How Self-Portrait Grew a Global Business Selling Party Dresses

LONDON – Many Central Saint Martins grads observe a well-recognized formulation: launching namesake luxurious labels which are more likely to prioritise runway creativity and buzz over wise concerns or broad shopper enchantment. Most wrestle to scale.

Not Han Chong. The Malaysia-born entrepreneur’s near 10-year-old mannequin, Self-Portrait, doesn’t current at vogue week, and he in no way wished to name the mannequin after himself. As a substitute he wished a repute that can replicate what the mannequin was about: his purchasers.

Barely than a monument to his private creativity, Self-Portrait is targeting outfitting a broad spectrum of girls with elevated social gathering clothes priced inside attain. Purchasers who first see his designs worn by stars ranging from Paris Hilton to Kate Middleton may be shocked to see these A-listers’ garments retailing for spherical £350: a step up from most mall and high-street selections, nevertheless a fraction of what prime luxurious names would value.

Whereas eschewing the high-fashion path well-trodden by alumni of the commerce’s most prestigious design programme, Chong has constructed one of many essential commercially worthwhile ready-to-wear firms born out of London currently with out taking on exterior consumers.

Given that pandemic, Self-Portrait product sales have surged due to a worthwhile China enlargement adopted by booming demand for occasionwear throughout the West as lockdowns lifted: agency revenues have doubled yearly since 2020, Chong acknowledged. A 2020 three means partnership with a Chinese language language companion observed the mannequin open larger than 40 retailers within the essential factor vogue market, and, in November, it opened a model new flagship in London’s Chelsea neighbourhood, its second retailer throughout the metropolis. The mannequin declined to disclose its complete financials, however public filings current the British enterprise alone hit £28.5 million ($34.2 million) in 2021.

By rigorously balancing creativity with industrial savvy and enterprise rigor, Self-Portrait has develop into the first port of title for myriad ladies that want to look good and actually really feel good as soon as they costume up — whether or not or not that be for a wedding, a birthday or a enterprise meeting. The important thing, Chong says, lies in designing clothes he’s conscious of his purchaser wishes.

“It’s not regarding the ego of what I consider my purchasers [should] placed on. It’s additional like, what’s my purchaser drawn to? What are their habits? What’s their life-style?” the 44 year-old entrepreneur acknowledged. “It’s not saying, ‘Okay, my purchasers wish to adorn like a Self-Portrait lady.’”

With one success story beneath his belt, Chong has ambitions to point out Self-Portrait proper right into a vogue group, with a long-term intention to slowly convey totally different synergistic labels into his fold. In December 2021, he established SP Group, shopping for British label Roland Mouret out of administration. He and his workers in the meanwhile are working to revive the mannequin.

Chong had a modest upbringing in Penang, an island off Malaysia’s northwestern coast, later transferring to London in his early 20s to evaluate vogue. He labored part-time jobs to position himself through college sooner than scoring a spot at then-hot extreme street retailer Topshop after graduation.

After an preliminary vogue enterprise ended over ingenious variations alongside along with his enterprise companion, Chong primarily based Self-Portrait in 2013 using £160,000 of his private monetary financial savings — eschewing consumers so he would have the power to call the images.

Chong observed a distinct segment out there out there for a model new type of mannequin throughout the updated space: whereas labels like Thought and Rag & Bone had been mixing vogue cool-factor with additional accessible worth components, most of those producers have been centered on casual daywear. Chong took intention on the occasionwear space, discovering success with an aesthetic that was ingenious and elevated ample to attract the likes of luxurious e-tailers and prime department stores like Selfridges, whereas nonetheless being relatable and cheap, thus fascinating to a broad viewers.

Self-Portrait launched collectively his experiences at school and throughout the workplace. At Central Saint Martins, Chong found about detailing, match, supplies and craftsmanship — along with the power of image-making. At Topshop he found the importance of financial savvy and designing with the consumer in ideas, using information to increased understand their needs and leveraging world present chains to achieve one of the best mannequin for a aggressive worth (the mannequin’s principal manufacturing hub is China).

“Han has carried out an excellent job at rising one among many go-to producers for many girls for lots of occasions in her calendar,” acknowledged Liane Wiggins, head of womenswear at Matchesfashion, which began stocking the label in 2015. She says she was drawn to the mannequin’s elevated, detail-oriented aesthetic, and “extreme integrity by means of top of the range and match.”

“I vividly keep in mind meeting Han in our locations of labor in London and being so impressed with how developed the small assortment was on the time: the laces, fabrications and workmanship for the worth degree was like one factor I had not seen in my career,” Wiggins acknowledged. Since launching the mannequin, Matchesfashion has multiplied its buy by a component of on the very least 15, she acknowledged.

With no exterior funding to fall once more on, Chong was centered on profitability from the start. This solely spurred on his customer-centric focus.

