When Rayna Hooper moved to popular vacation spot Robe in South Australia and started a retail homewares store, she had no idea that it would be her customers that gave her inspiration for her next career move. Having seen how much they loved taking a part of their trip away home with them, Rayna created fashion and lifestyle brand, Holiday – the idea behind the brand being to live every day like a holiday.
Winner of the Best New Exhibitor Stand at the 2012 Fashion Exposed fair, Holiday specialises in a vast range of products including clothing, jewellery, handbags, wallets, shoes and textiles. The proof of Holiday’s success is in the numbers, with sales increasing by 300% in the last year and the amount of stockists in Australia alone reaching over 500.
“I’m a Sydney girl who moved to the beach for love. It was a classic case of holiday romance. Boy meets girl, girl packs up her city life and moves to the beach, and then thinks – what now?”
Rayna’s solution was to throw herself into her work. After giving birth to two children, she opened a boutique accommodation business and began renovating and designing coastal interior for these properties. Going off the success of this, Rayna launched the first summer womenswear collection in 2010.
“The psychology of a holiday and how it affects people and the choices they make really hit home. This is where the idea for the Holiday brand was born,” Rayna explains. “I wanted to design and manufacture products that gave them that sense of relaxation and contentment, but at the same time could be incorporated into everyday living. The Holiday range is made up of pieces that encompass all the wonderful elements of being away, but very importantly, they can be worn as part of one’s daily routine from the boardroom to the bar,” says Rayna.
For Rayna, the biggest obstacle came with funding the rapid growth of the Holiday brand. “Despite the large volume of orders we had, the banks were reluctant to fund any manufacturing costs due to the difficult economic conditions. We even had retailers writing letters of support for us, saying how much they wanted the label in their store. I thought if the bank could see the need for the consumers, it would help our argument – and it did!”
Balancing time between her work and her three young kids has also presented countless challenges for Rayna. “I think mums all devise their own organisational mechanisms so that we can wear the many hats required of us each day. My life is definitely a circus act, with keeping so many million balls up in the air, but I have an amazing support group. Our family has always been a collaborative effort!”
For stockists and more information, go to www.holidaydesign.com.au.
