Founder Georgia Sandford is a 27 year old fashion designer and entrepreneur who has created a luxury lingerie brand, Wisteria and Willow.
Wisteria and Willow only launched at the end of 2022 and has already attracted the attention of fashion influencers like Tayla Broad and been shortlisted in the Power Retail Awards. We chat to Georgia about her journey so far…
What inspired you to start Wisteria & Willow?
I saw an opportunity to combine my two biggest passions –uplifting/empowering women and being creative. While also finding a purpose when the world came to a standstill with the pandemic.
In high school I experienced how social media and mass media marketing can have awful long term effects on women’s body image, which so many women around me struggling with eating disorders and self-harming it was awful. I also definitely struggled with my own body image and constantly compared myself to these ‘perfect’ women we see everywhere in the technological world we live in. This was where my passion and love for trying to break that cycle and uplift women. One of my most successful campaigns was one where we focused on mums ‘finding their spark again’ – getting reviews and emails from women and hubbys who have purchased from Wisteria and Willow and felt the meaning behind putting on one of our pieces makes it all worth it.
The second passion being able to create lingerie, I did an internship in university at a lingerie label and knew from the first day of my internship that this was my place. It is made so much better when I can put a message behind each piece, that may just lift one person up, and represent them finding their inner boss babe. That is the ultimate goal for me.
Tell us about your career and background.
My background is very much a country girl, I grew up on a Sheep and Cropping farm in Deniliquin NSW where daily life was literally, get up, feed animals, load trucks, go to school (1.5 hours on a bus each way) and back home to fix fences or plough paddocks. I didn’t grow up around any sort of fashion and I think this is why when I went away to school in Melbourne it was really obvious the effect even just the city life had on body image and body dissatisfaction in high school aged girls.
After high school I completed a Bachelor of Fashion Design (hons) from RMIT, where I specialised in lingerie before finishing my 4th year and beginning Grad Cert of entrepreneurship and innovation from Swinburne. I knew I wanted to own my own business and planned on getting the fashion and business degrees before starting a few years working for a label to get as much experience as possible. – Spoiler, lockdowns.
After all of 1 class in my Entrepreneurship and innovation degree, classes were moved online and Melbourne was put on lockdown for the best part of the next 2 years. I completed my degree in the first 6 months, then felt totally lost as so many fashion brands were going under and no one was hiring. So I decided to jump in head first and start my own lingerie label.
We had so many setbacks and learning experiences but finally launched at the end of 2022 and have grown quickly but have a long way to go!
Describe a typical workday for you.
Gosh, every single day is different. Some days I have 5 orders to pack from the day before (maybe 30minutes), other days I have 50 orders to pack (half a day of packing!). I am currently running every aspect of the business, which involves all the designing, ordering, stock tracking, sampling, fabric selections, pack orders, social media content, website design and coding, meta-ads, content creation, photoshoot planning, booking, model coordination – the list goes on so there is definitely no day that same as the last. It totally depends on what is going on that month, if we are dropping new collections or having a sale, it’s a wild ride.
What advice do you have for those wanting to start a business?
I think the hardest part about running a business is mindset, it’s a hard slog and you’re going to have setbacks and you’re going to feel lost, just remember tomorrow is a new day.
- Don’t think of a no as a final answer, think of it as a not right now, and try again.
- When someone tells you that you can’t do something, don’t let it get you down, challenge it.
- Play the song ‘Tubthumping’ when you have a setback.
- Some months are better that others with sales, it’s normal, the bad months make the good months even better, stick with it.
- Get a good business coach and mentor, the best investment is investing in yourself.
What’s next for you, and Wisteria & Willow?
Expand expand expand! We are currently expanding our size range which has been one of our biggest goals since day 1 and cant wait to keep growing and making it fully size inclusive. We are also expanding into sleep and loungewear which is super exciting. We are hoping to move into some wholesale contracts and get that extra foot traffic exposure for Wisteria and Willow.
