Bucking trends
Jumping into Hollywood doesn’t mean Still Here will stray from its pared-back product ethos. Eighty-five percent of Still Here’s product mix is denim, and 80% of denim sales are from core styles as opposed to seasonal, more trendy pieces. “It’s not trend chasing or newness or whatever. It’s just everyday sales,” Maurice says.
The pair are staunch on the concept of “everyday dressing”, pieces that can be styled with the jeans: tees, jumpers, jackets. The idea is to give context, Sonia says. But they don’t want to overcomplicate. With the brand’s standard spring/summer, fall/winter model, there was no newness in store for four months at a time — which meant lost sales. The Madison Avenue customer was coming in three weeks after purchasing and asking for new stock, Maurice says.
But the founders don’t want to pump out more products for the sake of it, so instead of introducing more seasonal styles, they’re changing their product cadence, moving from two drops per year (spring/summer, fall/winter) to four (spring, summer, fall, winter). The founders are confident that having new products in store more frequently, with each new collection, will satisfy customers’ desire for fresh products.
This desire for simplification is reflected across the business: Still Here has never done a collaboration. It doesn’t go on sale (the brand has only ever hosted one sample sale), so don’t expect any Black Friday discounts. Instead, seasonal styles are produced in limited quantities, and once they’re done, they’re done; rarely will they restock. “I hope to be able to maintain this when we have four seasons,” Maurice says.
The founders are getting used to this new way of thinking. “You have to put on a different hat, from pushing the rock up the hill and now, in a way, chasing it down,” Maurice says. “But I think where we’re at now is putting on a different hat to scale, and there’s a lot of excitement around that.”
Maurice is optimistic that seeing Still Here decamp to LA will drive momentum for the brand’s next chapter. “We know it can be successful in New York already. Seeing that come to life in other markets is going to be something that energizes us into testing new avenues and states,” he says. “We see a lot of traction from other major cities across the US. Some of them are mainstays, some of them are seasonal.”
That said, there’s no set plan for where and when the founders will go next. “When we find something we like and something that excites us, we move very quickly,” Maurice says. “We like connecting with the retail space,” Sonia agrees. “That’s going to really lead which market we open in, when.”
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