Recently I was fortunate enough to interview the amazing duo behind one of Australia's most loved labels, Bec & Bridge. Starting out in one of their parent's homes back in 2003, the designers Becky Cooper and Bridget Yorston have continued to grow in their success - almost outdoing themselves with each new collection. The ever so gorgeous Becky & Bridget let me into their studio to film snippets of their daily lives and kindly sat down with me afterwards to have a little chat. For your eyes only, here is part one of the interview!
Taken by Nicole Cooper.
Can you tell me a
little bit about how you both met and why you decided to found the label Bec
and Bridge?
Bridget: We met when
we were studying fashion design at UTS and we became really close friends, we
would do everything together – we were just inseparable basically. It wasn’t until
we revamped an old pair of jeans that we started making clothes for friends.
Becky: Yeah we were
just lucky, our friends would sort of walk into stores wearing the clothes we
made for them and we’d have stores calling up saying “how do I go about ordering?”
First of all there was a store on the Gold Coast and they said “can we order
200 pairs of jeans?” and we were just like “Oh my goodness!” So we just had to
find a way to be able produce it.
Bridget: It definitely
wasn’t something we’d planned, we never really set out to start a label.
Bec & Bridge
started off in 2003, has a lot changed in the Fashion Industry since then?
Becky: Yeah, in the past 10 years the Fashion Industry in Australia has just
grown so much. It’s really nice now to have such a strong network of designers.
10 years ago there wasn’t much going on so it’s amazing to have a lot of
creative designers in Australia.
Bridget: It keeps the
standards higher as well. It forces everyone to be on their toes and coming out
with new things each season. It’s good to have a bit of a buzz in the industry.
Describe the type of
girl that would be wearing Bec & Bridge.
Bridget: She’s style savvy,
loves fashion (quite fashion forward) and she’s happy to risks. She’s also
price conscious and knows how to spend her money well. I guess that’s what we
cater for? A girl that doesn’t necessarily have the worlds biggest budget to
spend on her wardrobe but still wants to look good and stay in fashion.
What would be the
highlights of your fashion careers thus far?
Becky: I think there’s been a few highlights, it kind of changes. In the
beginning we were just so happy to start paying ourselves a salary.
Bridget: And hiring
our staff members!
Becky: Our first DJ’s
(David Jones) order was really exciting.
Bridget: And our first show at Fashion Week.
Bridget: And our first show at Fashion Week.
Becky: All of our
firsts were pretty exciting and now we’re having a lot of success in the US,
which is probably what we’re most excited about right now.
I heard that the
label has over 40 stockists in the US alone?
Bridget: And we’ve
only really been there for a year! That’s really exciting for us. We’ve also
had quite a bit of interest from the department stores over there so now we’re
currently just negotiating and figuring out which one we’re going to go with.
Make sure you stay tuned for the second part of my interview with Bec & Bridge where they reveal the inspiration behind their latest Autumn Winter 2012 collection as well as their future plans (Fashion Week included). Oh and there'll be some pretty pictures too! Gotta love some eye candy.
