How Infamous Swim is leading the ‘twinning’ fashion craze and quadrupling its sales revenue
Infamous Swim owner and designer Gemma Crowe’s ability to connect with her audience has turned her label into a force to be reckoned with.
The very idea of matching mother-and-daughter swimwear may have tapped into a huge undercurrent of demand, but it was Infamous Swim owner and designer Gemma Crowe’s ability to connect with her audience that has turned her label into a force to be reckoned with.
Original mummy-and-me swimwear brand Infamous Swim is leading the ‘twinning’ fashion craze that is blowing up on Instagram, thanks to its 647,000 followers. The business is projected to reach $18 million in revenue by 2024, taking into account the launch of its new activewear and loungewear range.
The fully self-owned and funded company has quadrupled its sales revenue in three years to exceed $7 million and now employs 14 staff to keep the wheels turning. More than half of the new hires are on the marketing team, and many of Infamous Swim’s staff were employed in the past 12 months.
After buying the business from her friend, Crowe, who is also a mother of four, relaunched Infamous Swim and introduced the Mini Swim range. The response was both unexpected and groundbreaking.
Melbourne-based Crowe says her love for retail, particularly in the surf and beach lifestyle space, began in her teen years.
“I have always worked hard,” she said.
“When I was younger I scored an entry-level role in the surf retail industry, but I was always trying to get into the head office side of things. My goal was to work for Billabong or Rip Curl or something along those lines, but the problem was no one would take me into the office because I had no business degree or marketing degree or anything like that.”
Crowe would go on to score a junior office position for a toy wholesaler before a move to Melbourne saw her pursue other projects.
This included building a homewares brand, which Crowe says taught her many of the skills needed to run a small business. However, when she went on maternity leave feeling burnt out and uninspired, a friend asked her to go into business running a swimwear label.
“And then the rest is history,” she said.
“I ended up saying to my husband, shutting this business down and doing an Instagram swim business with matching family outfits is the way to go. I was either wanting to do swimwear or fashion.”
After later buying out her friend, Crowe re-launched the brand with a new range of matching swimwear and accessories.
“I did matching headbands and scrunchies with the swimwear and stuff like that. It was much easier to do because I already had the factory contacts for swimwear, but now we are moving more into fashion now because that’s what I want. I want us to be a matching fashion house,” she said.
“My Instagram blew up”
The reaction to the launch of the Mini Swim range — swimwear for children in the same brightly coloured patterns as Infamous Swim’s adult range — was unexpected, says Crowe.
“My Instagram blew up, practically overnight!”
Infamous Swim offers swimwear for children in the same patterns as its adult range. Source: supplied.
Crowe believes it is Infamous Swim’s unique attitude to swimwear that is one of the key drivers of its popularity.
“It’s Instagrammable,” she said.
“The idea of matching mother and daughter swimwear is in high demand, people want to match their children.
“We’re all about family, enjoyment and feeling comfortable in your own skin. Most of all we love spreading body positivity, which is such an important movement at the moment.”
In contrast to many other swimwear labels, Infamous Swim offers all its styles in a range of inclusive sizes, from XS to 3XL, and the brand’s marketing regularly features women of all sizes.
It’s clear Crowe believes Infamous Swim has a role to play in normalising body acceptance and getting mums out there to swim and spend time with their kids.
“I just want mothers to enjoy the fun bits of motherhood,” she said.
“We haven’t reached our full potential of becoming a matching mum-and-me fashion powerhouse yet, but I believe it’s just a matter of time.”
Crowe says social media has always played a huge role in the business’s growth strategy and she encourages businesses that looking to grow on Instagram to be authentic.
“It’s one of my greatest sources of inspiration and a way for me to connect with our audience authentically. We collaborate with a lot of influencers too as the business is built on our close relationship with our community,” she said.
“Keep on posting, be relevant, and make sure you are one step ahead of the game. Always let your audience know all details, any sales (and) any new launches. Be authentic, your community loves to see what’s behind the brand.”
Designing for a lifestyle
As a founder, Crowe credits her keen eye for design and knack for product development as her strong suits.
“Product is my jam. The new ideas and opportunities mostly just come to me, but a lot of it is also thinking about the kind of things I love or the things I would do,” she said.
“When I bring them to life I always choose ideas that have longevity. As well as social media, I’m inspired by my experiences as a kid — holidays to Coffs Harbour, the things I wore like those velcro shoes which have recently come back out for example.”
Crowe says Infamous Swim’s design ethos is based on being fun, feminine and comfortable.
“The strategy of a digitally-driven, body-positive brand which showcases models in a range of sizes is what really resonated with mums across the country,” she said.
“Our most sold size range is XL-XXL and our most popular print is the safari leopard by a long way. We pretty much work with every mum influencer in Australia and have a really strong commitment to creating swimwear that makes them feel good and fits their needs.”
Next stop: The US
The fast-growing swimwear brand is now focused on its US expansion plans and Crowe is busy building new contacts to realise the next phase of Infamous Swim’s growth.
“We’ve had some good success there in the last few years,” she said of the US market.
“But we based our US model pretty much like a cookie cutter off our Australian model. Now we’re putting in time and resources into research and doing things like making sure our website is speaking to the US audience because we’ve really got a lot of potential there.”
There are progression plans for the UK and EU markets as well, but for now, Infamous Swim is heavily invested in growing its US brand presence.
Although Infamous Swim fielded an eight-figure takeover bid late last year, Crowe is not quite done yet. The pipeline is full of many plans for her beloved label.
“If someone wants to throw a crazy amount at us, I might consider it,” she said.
“But I’m not ready to let go yet. By the end of this year, we want to look for investors to come on board like a big brother or sister company to keep the company growing.
“I want to get some really good professionals in, to take over that aspect but I want to be there because I’m so passionate about the products and I have a lot of ideas.”
