When your biggest supporters are strangers.
Starting a fashion brand can look incredibly glamorous from the outside.
The first samples arriving.
Seeing your label sewn into something you designed.
Planning photoshoots.
Creating beautiful packaging.
Receiving your first order.
But the honest reality of building a small fashion brand also includes plenty of silence, self-doubt and refreshing your phone far too many times.
And perhaps the most unexpected part of all is discovering that sometimes the people who support you most are complete strangers.
Support doesn’t always come from where you expect ✦
When I started Amelia Romeo, I think a small part of me assumed my friends would naturally become my biggest cheerleaders.
And some absolutely have.
They share my posts, ask how everything is going, help when I’m choosing between two designs and celebrate every little win with me.
Those things mean more than people probably realise.
But I’ve also learned that support comes in many different forms and it doesn’t always come from where you expect it.
Some friends will share everything you do.
Some will quietly watch from the sidelines.
Others may not completely understand what you’re building yet.
And that’s okay.
I don’t want my friends to feel that they have to buy Amelia Romeo simply because we’re friends. That isn’t what support means to me.
I want someone to choose Amelia Romeo because they see a piece and immediately think:
I need that.
Not because they feel like they should support Stef.
I would rather have a stranger genuinely fall in love with something I’ve created than have a friend buy it out of obligation.
But a share? A message? Telling someone about the brand?
Getting excited with me when something wonderful happens?
Those little things feel incredibly meaningful when you’re building something from nothing.
The interesting world of gifting ✦
This one deserves its own section. 😂
You message someone. They love the brand. They would love to wear it. You agree to gift them a piece in exchange for some content.
You carefully pack the order.
You send it.
They receive it.
And then…
Poof.
Occasionally, they disappear into the Australian wilderness wearing your stock. 😂
In the beginning, things like that bothered me more than they do now not necessarily because of the cost, but because every piece means something when you’re a tiny brand.
There isn’t a warehouse containing 50,000 units behind me.
I chose the fabric. I paid to have the piece made. I packed it. I sent it.
So yes, you notice when someone doesn’t follow through.
But I’m learning not to take it personally. People get busy, plans change and sometimes life simply gets in the way :)
Every experience teaches me how to communicate more clearly, choose collaborations more carefully and protect the energy I put into the brand.
That’s part of building a business too.
Building recognition takes time ✦
I’ve also learned that people are naturally drawn to fashion brands they already recognise.
The brand they’ve seen on TikTok fifty times.
The one their friends know.
The one with thousands of followers.
The one that already carries a certain feeling or identity.
And I completely understand it.
Fashion has always worked like that. Sometimes you aren’t only buying the top—you’re also buying what the name on the label represents.
When you’re building a new fashion brand, you’re still creating that recognition.
You can have a beautiful product.
You can have the campaign.
You can have the quality.
You can have the idea.
But you can’t manufacture years of familiarity overnight.
You have to build desire before people even know they’re supposed to desire you.
So, I think about the day when Amelia Romeo no longer needs an introduction.
The day someone sees one of our pieces on another woman and asks:
Is that Amelia Romeo?
The day people want it not only because it sparkles or because it can move from Pilates to the beach, but because it is unmistakably Amelia Romeo.
I know that sounds ambitious but surely that’s the point of starting a brand?
You don’t begin something hoping it stays unknown forever.
Building a fashion brand is wonderfully unpredictable ✦
One day, an order comes through and you think:
Okay. This is working.
The next day? Nothing... crickets.
Something you were convinced would sell doesn’t. Something you almost didn’t make becomes a favourite.
A post suddenly reaches thousands of people and you think:
Surely this is the moment everything changes.
Then you learn that attention and sales are two very different things.
Very glamorous. 😂
There is so much advice online about how to start a fashion brand:
Find your niche.
Know your customer.
Create a lifestyle.
Post consistently.
Tell your story.
And yes, all of that matters.
But nobody really tells you how emotionally strange it is to create something, place it in front of the world and essentially ask:
Do you like it?
Because every product is a decision I made.
I chose that colour.
I chose that fabric.
I decided that tiny sparkle was perfect.
I decided that Pilates and swimwear could belong in the same wardrobe.
Then I have to wait and see whether anyone else agrees.
Sometimes they do.
Sometimes they very clearly do not 😂
And I’m learning to appreciate both, because every response helps me understand what Amelia Romeo is becoming.
The part I’m starting to love ✦
Lately, I’ve been letting more of you into the process.
I’ve started asking which colours you want next, what you would genuinely wear, which designs you love and, occasionally, what I absolutely should not make.
And honestly?
I love it.
Amelia Romeo is still small enough that I can do that.
There isn’t a giant design department somewhere making decisions twelve months in advance.
It’s me, sitting on the Gold Coast with approximately 47 ideas in my head, trying to decide which one deserves to exist next.
Increasingly, some of those decisions are being made with you.
Your messages, votes, orders and feedback are helping to shape what Amelia Romeo becomes and that is one of the most special parts of building the brand this way.
The beginning is worth remembering ✦
I don’t know exactly what Amelia Romeo will look like in five years.
I obviously have some fairly ambitious ideas.
But I know I want to remember this part.
The first orders.
The experiments.
The pieces that worked.
The ones that taught me something.
The strangers who became customers.
The customers who came back.
The friends who cheered loudly.
The unexpected messages from women who understood the vision.
And yes, even the people who promised a post and disappeared into the Australian wilderness wearing my stock. 😂
I want to remember the women who scroll past Amelia Romeo today because they don’t know the name yet.
Because maybe one day, they’ll stop scrolling.
Maybe one day, Amelia Romeo will be the established brand.
And if that day comes, I want to remember when it wasn’t.
When every order made my phone light up and made me smile.
When I still packed every piece myself.
When I was still convincing the world that a sparkly Pilates top could absolutely become a bikini five minutes later.
And when Amelia Romeo was still our little secret.
For now. ✦
with love,
Stefania
Founder, Amelia Romeo
Discover Amelia Romeo
Sparkle sets designed to move from Pilates to the beach and beyond.
