My journey with Anais Vintage

According to my parents, especially my Dad, I have been very aspirational since I was a little girl. My lifelong dream of transforming my father's tailoring shop into my own was evident in my drawings of how I would present my stock as well as pricing and asking my Dad for advice on how to run a business at just 6 years old. Finally, with the hard work of saving up enough money, I was able to accumulate a sufficient amount of vintage pieces that I was proud to sell to kickstart my business: Anais Vintage.

Through the generosity of my sibling, they gave me ownership of an Instagram account they had with 27,000 followers in order to post my fashion content as well as open myself to the possibilities of collaborating with brands - which I have already had the pleasure of doing. This allowed me to turn my previous account into one for Anais Vintage; I believe it is a vital for a company to have a thriving social media presence so that they can optimise their sales and interact with their consumers which - in the long run - will create a community of returning, satisfied customers. Alongside University tasks, I have managed to post images of my stock on both Instagram and Tik Tok to build interest over more than one social media platform which is proving to be quite successful. Building the confidence to post videos and pictures and receiving an immense amount of support motivated me to take my business to the next level - my very first pop up event for Anais Vintage.

After conversing with my peers and lecturers, I decided to arrange a pop up for my brand! I took into consideration the time it would take to prepare for this pop up and whether I would need assistance so I gave myself a month to straighten out a game plan. After observing aspects such as foot traffic, I arranged to have the pop up where I thought would give me the right amount of exposure whilst being located in the hot zone of my target audience - outside one of the buildings on University campus. Although my stock was/is an eclectic selection of vintage pieces, I wanted to accommodate to everyone which inspired the £5 rummage box idea. I wanted this event to be a way for me to build relationships and trust with the people I was selling to so having rails and a fun 'digging for treasure' activity was a good way for me to do this. In the run up to my pop up, I made sure to advertise this by creating a poster that detailed all that was needed to draw people in - I spread this information via social media and hanging the posters around the city centre which allowed for a widening of consumers. 

The big day arrives - May 1st, and I am feeling all the emotions possible. With the help of my Dad and my friend Flo I was able to swiftly move my stock from his shop, where I was storing it, to the set location with ease. I could tell this pop up was going to be successful as I actually made my first sale while still setting up! I continued to make over £200 in my first hour of being there which I was astonished by; as the day went on more and more people of all ages were visiting my set up and were incredibly complimentary of the clothes and the efforts I went to to make this possible for myself. By the end of the event I made over £500 which was £350 over my personal target; I have never felt so grateful and proud ever in my life - I finally made little me proud.