 About
us, our history, and how we got started
From her schooldays at Auckland's Diocesan School when she sold her own
old clothes, her interests have now expanded to include an international
online fashion network spanning halfway around the world.
Starting at 16 years of age, straight from school, she opened her first
"tiny" recycled clothes shop in Oliver's Arcade in Auckland's
Newmarket. By 2001, some 17 yeas later, her retail empire had expanded
to include a 5,000 sq ft retail outlet "Double Exposure" in
Auckland, a retail website "designerexposure.com".
In the interim, the Double Exposure store in Auckland has become, arguably,
Auckland's most preferred venue for those searching for recycled designer
clothing selling clothes less than two years old.
In partnership with her mother, Denise Williams, Maria's original business
expanded rapidly, leading to the move to her Gillies Avenue address four
years after she opened her doors for trade.
In her fifth year of business, when she was 21, she went offshore to live
in Sydney. Over the next four years she continued to collect designer
clothes for the Auckland store, which her mother ran in her absence, while
working directly in the rag trade for companies such as Keith Matheson,
where she was sales manager - Australia.
She attributes much of her early success to those years spent in Sydney,
saying it provided her with a key opportunity to expand her networks (providing
regular sources of designer clothing for her store), as well as learning
about the rag trade from a designer/manufacturers' perspective
The
key to her success in business is relationship marketing, most of her
sources coming from "word of mouth" and referral business -
on both sides of the Tasman and, in the past seven years, from the United
States.
Over the last 17 years, her business has become the largest of
its kind in Australasia.
Today, her company retains its family orientation, with her mother remaining
as a partner - her only direct to the public retail outlet, however, remains
in Auckland.
Seven years ago, she started sourcing clothes from the United State.
During her first visit to New York, she established the nucleus of her
network of sources in the US - today that network has grown to literally
hundreds and includes many world-famous celebrities, as well as film stars,
royalty, socialites and the New York and Los Angeles cities' fashion elite.
Discretion plays an integral role to her business. Her approach is to
visit each of the celebrities in their own homes, sort through their wardrobes
and pay cash on the spot for their clothes. She insists each garment,
shoe or accessory must be in pristine condition and be less than two years
old.
Her service ensures that clothes which might have been worn, for instance,
for a charity function, with a leading designer creating the garment specifically
for one evening, may have a second life.
Many of her sources spend literally hundreds and thousands of dollars
on their annual wardrobes - with garments often only being worn once -
some never at all.
Another critical element to the business is the extensive research she
undertakes before purchasing any clothes. This includes visiting designer
boutiques and fashion shows to establish the correct value, what's hot
and what's not in America, Paris and London.
Among other designer names stocked by Williams are included - Gucci, Gaultier,
Christian Dior, Fendi, Hermes, Armani, Valentino, Versace, Louis
Vuitton, Chloe, Galliano, Dolce & Gabbana, Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo,
Fendi, Badgley Miska and Moschino.
Today her retail website, started in September 1999 and hosted in New
York, is attracting more than 33,000 hits each day. Some customers are
known to log on up to fives times in one day hunting for the treasures
Designer Exposure sells. The website features digital photograph of each
item, a currency converter and delivery anywhere in the world.
Each item is sold in US dollars.
Maria has to keep a weather eye for fashion trends - currently she is
following the American Fall season, which, of course, includes recognitions
of the vast differences between the East and West Coast style.
The criteria for clothes for the more than 2,000 garments carried on the
website at any one time is simple - they must be less than two years old,
in immaculate conditions and worn only once, or a minimum of times.
As well as carrying the clothes of the rich and famous, Maria Williams
also purchases "runway" clothes and accessories - such as shoes
worn by models in elite designer fashion displays.
Many of the "hottest" items are often bought within minutes'
of their being posted on the website.
You can contact Maria by email at support@designerexposure.com
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