Fashion designer Katharina Mildren embraces social media to build thriving brand

Katharina Mildren's clothes have attracted legions of fans online and she ships items around the world, but there is one place you will not find her garments: in a shop. 

The Sydney-based designer is among a new generation of creatives harnessing the power of social media to sell their wares.

Armed with nothing more than a university degree and a sewing machine in 2019, the young designer has grown her Katharina Lou brand from a backyard outfit to a thriving enterprise that employs 11 people and has a turnover of $2 to $4 million a year.

Her unique designs reflect the company motto, "Dress the f*** up", and cater to young urban women who are attracted to her colourful and buoyant aesthetic, oftentimes designed for a diverse range of body shapes.

So it is no wonder she turned to social media to access this kind of specialised and discerning market.

No paid influencers

She told the ABC's Alan Kohler on the That's Business podcast she had never had a single paid job in the fashion industry when she started the brand.

"I just started sewing, like no overheads, everything myself. My friends were very supportive  at the start and they were all my muses. They were in all my photo shoots," she said.

"Organic social media, Instagram, was probably the biggest thing. The first two years it was just me posting pretty much every day."

Despite the widespread use of social media, especially Instagram, to access her market, Ms Mildren said she did not pay influencers to wear her clothes.

"We actually don't pay any influencers. We do a lot of gifting, which has really worked for us as a brand," Ms Mildren said.

"I just don't really see the merit in paying people who are going to wear the clothes anyway. I think we've built a really good kind of rapport with some influencers who have a lot of style."

Instead, the brand relies on paid advertising on social media channels and uses pop-up sales events.

There are even special group dinners for their customers.

"That's been such an amazing tool for our business growth as well because it really does show that we do put the customer first," Ms Mildren said.

"All of my staff come to them. It's so much fun to really connect with our customers.

"It's also a great way to talk to our customers and really ask them what they want and what they're looking for."

'A lot of mistakes' on road to success

But building a business has been a steep learning curve for the fashion degree graduate.

"We never learned how to even talk to factories or negotiate prices with factories, all that kind of stuff that is so integral to the fashion industry," she said.

"It's a daily battle trying to find new factories and factories that are ethical and have the quality standard that we want.

"I definitely am making a lot of mistakes kind of on my own dime."

Like any business selling to the US, she has also been affected by tariffs, with the business pulling back on US promotions after they were introduced.

"But if someone buys a $350 dress from us, the duties and taxes are like over $150. It's quite crazy. So we've definitely seen that drop," she said.

Hopes for own store

Despite her success, Ms Mildren does not see her future in a major department store.

"That doesn't really tickle my fancy at all. I don't see that," she said.

"When you go into those wholesales and you lose a bit of control. And if we're doing so well direct to consumer, why would we? "

But she would one day like her own store.

"I would love a permanent store. That's something I'm kind of figuring out at the moment because we do see such amazing things come from each pop-up," she said.