Welcome to the Scoop: a weekly email series in which I quiz fashion insiders on the stories of the week. This will be a way for the Vogue Business community to synthesize and reflect on the latest headlines and get a little inside scoop every Friday.
This week’s guests are Tove co-founders Camille Perry and Holly Wright. I first met Holly and Camille a few years ago through Purple PR’s Lydia Steele. However, I had already found myself doing some wistful shopping on their website a year or so before that. I remember scrolling down the Dresses page and thinking somebody had designed a collection just for me.
It’s one of Tove’s strengths. Holly and Camille have built a London brand steeped in the every woman — or at least the every woman with a stressful city job, maybe a kid or two, and an endless list of things to do. The two met at Topshop — once a mecca for the everygirl — where they both started their careers in the early 2010s and went on to become head of design and head of buying, respectively.
They left Topshop before its closure, launched Tove in 2019, and have since been growing their business slowly and intentionally, following its own needs over industry trends. For instance, they show when it makes sense to do so, and when it doesn’t, they do something else. Today, we are talking about that something else.
Hi Camille and Holly, what’s the scoop?
Camille: We are opening a residency on Sloane Street in early November. We had a residency in Mayfair this time last year. It was the first time we had a space to meet our customers, and we realized the limitations that come with running a DTC brand when it comes to building that relationship.
How long do you think you will be in Sloane Street?
Camille: This one is meant to go on until the end of January. But we’re hoping that there’s an opportunity for it to continue on further. We put a lot of thought into finding the right space, in the right neighborhood, with the right adjacencies and the right footfall. We’ve been talking to estates for a really long time. The British Fashion Council (BFC) put us in touch with the Cadogan Estate, and this space came up.
How come you went West this time, and didn’t stay in Mayfair?
