If you’ve ever struggled to find the perfect pair of jeans, you’re not alone. Often, denim can be one of the trickiest sartorial styles to master and women know all too well that the 'traditional' size guide doesn't mean much at all. Enter, Isabella Sen's Peachay. The locally-founded denim brand seeks to make finding that perfect fit a breeze, tailoring jeans that are made for women of all shapes and sizes. Basically, Peachay is redefining what ‘typical’ size ranges mean, and flipping the notion on its head so everyone can feel comfortable, confident and stylish in denim. As part of HER BLACK BOOK’s Festival of Her, a shopping event to support female-founded businesses, Sen shares some insight into her business journey so far.
“I have always struggled to find jeans that fit my curves and it made me feel like there was something wrong with my body, rather than blaming the jeans. I realised after talking to a lot of other women that they felt the same way. That’s not fair. I didn’t want other women with the same shape as me to feel that way, so I created Peachay.”
“Go after your passion and start small. If you have a business idea, you usually don’t need a lot to get started."
“I hit roadblocks most days. Running all aspects of a business means you have to have a problem solving hat on all the time. When I hit a roadblock, I try to breakdown the problem and write down the steps to get out of it. Reaching out to people I know in business for advice is also really helpful. Someone has generally gone through the problem that I’m trying to solve or at the very least they provide a few ideas or encouragement to stick with it.”
“I'm proud that I can provide jeans to women who have never been able to find a pair that fit. It’s really emotional for a lot of women, and the fact that I was able to make something that helped them love their body a little more makes me really happy.”
“An industry mentor told me that you can’t expect things to go smoothly in business, there will be a lot of ups and downs everyday. That is so true. I’ve now learnt to see everything as a lesson and try to reframe it to ‘how can I turn this into an opportunity’ otherwise it’s so easy to become super stressed and demotivated with all the things that go wrong.”
“Perseverance. It took me a long time to start getting consistent sales. If I had not believed in my product and kept going, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
