Former lawyer Anna Quan Hoang has become a fixture on Australia’s fashion scene - both here and overseas.
Anna Quan's top tips for going global
It pays to meet in person
In person meet ups are great ways to build relationships and get first-hand feedback from clients and stockists meaning you will be able to cater to them better in future.
Consistency is key
Having a reputation for being reliable and consistent means stockists won't see you as a "risk" and means they will be more liekly to take a chance on you.
Expand your offering
The bigger the product offering, the more traction. Inclusivity extends to everything from size and style to colour, so be sure you're providing plenty of options.
Anna Quan Hoang gave herself a strict deadline: six seasons. If her eponymous fashion label hadn’t taken off after that time, she would walk away from the competitive industry and return to work in law as she’d originally planned.
Thankfully, after Hoang’s sixth season – 2016 – the brand had well and truly hit its stride, having captivated both the Australian fashion industry, as well as buyers overseas. Today, Anna Quan is stocked everywhere from Net-A-Porter to Bergdorf Goodman, with sales rising by 300 per cent during the pandemic.
Hoang credits two things for solidifying her business early on.
The first was accidental. In 2014, an assistant to Kardashian stylist Monica Rose was trawling through YouTube in search of undiscovered designers when she found footage of the New Gen show at Australian Fashion Week featuring Anna Quan.
When Rose requested a number of samples, Hoang – hesitant it might be a scam – sent a single jumpsuit, which Kendall Jenner wore to Kim and Kanye’s lavish pre-wedding brunch in Paris.
The second was strategic - and related to influencer marketing. Before every fashion week in New York, Paris and London, Hoang would send influencers and fashion editors a monogrammed Anna Quan shirt, which would inevitably end up on all the street style galleries thanks to its striking silhouette.
This is how Hoang caught the attention of Lisa Aiken, the former fashion director at Net-A-Porter, who requested a meeting with Hoang when she was in Sydney.
"There’s a sweet spot for pricing well-made pieces."
Lisa gave me some great advice on commerciality, price points, consumer-benchmarking and appealing to buyers,” says Hoang. “There’s a sweet spot for pricing well-made pieces, and Lisa advised me to work backwards when I was designing looks and choosing material to hit that price point,” she explains.
Anna Quan’s tips for expanding internationally…
It pays to meet in person
Quan first travelled to Paris in 2016, to host showings for buyers. There, armed with little more than a suitcase of samples and a few clothing racks, she rented an Airbnb apartment and met buyers.
“I was doing a lot of shirts at the time, and it wasn’t resonating with the Australian market, but I was getting quite a bit of press overseas, so I decided I needed to be in Paris,” remembers Hoang. “I didn’t know anything about showrooms, wholesaling, multicurrency pricing or shipping terms, so it was all very ad hoc.”
Those first Paris showings were a baptism of fire, but Hoang received firsthand feedback from department-store buyers about what they were looking for, how she could improve her offering and what items she needed to add to her collections.
Be consistent
After that, Hoang committed to trips to Paris three times a year for showings.
"Consistency is everything."
“Consistency is everything when it comes to breaking into the international market and attracting premium stockists,” she explains. “It can take a buyer a few showings before they decide they’re interested in seeing the brand grow.
“It’s important that the buyers feel their needs are being met and their comments are being taken on board. To secure those high-end accounts, you need to keep showing up to prove your consistency and quality.”
Find the right sales agent
It was during one of her trips to Paris in 2018 that Hoang met an Australian fashion sales agent and the pair started working together.
“Hiring a sales agent obviously resulted in more sales, but it also taught me a lot about how to reply to retailers when they have queries or ask for [things] you can't deliver, how to resolve conflict if there are competing stores interested, implementing minimum order requirements, and having a hard line,” explains Hoang, who adds that it’s important to find the right agent for your brand.
“There aren’t many sales agents in Australia who have the capacity to sell on an international level. The first sales agent who represented me didn’t work out, but now I’m with an agency that specialises in premium ready-to-wear. It took time for me to build enough brand recognition to attract a sales agent who has faith in the brand.”
Expand your offering
“The bigger the product offering, the more traction,” says Hoang, who started out making collections with 20 looks and now offers 100.
"The bigger the product offering, the more traction."
“I think part of my success with my recent knitwear has been providing a complete outfit and having lots of colour options. It’s important to have an option for people with cool skin tones and another for those with warm skin tones.
“Inclusivity isn’t just about size and style, it’s also about colours. By adding to our collections, we’ve also been able to provide different looks to different retailers, so each store has its own identity that best resonates with their customers.”
Pay attention to loyal customers
Early on in her career, Hoang came into the orbit of influential stylist Kate Young, who is Australian but based in the US. “Kate [recently] told me she still wears the shirt she bought back then, and mid last year, Kate dressed Margot Robbie in a full Anna Quan look.
"It’s much easier to keep a repeat customer than to attract a new one."
“It’s much easier to keep a repeat customer than to attract a new one,” she notes.
It’s this philosophy that Quan is sticking to as she enters her second decade in the fashion industry. This year, she and her team are anticipating the return of runways following the success of last year’s Afterpay Australian Fashion Week.
“Afterpay turned what used to be a trade show into a cultural event that supports local designers, and everyone was really excited to be there last year. It’s not something people take for granted anymore,” says Hoang, who was an early adopter of Afterpay and has reaped the many benefits.
“Afterpay allows people to budget in a way that makes purchases accessible and gives the customer a sense of control and security,” she explains.
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