Welcome to The Scoop, a weekly email series in which I quiz fashion insiders on the stories of the week.
This week’s guests are Nikki Campbell and Sophie Coote, who, in 2014, co-founded the contemporary womenswear brand SIR. after seeing a gap in the market for minimalist separates, intimates, and ready-to-wear (which make up the acronym SIR.!)
SIR. is one of those DTC brands that exploded in Instagram’s heyday, leading, in many ways, to the e-commerce reckoning of a few years ago. Sophie and Nikki are traveling to Paris next week to celebrate more than a decade in business, so I called them up for a chat.
Hi Sophie and Nikki, what’s the scoop?
Nikki: We’re gearing up for a big summer because we’re in Australia, and it’s also our brand’s anniversary celebration. We are about to launch our anniversary collection with a campaign we shot in Greece. Then, from September 30 to October 6, we will be in Paris with our first solo showroom space.
Is this your first time at Paris Fashion Week?
Nikki: We’ve shown a little outside of Paris before, but this time we will be in Rue de Thorigny, which is central and also our own space.
Sophie: We are at a turning point for the brand; it feels like we are entering a new chapter, and we really wanted to bring it to the global arena in a more physical way. We want to show our clients what we want the brand to look, feel, smell, and sound like. We’ll also have a cocktail event, which is more about community-building.
And like everyone else, you also went to Greece this summer — but to shoot your campaign.
Nikki: We shot in Hydra last week. We photographed eight models, and it was the first time in a few years we’d done such a large-scale group shoot. We were very specific with our costumes for this project because we wanted it to be a representation of the muses of the brand. Some of the girls that we shot, like Tahnee Atkinson, were some of the first talent we ever worked with.
On set with SIR.
Photo: Courtesy of SIR.
How have you seen the market change since you have been in business?
Sophie: There’s a move towards personalization and in-person retail experiences — things that have to do with community. It’s interesting for us because we get to connect to our customers in a new way.
