10 Fashion Accessories Business Success Stories [2023]
If you love fashion and clothing design, you may want to start a fashion accessories business. As a fashion accessories consultant, you help clients develop and adapt personal and professional styles.
Fashion accessories are decorative items that supplement one’s outfit. They include jewelry, gloves, belts, scarves, watches, sunglasses, bow ties, leggings, suspenders, and tights. To work as a professional stylist, collaborate with clients to understand their needs, and tailor styles and aesthetics to each individual’s preferences.
Here are some real life success stories of starting a fashion accessories business:
1. Foxly Handmade ($72K/year)
Jen Fox (from Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA) started Foxly Handmade almost 7 years ago.
I'm Jen, and I own FOXLY Handmade, a handmade bag company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I work with artists to develop illustrations that I then turn into useful, practical pouches. Think of them as little pieces of portable, functional art!
Now, I've transitioned my business almost entirely online, and my website sales have been growing month over month. I anticipate that I will triple last year's sales by the end of this year, even without the in-person events I used to rely on.
2. Country Outfitter ($1.2M/year)
John James (from Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA) started Country Outfitter over 15 years ago.
I’m John James, I’m currently the CEO of Engine, a new cloud hosted ecommerce platform.
I’m excited to share the story about how an ex-physician (me) and an ex-lawyer built a automated robotic warehouse to support a few dozen online stores, and how one of the stores (Country Outfitter) exploded into a hundred million dollar retailer of cowboy boots in less than six months, despite the fact that neither of the founders owned a single a pair of cowboy boots.
Learn more about starting a fashion accessories business:
Where to start?
-> How to start a fashion accessories business?
-> How much does it cost to start a fashion accessories business?
-> Pros and cons of a fashion accessories business
Need inspiration?
-> Examples of established fashion accessories business
-> Marketing ideas for a fashion accessories business
Other resources
-> Fashion accessories business tips
-> Fashion accessories business calculator
4. Rainier Watch ($23.8K/year)
David Lindahl (from Woodinville, WA, USA) started Rainier Watch almost 5 years ago.
Hello there! I’m David, a full-time Front End Developer and outdoors enthusiast with a side hustle called Rainier Watch (RW). RW is an apparel brand that sells quality goods inspired by mountains, specifically Mount Rainier, and builds community around “The Mountain”. For every purchase, RW donates to organizations protecting and supporting the National Parks.
Sales have grown from just a few hundred dollars a month via a Gumroad account, to a custom Woocommerce website that facilitates several thousand dollars in sales each month.
5. Fifth & Ninth ($300K/year)
Mark Mesrobian (from Rhode Island, USA) started Fifth & Ninth about 7 years ago.
Hi Guys! My name is Mark Mesrobian, and I’m the Executive Vice President of Complete Sourcing Solutions (CSS), a 20-year-old “start-up”. I became a serial entrepreneur after being fired from a corporate job over twenty years ago. Turns out it was the best thing that could have happened to me.
In less than a month and just by word of mouth, we took Symtek from $0 to over $100K!
6. Kashgar ($300K/year)
Linda Heaphy (from Darwin, Australia) started Kashgar over 33 years ago.
Kashgar has recently closed its retail outlet and gone completely online.
7. Portland Gear ($1.44M/year)
Marcus Harvey (from Portland, Oregon, USA) started Portland Gear over 8 years ago.
Marcus Harvey is the founder & owner of the Portland Gear.
He started a page on Instagram by the name of @portland page in 2013 out of his love for Portland. Marcus slowly managed to build a community of Portlanders and thought of leveraging this audience base.
He had a background in garment design & branding and decided to launch his brand Portland Gear on Black Friday of 2014.
The brand has now been established as a retail clothing store offering quality menswear items & accessories.
Marcus wants to create products and experiences that people actually want to use and share in order to foster a sense of community in this amazing city of Portland.

Read the full story on upflip.com ➜
8. Nykaa ($486M/year)
Nykaa is a lifestyle retail brand for beauty, fashion & wellness products.
Falguni Nayar (from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) started Nykaa over 11 years ago.
Nykaa was founded by an Indian entrepreneur Falguni Nayar in the year 2012. Nykaa is a very well cosmetic company and was first established as an online business before becoming an omnichannel Business.
Currently, Nykaa is a leading marketplace for personal care and beauty products in India and its yearly revenue is $482 million.
Over the years they have expaned their business and are now offering fashion items like clothing & accessories. Plus, Nykaa now manufactures its own line of beauty & wellness products which are competing with high end brands..

Read the full story on inventiva.co.in ➜
9. Mon Purse ($24M/year)
Nobody would say Mon Purse is lacking in options. The customizable handbag company — founded in 2014 by Lana Hopkins, after a shopping mission for a new purse proved unsuccessful — lets customers select from various leathers and prints, colors, metal hardware, fringes, and monograms with their choice of letters and emojis.
In addition to purses, they can shop for leather goods, including totes, clutches, bucket bags, passport holders, and phone cases. Mon Purse provides them with 10 billion design combinations to choose from.
Lana Hopkins (from Alexandria NSW, Australia) started Mon Purse over 9 years ago.
Lana Hopkins established MON, a multinational custom leather bags & fashion accessories business located in Australia.
She had an idea to start a custom bag brand after attending a Build-a-Bear Workshop. She wanted to start a brand where customers could design their own handbags, from the style to the leather to the hardware.
First, she performed her research by traveling to Europe to discover the correct tanneries, supplies, and artisans to put the initial designs together. Hopkins returned from Europe with a suitcase packed with handbag samples, and she approached media companies with her idea on A4 paper.
As of 2018, the Australia-based brand is now making around $24 million in revenue.

Read the full story on forbes.com ➜
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