Fashion Popcorn meets husband and wife team behind chic new site Monica & Joe

Monica & Joe - Cacharel SS11

Passionate and experienced buyers, Monica and Joe Wahla always dreamed of starting their own boutique. Spotting a gap in the market for a boutique-style online store offering contemporary fashion – with a touch of edginess – to women in their 30s and 40s, 2011 sees them take the plunge, with the launch of Monica & Joe this month.

The easy-to-use site offers a chic edit of low-key, but super-stylish brands, including many new to the UK. The south London-based, married duo plan to travel the world, uncovering designers to bring to the UK, and blog their experience as they do so. Fashion Popcorn caught up with them as their site went live this week.

What moment inspired you to start Monica & Joe?

The turning point was in November 2010, when we decided to spend some time researching our dream in Paris and also Copenhagen, as we’d noticed a rising interest in Danish designers.

We spent the day in the Marais, and just loved all of the little one-off boutiques, and felt this shopping culture had a great impact on Parisian style.

This was quickly followed by a couple of days in Copenhagen; we loved the style over there and put together a hit list of brands that we wanted to offer.

So many of our friends kept telling us that they would love us to put a collection together for them and this really helped us to take the leap. We don’t expect it to be easy, but we love everything that we have bought, and are confident with both the range and the website.

Why is now the right time?

We believe that there are two trends in our favour, firstly, with the current climate, we feel that people want value for money, and while there is a trend towards low priced high street chains, there is also a trend towards ‘premiumisation’, in other words customers buying less, but trading up to items that
they feel emotionally engaged with.

Our brands could be classified as affordable luxury – our dresses range from £95 to £545, with most being around £200 – at the top end of ‘bridge’ brands. All are investment pieces, all can be worn again and again, and will still be beautiful items to pull out of the wardrobe in a year’s time.

The second trend is the growing popularity of the internet as a percentage of total clothing spend – expected to grow from 7.7% in 2010 to 12.2% in 2014 – and internet clothing sales are expected to grow at a rate of over 15% over the next three years. Our target market is very internet-savvy, and very comfortable shopping on the internet, so it was a natural choice for us to choose the internet over having a bricks and mortar store.

What are the unique features of the website?

We have tried to make the website as user friendly and seamless as possible, with a very clear navigation, and an easy purchase process. We love the look and feel of the site, and feel that it reflects what we are about. We decided to photograph on models, as felt that this presented the clothes beautifully, have written detailed product descriptions and given style tips from a personal perspective, and also offer free UK shipping on orders over £175 and free returns.

We have a blog where we are going to involve our customers in our journey of discovery in finding brands, and also share other interesting things that we come across in our travels.

What are the highlights of the journey thus far?

I think the biggest highlight is that so many lovely brands and designers have wanted to work with us, when we were starting out we thought that it would be very difficult to get them on board, but they have loved our story and believed in our concept.

We have found some great partners, from the people who have developed our website, to our warehousing partners, packaging suppliers and even our bank. It has been a steep learning curve and every day we come across new challenges, but as there are two of us we can make decisions very quickly – we have very similar taste and really believe in what we are doing.

What challenges are you anticipating?

The way the economy is going to go is definitely uncertain, with all of the spending cuts and the increase in VAT, so that is definitely not an easy path to navigate. But from our experience over the years of working on different brands, if you have really good product people will still want to buy.

The internet is becoming a very competitive sales arena, with most retailers seeing the opportunity for growth and also the shift of sales towards the internet, so what we do will have to be good and to stand out from the competition.

We are a small business without an unlimited marketing budget, so we will focus primarily on delighting our niche of the market. We have some really great designers and brands lined up for the future, and communicating this will be key. We have already had some great press, which is promising.

Monica & Joe - Bllack Noir Zia silk dress SS11

Monica & Joe - By Malene Birger Valerie leather jacket SS11

Describe one of your perfect outfits from your site…

It’s so hard to describe one as there are so many that I love!

One of my favourites is the silk crepe dress from Cacharel, which is the most gorgeous bright coral – perfect for summer.

I also love the Zia silk dress from our rock chic label Bllack Noir, layered under the ultra cool By Malene Birger Valerie studded leather jacket!