“I didn’t have the luxurious of [creating] one factor too experimental or too avant garde; I needed to confirm I was ready to fund the mannequin,” he acknowledged. “As a substitute of what I needed to design, we think about what makes her actually really feel good, what she wishes.”

After establishing the label with key wholesale stockists like Selfridges and Web-a-Porter, Chong pivoted to bolstering his direct-to-consumer product sales, opening a retailer in London’s Mayfair neighbourhood in 2018 and investing in e-commerce. The approach, Chong acknowledged, has been to utilize the mannequin’s direct channels to launch new courses like knitwear and outerwear, after which leverage product sales information to propel wholesale companions to broaden their buys previous the mannequin’s signature social gathering garments. Within the current day, direct channels drive 65 % of product sales.

“Direct-to-consumer lets you open up additional courses, and also you’ve obtained additional vitality with the wholesale companion,” he acknowledged. “Now quite a lot of my wholesale companions buy into all varied sorts of courses, because of we’ve obtained the data to help [the success].”

In 2020, Self-Portrait expanded into China by means of a 3 means partnership with native companion Ellassay, and has since opened 40 retailers all through the mainland, with plans to open an additional 80 locations over the next two years. China is now the mannequin’s largest market, accounting for 37 % of product sales last 12 months. Self-Portrait moreover has retailers in Taiwan, Bangkok and Hong Kong.

All through Self-Portrait’s worldwide enlargement, Chong’s life experiences have educated his methodology. His Asian upbringing — worlds away from the cosmopolitan streets of London the place he’s now based totally — meant he was conscious of the cultural nuances between completely totally different markets, he acknowledged, and made sure to broaden his assortment to include culturally associated designs for patrons in numerous areas: the mannequin built-in additional modest sorts to cater to Heart Jap purchasers, and smaller fits to cater to the Asian market.

Self-Portrait’s broad enchantment is manifest in its broad range of consumers, with celebrity devotees ranging from model Emily Ratajkowski to former First Woman Michelle Obama. Go to a metropolis or countryside marriage ceremony ceremony, and likelihood is excessive any individual will most likely be nonetheless be carrying the mannequin’s guipure Azalea costume, which has been a hero merchandise since its debut when the mannequin first launched.

The pliability of the mannequin is pretty distinctive, acknowledged celebrity stylist Emma Lane, who has recurrently turned to Self-Portrait all by way of her career.

“It’s such a elegant mannequin I put it on quite a few completely totally different consumers for a lot of completely totally different circumstances,” she acknowledged. “The silhouettes that they create work somewhat effectively on quite a few completely totally different physique shapes.”

Chong’s methodology has pushed earnings along with repute. He says the company reached profitability inside six months of launch, and within the current day maintains an EBITDA margin between 25 and 32 %.

As Self-Portrait grows up, Chong is making an attempt to the long term — with ambitions to lastly assemble a portfolio of producers beneath the determine SP Assortment. The idea is to utilize the experience and infrastructure he and his workers have constructed over time to assemble totally different producers he believes in, Chong says.

Since shopping for top-end London label Roland Mouret out of administration for an undisclosed sum in 2021, he has been working intently with the mannequin’s founder to relaunch the company, debuting a refreshed seen id, along with a model new model, last October.

Roland Mouret felt like an ideal complement to Self-Portrait, Chong acknowledged, as an occasionwear mannequin which, at its peak, had broad ranging enchantment and whose renowned “Galaxy Robe” was acknowledged for making ladies actually really feel assured. It moreover offers an opportunity to give attention to a barely older purchaser part, Chong acknowledged.

“I needed to give attention to that viewers, because of quite a lot of vogue producers are very centered on Gen-Z, and no person designs for that [more mature] lady,” he acknowledged. “I actually really feel like there’s quite a lot of potential for that mannequin to vary into a extremely essential share of the enterprise.”

SP Group plans to revive Roland Mouret by setting up on its signature aesthetic whereas overhauling its enterprise model, leverging Self-Portrait’s infrastructure and manufacturing group. The imaginative and prescient is for a direct-to-consumer pushed enterprise complemented by strategic wholesale partnerships, offering fundamental Mouret silhouettes at a barely elevated worth degree than Self Portrait’s offering.

Chong hopes the next period of British designers will downside the notion that staging boundary-breaking catwalk reveals or angling for jobs at prime couture houses is the one path to success. In 2018, he primarily based a scholarship programme at Central Saint Martins that funds one scholar per 12 months through their MA diploma, whereas providing them with mentorship and help from Self-Portrait.

“There are a number of different methods to generate [a] enterprise, not just one singular route,” he acknowledged.

Editor’s Discover: This textual content was updated on Feb. 8, 2023, to clarify the Self-Portrait Central Saint Martins scholarship programme funds one scholar per 12 months through their MA diploma.