There are no shortage of firms selling consignments, vintage, custom and other outre fashion items on the web, but few have been in the game for as long as Pinup Girl Clothing. Over 20 years ago, in 1996 Pinup Girl was not quite the online destination for stylized shoppers looking for a retro flavor, it was a wrack of hand sewn cloths in founder Laura Byrnes living room.
These days Pinup Girl clothing has growth far beyond that handsewn wrack into five house brands: Pinup Couture, Deadly Dames, Laura Byrnes California and Dixiefried (by Melanie Komenkul) and bills itself as “not fast fashion, but timeless pieces can be incorporated into any trend that pops up.”
And they mean any trend.
A quick glance at the front page of Pinup Girl’s website indicates that if one happens to be looking for a crop top, tiki inspired dress (think Lillian Pulitzer flavored prints and color patterns) or just some sensible black flats, the site seemingly has the shopper covered. And covered, at any size – the brand ranges in clothing from XS to 4XL – and the models on the site run the entire gambit.
Pinup Girl is also a bit unusual in that all of its goods are made in the U.S. – of imported materials – and its lasting commitment has been to a living wage for all of its workers at all levels of the firm.
“You get what you pay for and we believe it’s the highest priority as a clothing manufacturer to pay livable wages to all of our employees and to insure that they have a comfortable working environment. They work hard – from the seamstresses to the office workers, to the warehouse elves, Pinup girl makes it a point to treat all of our employees with respect and consideration.”
Getting what you pay for at Pinup Girl, usually means one will not be paying a small amount – getting oneself a nice crop top starts at about $74 and goes up from there. However, the pricing scheme – across the various dresses, pants and accessories offered across the site also aren’t going to induce much in the way of sticker shock for consumers who frequent places like J. Crew or Anthropologie.
However, though Pinup Girl Clothing has been around for a while – and has something of a cult-like following of very dedicated shoppers, it is not quite a household name. Among vintage fashion enthusiasts, and its large and enthusiastic base of consumers on social media and in it own sight-hosted forum brand loyalty looms large. But the brand would like to loom somewhat larger – and has thus decided to upgrade its digital operations with omnichannel commerce solutions provider Mi9.
“We were impressed with the Mi9 e-Commerce ability to consolidate numerous third-party systems into one unified platform,” said co-founder and CEO of Pinup Girl Clothing, Laura Byrnes. “Its robust reporting system and state-of-the-art marketing tools will allow us to sharpen our strategy on cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. From enabling us to showcase our brand without increasing development costs, to offering innovative features, such as drag and drop merchandising, Mi9 e-Commerce will prove to be a key driver of our brand’s growth going forward.”
Pinup girl, notes Byrnes, is looking to make a few specific strategic upgrades. Primarily it would like to lower its reliance on multiple e-commerce providers and up its own peak traffic performance. It was also looking to streamline its costs and move past a legacy systems that had simply reached the end of the road form a usability perspective.
Mi9 was the natural choice for the brand due to a user friendly interface, easy set up and advanced features offering. Co-founder, John Flores noted the decision was a “no brainer.”
“We’ll end up with a system that actually works and we’ll save money.”
Pinup Girl clothing selected Mi9 Retail for its user-friendly interface, advanced feature set and cost-effective solution.
“We are thrilled to be working with Pinup Girl Clothing during this crucial stage of their development,” said Neil Moses, CEO of Mi9 Retail. “In their drive to be the leading e-tailer of vintage fashion, Mi9 e-Commerce will provide Pinup Girl Clothing with the scalability and feature set they need to unify customer engagement right out of the box.”
