Broadsheet

Erin Deering Is Back in Business

The Triangl co-founder and former AFR Young Rich Lister is launching a gender-neutral brand of wardrobe essentials...and running for deputy lord mayor of Melbourne? 

Erin Deering has a few things on right now. The mother of four – who co-founded swimwear brand Triangl and landed on the Australian Financial Review’s Young Rich list in 2015 – is currently running for deputy lord mayor of Melbourne in the city’s council elections in October. But before votes are cast and results are tallied, Deering is dipping her toe back into the world of fashion.

She’s launched Deering – a fashion brand for all genders offering elevated wardrobe essentials.

“I didn’t think I would have another brand,” Deering tells Broadsheet. “That’s kind of how I am. I start small and things end up becoming a lot bigger … I can’t help myself.”

For the time being, Deering is online-only. It started as an extension of things the founder likes to wear, including shirts and blazers borrowed from her husband’s wardrobe. “It’s very masculine and oversized but still tailored and structured,” she says. “I really want to offer the best fabrics, cuts and quality finishes at the most accessible price we can.” 

The collection is designed to be worn by men and women. But the strategy is to learn from its customers. “Once we get the brand out there and start to really understand what our customers want, we can form the next collections based on what they’re gravitating towards.”

The brand’s first campaign demonstrates how jeans, bomber jackets, T-shirts and eyewear can be sized up or down, and styled to match the wearer’s personality. “It’s 2024, let’s not pigeonhole ourselves,” she says.

Deering’s best known for co-founding the popular swimwear label Triangl in 2012, alongside her then-husband Craig Ellis. The swimwear brand shot to fame when Kendall Jenner tweeted about its bikinis.

“Because [Triangl] grew so quickly, we weren’t able to set anything up. There was no infrastructure; we had no marketing plan, no business plan. We were just so fortunate with timing because Instagram and ecommerce were still so novel to everyone and it just worked,” Deering says. “This time everything is different. Everything is planned – but with flexibility.”

Last year Deering published a candid memoir, Hanging by a Thread. In the book she details the toll that Triangl took on her physically and emotionally. The expectations that came alongside hyper-growth and the isolation she felt while living an (outwardly) glamorous existence in Monaco, Hong Kong, London and New York triggered unhealthy behaviours like disordered eating, drinking and a shopping obsession. She ultimately walked away from the brand when the pressure became too much.

Deering took some time off to recalibrate. She then repositioned herself as an investor and advisor to growing businesses – something she felt was needed to support and sustain the industry. But when the temptation to try again arose, Deering promised things would be different.

Her new label is about using fashion as a form of self-care. Getting up and getting dressed each day, and choosing how you show up in the world, can impact your mental health. “The way you can put so much love into your outfit and it makes you feel good … I very much believe that getting dressed in the morning is an act of self-love.”

While Deering feels very comfortable operating the business online, she sees a bricks-and-mortar presence as a no-brainer. She has plans to open a store in Melbourne, where she grew up. “I love Melbourne, it’s such a cultural city and fashion is part of that. I want to put a stake in the ground and say this is where we’re from.”

Her political aspirations are an extension of that love for the city. “My focus is obviously going to be on business, small business, and getting new businesses into the city,” she says. “There’s also really simple things, like people’s rubbish, people’s rates and people’s waste service charges.” But her main drive, if she is elected as deputy lord mayor, is reinvigorating Melbourne.

“People have that negativity towards the City of Melbourne … After Covid, and even pre-Covid, things were heading towards a bit of a decline. It’s absolutely possible to be fixed. It just needs the right people in there with the right mindset.”

— by Alice Jeffery