LONDON — Coachella weekend is a turning point for many small fashion labels — a glimpse of a celebrity in their embroidered shorts or crocheted bikini top can generate significant sales.
Just ask Rat & Boa. It was 10 years ago during Coachella weekend that the English resortwear label went from humbly selling pieces on Facebook to having to rethink its business model after Kendall Jenner wore a pair of their shorts to the festival.
“We were living over in Thailand, where we were 14 hours ahead, and we woke up to messages on Instagram and that’s when the boom started. [The brand] trickled down from there — we became a boutique brand and then Kylie Jenner was wearing it and Bella Hadid,” said cofounders Valentina Muntoni and Stephanie Cara Bennett in a joint interview.
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According to the cofounders, the label currently has sales of 30 million pounds with ambitions to grow to 100 million pounds by 2029.
The brand has been experiencing double-digit growth since 2021 and hopes to have a 40 percent increase this year.
Rat & Boa ships to over 200 countries and cites the U.S. as its biggest market.
The brand wants to further scale its business and collections.
Muntoni and Bennett are introducing a jewelry and handbags line to their current roster of drops, which include a bridal line that’s called the Hibiscus collection, as well as three summer drops.
“There’s also a few [collections coming] for winter. We’re in the process of stepping into the next chapter of the brand as we’re seen by many people as a predominantly resortwear label. We’re thinking about what our woman is wearing in the city and creating a one-stop wardrobe for her,” said Muntoni.
Rat & Boa’s designs are bright in color and even more fun when it comes to designs — there are velvet dresses with gold embroidery; sequins that fade from sea green to sky blue; jellyfish ruffles, and enlarged flowers to imitate volcanic eruptions.
The brand’s prices range from 40 pounds for a pair of high-waist underwear to 895 pounds for a maxidress with beaded fringing.
Muntoni and Bennett are working toward becoming a full fashion house by 2028. It’s been a work in progress.
The brand currently has 45 employees, a number that’s more than tripled since their team of 10 pre-COVID-19.
“Our [sales] doubled in lockdown and our growth was 100 percent year-on-year. We were selling people this dream of living on a beach and wearing our dresses,” said Bennett, adding that a buyer had advised them not to go into production for their summer collection.
The duo went against that advice and their stock was sold out within two weeks.
Pop-up stores and wholesale have been the next thing on the cofounders’ minds.
“We’ve always been an image-focused brand and we’ve wanted to lead with our identity. Sometimes wholesale takes away from that communication and fostering that community connection, but for market and growth purposes, we want to look towards [wholesale] in India or the United Arab Emirates,” said Muntoni.
The growth is apparent in Rat and Boa’s social presence. On Instagram, they have a following of 1.6 million and on TikTok, they’re at 66,900 followers with growth of 67 percent year-on-year, according to the brand.