Bigger than Texas - CAMILLA Opens Third US Boutique in Quest to Colour the World

?Opening a brick-and-mortar retail store during these unprecedented times, remotely from the other side of the world, in eight weeks no less, isn’t a job for the faint-hearted. But then, CAMILLA likes to do things a little differently. We live and breathe our mantra, “expect the unexpected”, and when an opportunity arose to open a store in Dallas, Texas, we seized it with both hands.

That’s not to say, we haven’t been planning it for some time. “Texas has long been a friend of the brand,” explains CAMILLA CEO, Jane McNally. “We’ve been building our CAMILLA tribe in the US for over 10 years now and have been selling selected product through wholesale partners in Dallas for almost eight years. When we looked at where we wanted to pitch our next CAMILLA tent, we analysed the online and wholesale data and knew it had to be Texas.

“It was apparent that our customers liked what they had seen so far and were thirsty for more. We wanted to give them the full boutique experience through this 12-month pop-up boutique opportunity. We actually converted what had been a confectionery shop – but in a great location opposite Apple and next to Nordstrom – into a designer boutique in a record eight-week time horizon. That’s the beauty of being an agile business – we like to leap on opportunities when they come our way.”

And leap, we did. Some 8,581 miles (the distance between Dallas in Sydney, in case you’re wondering). How do you open a store from the other side of the world, during a pandemic? “With the hard work and ingenuity of some amazingly talented and out-of-the-box-thinking people,” says Jane. “It was definitely all hands on deck. You can do so much remotely now in terms of store design and shop floor layouts but we also have a very strong retail team in our Miami store who became our physical eyes and ears in Dallas – supporting on the ground logistics and recruitment.”

Dallas is now the third CAMILLA store to open in the US, bringing the brand one step/city/State closer to our vision to ‘Colour the World’; a mission that is now more needed than ever.

“As people come through these bleak times, both economically and personally, it’s perhaps understandable how much appetite has grown for colour and vibrancy in clothing” says Jane. “What we’re seeing in the States right now is a renewed zest for life, and a hunger for maximalism as people start to party and attend events again. CAMILLA meets that need right now. The three stores we’ve now opened in the US have gone straight to the top of our store rankings, and we want to open at least another seven or eight Stateside stores within the next three years. It’s very exciting what’s happening in the US right now and I see that trend expanding as other countries emerge from lockdown.”