What started as a “passion” side project has blossomed into a fashion business with global potential, thanks to a partnership with Shein, the Chinese e-commerce platform.
In early 2024, Warren Whitcher and partners established House of One (Ho1) to add to their core advertising business, Lost + Found. The brand started off selling digital patterns for consumers to use to make the garments themselves, with their own fabric, trim and finishing selection.
The founders introduced their brand across social media platforms through a musical short film showcasing the main characters in Ho1 garment samples. That video caught the eye of Shein brand partnership representatives who “loved the idea, the execution, the styling, and the clothing in the video and reached out via e-mail”, said Whitcher.
The Shein deal has had a massive impact on our business.
— Warren Whitcher, House of 1
“Things just went incredibly quickly from there. Initially, we were onboarded to do just one 50-piece trial collection, but over the following months Shein was so surprised and impressed by our work ethic, passion, and talent that they quickly offered us a full [one-year] partnership deal.”
Ho1 clothing was only three months old when Shein initiated the deal, making the company the first brand in Africa to partner with the e-commerce group. The brand made its debut on Shein’s platform last year in August, and it is selling to customers in 40 countries.
“The Shein deal has had a massive impact on our business. Originally, House of One started as a ‘passion’ side project for our core ad agency business, but now it has become a priority of ours — given its massive global potential,” said Whitcher.
He said the biggest impact has been the global exposure through having a branded Shein “store within a store” giving it access to customers across the world. “This would, obviously, not have been possible for us in this short time frame without the Shein collaboration.
“Additionally, the brand was included in a few big, global Shein activations, such as store openings in New York and Mexico City, which further increased our global brand exposure.”
Exposure to the production and distribution elements of the “global fast fashion industry has been invaluable; giving us insight into how to rapidly grow, not just a global fashion brand, but a commercially sustainable fashion business”.
All Ho1 garment production has been managed by Shein through their infrastructure network, said Witcher. The brand is targeted at women aged 25-45, “focused on classic ‘old money’ elegance and our ‘heritage minimalism’”. The point of the collaboration was to attract a new type of shopper to the Shein platform.
“We’re considering extending the brand into menswear as well (when we originally launched, we were a unisex brand), as we have been receiving a lot of queries/requests related to menswear,” said Whitcher.
While the collaboration ends in June, discussions are under way with Shein and other parties, including local retail groups, about future opportunities.
We firmly believe that a brand should always own its home market first and foremost, so while the global distribution and exposure are wonderful, we feel like we haven’t yet even begun to achieve what we want to locally; hence the engagement with some of the local retail groups
— Whitcher
He said sales to South African customers on the Shein platform had been disappointing, which is something they want to remedy.
“We firmly believe that a brand should always own its home market first and foremost, so while the global distribution and exposure are wonderful, we feel like we haven’t yet even begun to achieve what we want to locally; hence the engagement with some of the local retail groups,” said Whitcher.
He said Ho1 had become a priority given its “massive global potential”, adding: “In fact, our plan is to scale back on the ad agency side of things — servicing our core retainer clients only — and then fold the bulk of the creative team into House of One and unleash them to continue creating world-class brand and marketing content to support our global growth ambitions.
“We’ve still got a way to travel before we pull the trigger on that plan, but it is becoming more and more evident that this is probably the most effective and prudent use of the incredible creative resources and talent we have within our group of businesses.”
Whitcher said Ho1 had also been approached by a few international e-commerce platforms in the Middle East, Europe and the US to discuss potential brand distribution agreements outside of fast fashion, “which is something else we’re keen to explore”.
Internally, Whitcher said they had decided to invest in their own sample production “micro-studio”, allowing them “to supplement our digital sample creation capabilities with a physical extension — removing the reliance on waiting on samples to come from China and allowing us to open up our conceptualisation and design studio to a wider range of local designers and collaborators”.
Business Times
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.