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Who are Sister Siete you are probably asking yourself, well they are a small brand of quirky slogan t-shirts and sweatshirts. Founded in 2014 by two sisters, Victoria Watson and Rachael Young. BY OLIVIA WATSON
Both sisters having background in the fashion industry, with Rachael being a designer by profession and Victoria having worked as a stylist, they decided to put their two minds together and that is how Sister Siete came about! I sit down and speak with both Victoria and Rachael all about how Sister Siete began as a brand, where they would love to see themselves and their brand going in the near future, and how it is really like to work with family! Q. So ladies, how did Sister Siete come about? V. I was styling, personal styling after having done a course, and Rachael, by profession is a qualified fashion designer. WE both hadn’t done a lot since taking a break from the career, bringing up our families and being ‘stay at home’ mums. We both felt like we needed to do a bit, like I say get back into styling and personal shopping, and although Rachael and I are very different, we’re still very passionate about what looks good, being stylish, different styles we both have even as being sisters.
R. Yes we went to New York, as a Christmas present, together in January 2014, had a discussion and that was the birth of Sister Siete. We both loved fashion, both wanted to do something working from home, something that we enjoyed not working 9 to 5 sort of thing. V. Rachael is quite casual and wanted to start off with doing slogan t-shirts and sweats being inspired by people like Balmain and Celine, Saint Laurent who had brought out t-shirts that were cool to wear with jeans or skirts, shorts, blazers leather jackets just easy pieces to put on, affordable pieces but which still looked stylish and cool. So that was the idea behind it, and then maybe to do sort of little capsule pieces, you know, so that people related to me, l like to wear ankle boots all the time, little slip dresses. R. Whereas I am known to be a bit more casual so I liked the look of you know, maybe a midi skirt with a t-shirt, a blazer or a leather jacket.
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V. We just want to keep it quite sort of unique to us, and like I say the idea of us being sisters and getting on and having sort of the same views, that is really how it came about.
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Owners of Sister Siete Rachael Young (left ) and Victoria Watson (right).
We both loved fashion, both wanted to do something working from home, something that we enjoyed not working 9 to 5 sort of thing.
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Q. Amazing, so my next question is what is it really like to work with family in a business like the one you have found yourselves in? V. Well I think the biggest thing it that the trust is there. I suppose in some respects, as I say we’re very similar you know we’ve known each other for years so we know each other inside out, very rarely do we disagree but we do have different opinions so that is quite good you know, whereas Rachael is a bit more considered and likes to think about everything you know, checks everything out fabrics and things which is her job. I have a bit more of a ‘yes let’s just do it’ kind of attitude, which I suppose is a ying and a yang which I suppose is what you need in a business really. R. I agree, I think it is absolutely fine, we both have the same interests, we both know what we like, what we don’t like. Very similar styles and tastes, and its good fun as well! V. Yes where I would say I’m more visual, Rachael is more methodical. You know w hich again is good otherwise if we just did it by my way, we’d be running into wall and all sorts! But I suppose you need that as well sometimes.
a ying and a yang which I suppose is what you need in a business really. Instagram @sistersiete
Q. That is very true if business was serious 100% of the time it wouldn’t be enjoyable! So where did the name Sister Siete come from, how did you two come up with it?
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R. We’re both sisters and the way we both started it was about family because we had both been home looking after the children, and so we’ve got seven children between us. We didn’t like the name Sister Seven and we both loved Spain as that’s where we holidayed with the children when they were all younger as well so seven in Spanish is siete. And it just had a ring to it, Sister Siete, not when you’ve got a Geordie accent though!
Q. Oh so a very meaningful meaning to it! So finally I will ask you, where do you see Sister Siete heading in the near future? V. Well, we had this vision intentionally and it was to do a blog, and you know I was going to do that and more of a lifestyle range really as well. And not to have too big a range, I think it’s all about a capsule you know and I think people need that and can work more easily with that. I think you just need key pieces that you can go to, and mix and match and you know, out of maybe five items you should be able to get seven or eight looks, as it were. So having a working capsule wardrobe for everyday and for women of all ages really. Whether it be right or wrong there’s things I’m still wearing twenty years on, so if you can you know just adjust it slightly. R. We’d like to see the brand growing for sure, going into, not just doing t-shirts and sweatshirt, going into little separates that go with them as well like skirts, just a mini capsule range. And then hopefully getting it into store. Into little outlets, not big time just you know just keep it, I don’t want it to be massive, just a little bit bigger than this would do. But just to be comfortable and to make enough money to live off sort of thing. V. Yes as Rachael said, we would like to take it a bit further, you know we’ve done the t-shirts and stuff and I think we’d like to go back to our original which was just doing a capsule, which is a slip dress, a skirt you know maybe a couple of t-shirts, tailored jacket. I think that’s where I would personally want to go back to and take it from there.
Gallery - sistersiete.com
Sister Siete, what a talented and unique brand. Both Victoria and Rachael are so passionate when talking about their collection, you can really see it becoming a big name brand. Having just come about from a conversation on holiday to now having products being worn across the nation and even worldwide, is a very surreal feeling, all in the short space of five years! Sister Siete is a prime example of just how well a small business idea can do and what it can become. Both women having been ‘stay at home’ mums for the past 17 years of their lives and deciding to take a chance to make something out of their passion. Speaking to both Victoria and Rachael about working with family was the question I was itching to ask, because the majority of people out there, I believe, would agree that working with family can be very testing and can almost break bonds within it. Not for these two wonderful women, they have proved that when you work with the right people, have the same beliefs and ideas as to where you want your business to go, that it will strive and be successful. Victoria talking about trust, trust within a business and between business partners is so crucial within this industry. If you can’t trust your business partner, who can you trust? When you hear about brands working with family, a lot of people will have doubt as it can be a strenuous pressure on the brand to make it work and not only that, but to be working with people so close to you, you wouldn’t want to ruin those relationships! But once I spoke to these two lovely ladies, I had no doubt that for them working with family isn’t difficult at all, they make it sound like the best job in the world!
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