By Krystal Peguero
Living in the digital era where everything can be accessed with a click of a button, it’s no secret that many fashion brands originate online. Bloggers and celebrity influence sets the tone for brands—having your clothing line worn and tagged by an influencer is one of the easiest ways to gain exposure. In this day and age, it’s essential that all brands have a social media presence. Without an online following, it’s almost as if a brand doesn’t exist.
In fact, the most common way to build a clothing brand is to start on the web. Thanks to sites and apps like Shopify, Poshmark and eBay, the average person can sell items in a matter of minutes.
House of CB, created by Conna Walker, is the perfect example of how successful an online brand can be. By age 23, Walker had dominated the fashion industry without a fashion or business degree, and a few short years later, House of CB went from small Instagram shop to red-carpet staple.
While in school, 18-year-old Walker began her business, House of CB, —at the time known as “Celeb Boutique”—selling wholesale clothing on eBay for cheaper rates. Walker’s main goal was to make money by turning her three thousand dollar loan from her father into a profit. The style of the brand initially started as a “look for less” of celebrity fashion. Her eBay business boomed, and Walker knew she had to grow her business on a larger platform. As she got older and her style evolved, the items on Celeb Boutique weren’t enough for her or her customers. The items she envisioned didn’t exist, and this became a turning point for her brand. She wanted to sell clothes that weren’t labeled as fast fashion, but as affordable luxury. Design sketches arose, and Walker went from reselling wholesale clothing to selling in-house designs.
Celeb Boutique slowly started gaining recognition from celebrities as Walker personally sent dresses to their stylists in hopes that they would wear it on the red carpet. One of the first online designers to do all her marketing on social media, she knew that her online exposure would help bring in more followers. Celebrities loved Celeb Boutique pieces because of the high quality and shape that the brand is known for—plus, custom fitting and resizing wasn’t necessary.
The only problem was that celebrities and stylists didn’t like the actual name of the fashion line. Walker took this opportunity to rebrand her whole collection and showcase the new look of House of CB (Celeb Boutique). Her marketing strategy was solely based on Instagram, where she had influencers and celebrities tag the brand whenever an item was worn. She also maintained an aesthetic page to match with the brand in order to draw in more followers. With the increased exposure, the growth of the brand began to increase rapidly, and in 2014, House of CB dominated the red carpet.
Now, celebrities such as Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and the Kardashians are often seen wearing clothing from House of CB. The company’s growth has allowed the online brand to emerge from the web to brick-and-mortar stores in London, New York and Los Angeles. Topshop stores also have a section of House of CB products. The online shop has digital stylists to help assist consumers in sizing, questions about products and orders and to aid in navigating through the website.
Walker and House of CB are an online-brand success story, one that exemplifies the benefits of ecommerce in retail.
You can check out House of CB at houseofcb.com.
