but when it comes to beach fashions, you think of Australia, and that's why Austrade-assisted fashion house 33south is taking off overseas.
“33south has broken new ground by making a label that takes wearers from the beach to a bar,” Managing Director Andrew Jones said.
“Our competition, such as American surf wear brands, is a bit more basic than what you'd expect, whereas Australian designs are adventurous.”
A combination of a life long love of surfing and a well developed fashion sense led Mr Jones to creating his new concept in beach fashions.
“I wanted to marry my design skills with surfing. We've done innovative things such as license the original artwork of Surfing World Magazine – which is only weeks off from being the oldest surfing mag in the world.”
Mr Jones said his business strategy right from the start was to succeed in selling garments in Australian stores as well as exports.
“I created the company with extensive expansion capacity to cater for the international markets as they were developed."
“When you compare a population of 20 million in Australia to the population of the world, the possibilities are huge,” he said.
“The first export opportunity was made possible after I spoke with Austrade and developed a good relationship with Austrade staff in Japan.
“Whenever they brought buyers to Australia, Austrade contacted us and its representatives from Osaka and Tokyo referred 33south to important contacts, leading us to a deal with Beams (a leading fashion department store) in Japan."
“In addition, to help us get started in exporting Austrade accepted us onto its New Exporter Development Program which enabled us to receive free market entry advice."
“We just opened our Paddington store in Sydney recently and in a strange twist of fate, some Japanese girls purchased thousands of dollars worth of our garments and will sell them in their shop in Japan,” Mr Jones said.
“33south has broken new ground by making a label that takes wearers from the beach to a bar,” Managing Director Andrew Jones said.
“Our competition, such as American surf wear brands, is a bit more basic than what you'd expect, whereas Australian designs are adventurous.”
A combination of a life long love of surfing and a well developed fashion sense led Mr Jones to creating his new concept in beach fashions.
“I wanted to marry my design skills with surfing. We've done innovative things such as license the original artwork of Surfing World Magazine – which is only weeks off from being the oldest surfing mag in the world.”
Mr Jones said his business strategy right from the start was to succeed in selling garments in Australian stores as well as exports.
“I created the company with extensive expansion capacity to cater for the international markets as they were developed."
“When you compare a population of 20 million in Australia to the population of the world, the possibilities are huge,” he said.
“The first export opportunity was made possible after I spoke with Austrade and developed a good relationship with Austrade staff in Japan.
“Whenever they brought buyers to Australia, Austrade contacted us and its representatives from Osaka and Tokyo referred 33south to important contacts, leading us to a deal with Beams (a leading fashion department store) in Japan."
“In addition, to help us get started in exporting Austrade accepted us onto its New Exporter Development Program which enabled us to receive free market entry advice."
“We just opened our Paddington store in Sydney recently and in a strange twist of fate, some Japanese girls purchased thousands of dollars worth of our garments and will sell them in their shop in Japan,” Mr Jones said.
Australian Trade Commission
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