Business
23 July, 2024
Fashion brand re-boots
LOCAL First Nations fashion brand Mainie is back on the rise after reopening their famed store at The Pier shopping centre and are now setting their eyes on the international market.
After closing the doors of their flagship store due to COVID-19, Mainie has reopened at The Pier to great success due to the local tourism recovery.
As the brand marches on the road to recovery, their next target is international customers through their online platform.
“At Mainie we acquire authentic Aboriginal art through ethical means in accordance with the Indigenous art code and we reproduce that art under license onto beautiful textiles,” said Mainie’s co-founder Charmaine Saunders.
“Prior to Covid, we had this beautiful flagship store here in Cairns on Scott St and 80 per cent of our customers were international visitors, but Covid happened so suddenly.
“We had to close our store and we hoped to reopen it soon but you only have one thing to succeed in business and that’s customers and the international and domestic tourists weren’t there.
“We didn’t have customers, so we pivoted to e-commerce and we have just relaunched our new website and over the next few months we’ll start to market in Australia and internationally because we think that’s our future.
“In the meantime, we still want that flagship store in Cairns and there was no better place than The Pier. It’s the tourist centre of the waterfront and it’s been quite successful.
“We only opened in May and we’re doing better than we thought we would, we’re getting people coming from the cruises, so it’s encouraging to see the recovery.”
Ms Saunders said Mainie was now adapting to the changes brought by Covid.
“We’re calling this stage Mainie 2.0 because things have changed. At the core we’re about supporting female Aboriginal artists in remote communities and that’s our reason for being, but where we’re at in our operations regarding wholesale, retail and e-commerce, we’ve changed that balance,” she said.
