Sleeping in the wild with Kip&Co.
Image from kipandco.com.au
Anyone with a keen eye for interiors and a love of bed linen probably knows the name, ‘Kip&Co’. A brand infamous for creating bed linen that challenges the standard stripe, gives florals a modern make-over and elevates plain colours to heavenly textured hues with soul, the Kip&Co team take interiors to the next level of luxury and creativity.
A relatively young brand, releasing their first ‘Confetti Storm’ range in the Spring of 2012, Kip&Co are fast becoming purveyors of beautiful, covetable homewares. Injecting a sense of fun back into everyday life, their range extends past the bedroom and bathroom, to the dining table, lounge floor, wall, body and beyond, offering an inspired lifestyle concept for the modern individual.
Known for their confident patterns, bold colour ways and occasional artist collaboration, twice a year this brand creates and curates exceptionally well-rounded collections that inspire, energise and elicit a cheeky sense of humour.
The latest SS16 ’Subtropics’ range (available now) is no exception. Showcasing their signature oversized pompom and tassle-fringed throws in bold ‘Rubix’ cube hues, minimal ‘Dalmation’ spots and ‘Tarzan’ leopard print as well as wild fields of painterly florals and undulating marble patterns, the collection is divine and, that’s just for the ‘Adult’ range ...
Kids will find bed time a joy tucking in amongst smiley faces, snap-happy crocodiles and the sweet ‘Lolly bag’ print. ‘Swanky blankies’ for bubs, big-top inspired carnival canopies for above the bed and pea cushions with supersonic metallic finishes also offer enchanting moments in a beautifully crafted collection for the home (or office, if you're game).
As a designer whose dual focus is brands; their identities and how they communicate, and the decorative arts, coupled with being completely enamoured with interior spaces and how they are put together aesthetically, I reached out to Hayley Pannekoecke (one third of Kip & Co) to learn more about the business.
I was curious to learn how they operate in a commercial sense, what it takes to run a successful lifestyle brand, and, most interestingly to me, the process around putting together such seamless, original and inspired ranges.
Below is my conversation with Hayley delving into the behind-the-scenes workings and magic of the Kip&Co brand.
Image from kipandco.com.au
Hayley, how did you know that starting your own homewares brand was what you wanted to do? What was the defining ‘thing’ or moment that made you want to take the leap as opposed to sitting back and dreaming about it?
The three of us were looking for a creative outlet and had been toying with the idea for a few months and then I was just like let’s do this and once we got our logo done which was one of the first defining moments [it] sealed the deal for us.
Do yourself, Kate and Alex combine forces and focus on separate areas of the business? And do you think having a business partner/s is the winning combo when embarking on building a brand like Kip&Co? Can you imagine running it on your own?
We all work on the design together but we also have individual areas that we are responsible for in running all the other areas of the business. It has certainly been a big winning factor for us but Kate and I have been in business together previously so had tested the waters. It certainly helps having personalities that get along well together, trust each other, and enjoy working together with a similar objective. Three can sometimes pose challenges but all in all we work well sounding different ideas of each other and certainly don’t always agree on everything but part of that is compromise and it really works for us. It has been of benefit to us building our brand as obviously many many hours are involved in building a business and a brand so added man power works well.
What do you think is essential this day in age in attracting and maintaining a loyal customer base? For example, do you rate your brand presence through social media (instagram et al) as high on your agenda? Or do you rely on word of mouth and your product’s reputation only?
Product reputation is certainly important of course but for us it has been building relationships and networks in the interiors industry and working consistently to keep our brand personal as well as staying true to the Kip&Co brand when it comes to our designs. Our design is fundamental to our success because we strive to offer the market something quite different and unique to what else is avaialble and put our signature on everything we do. We are not interested in ripping off others or following trends as such and we enjoy seeing our product alongside other diverse and great brands and products available. Social media is our primary means of communicating with our customer and showcasing what we have on offer, not sure what we would be doing without it!
How/why do you think your success has grown so rapidly? What is your cocktail for such an impressive product and devoted customer following in a relatively short amount of time?
A lot of fun and passion, a good splash of hard work and dedication and some forward planning on where you want to take your brand. Kip&Co is us and its personal – it's our loves, ideas, passion, energy, style – we don't make things unless we truly love them. We connect with people who like our aesthetic and we work hard to keep them liking what we do and keep our audience inspired and interested in what we create and what will come next.
Do you guys have design backgrounds and do you design some the ranges yourself, or do you commission artists and rely on collabs to produce the prints within each range?
None of us have a design background but we design each and every collection our selves. Yes we have done some collabs for a print here and there but everything else is the three of us. We have 3-4 great graphic designers that we work alongside and they bring our ideas to life.
How do you decide on the direction for each Kip&Co season and what does your creative process look like?
We never go in with a plan, we just start building the range piece by piece and then make sure all our colours work/or clash haha! and make sure we love it and try and do something fresh each season but also pieces that will work back with previous collections.
Feeding into the previous question; how do you structure each range, and do you actually ’structure’ a range? e.g. do you tend to have one or two showstopper designs that you then build around with simpler designs, or is it just whatever comes out that feels right? And what do you think makes for a successful range?
We have a range plan in terms of styles/categories that we must create and then as before mentioned we just start going through our inspiration and colour loves at that time and then go from there. We generally have a few prints that we love that we then roll out over several categories but over time this may change. There is a design budget to consider also but each range has around 20 prints.
What is the best part of running your own business/brand? And the most glamorous?
The flexibility is amazing as we all have very busy lives with kids and other jobs. Not a lot of glamour but we certainly love a new fresh sheet on our beds so that has been handy! We love going to India also and always have an amazing time there together each year – very lucky!
What is the hardest part? And the most unglamorous?
Long hours at night and helping unload shipments of stock.
Four years in, knowing what you know now, if you had any advice for yourself when you were starting out fresh, what would it be?
We don't have any regrets on the way we have done things and you work within your means when you are starting out – thinking bigger earlier on wasn't an option. We wouldn’t change anything.
Photo by Vanessa Smith
Kip&Co's SS16 'Subtropics' range is out now and it's epic. My two 'Lip' rugs arrived yesterday and I'm already in love (I had to restrain myself from anything else as we pack up and move out of our home for serious renonvating in a couple of weeks! Eeek!).
Check out the new range and let a little bit of the Kip&Co magic into your heart.
Thanks again to Hayley for her time and insight. Hayley, you rock, babe. Thank you.