Member Article

Two North East sisters are hakking it for themselves

Two fashionista sisters from Newcastle are celebrating the successful launch of HAKKA Fashion, an online fashion boutique aimed at 18-25 year old women.

Discovering a gap in the market for alternative Asian ‘street style’ that was affordable, Carmen and Katie Ho have seen traffic to HAKKA Fashion increase rapidly at 30-50% each week since launching in July this year. As a result, their fledgling business is already on target to hit its annual projected forecast of £100k.

Aiming to start designing their own collection under the HAKKA label by the end of the year, the sisters also stock 18 different global brands on www.hakkafashion.com, and have recently received interest from labels famously worn by Miley Cyrus and Lady GaGa looking to secure listings on the site.

24-year-old Carmen said: “Katie and I have always loved fashion, especially experimenting with different styles and prints, but felt that the fun looks that an edgy, Asian style emulate weren’t readily available in the UK.

“Having spent a lot of time selling our still-new clothes on eBay to be able to afford the newer trends, we realised we could be turning our shared clothing passion into a viable business. With the increasing prominence of online shopping, we sought the guidance of our family and friends and decided that the time was right to go for it, and HAKKA Fashion was born.”

With vast experience working in fashion retail, the Ho sisters also model HAKKA’s clothing at their studio in Newcastle’s China Town, in order to demonstrate the wearability of the clothes for their target ‘girl next door’ audience.

Carmen explained: “Everyone should embrace their own style and never apologise for it. We are passionate about encouraging our customers experiment with unique looks, enabling them to stand out from the crowd in the best possible way.”

Mixing contemporary fashions from Europe and America with the fresh and vibrant looks of Asian street style, HAKKA Fashion aims to inspire and empower women from all walks of life.

Carmen continued: “Asian street fashion is quickly becoming the next big thing. We should all embrace fashion influences from other cultures or countries, put a little twist on it and give women the confidence to wear their look in a more stylish way. If we can wear it and look good, then so can anyone.”

Named after the native Hakka Chinese language spoken by their parents, HAKKA Fashion was created to honour their heritage. Carmen commented: “We don’t want our westernised persona to lose its roots so HAKKA seemed an ideal label name.

“We are also working towards marketing the brand towards East and South East Asia over the next 12 months and share the best in ‘quirky’ Asian street fashion online, both locally and internationally.”

The e-commerce online boutique can take direct payment from Payment Sense and is PCIDSS protected.

For further information please visit www.hakkafashion.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Richard Crulley .