Celebrity favourite Di Petsa on scaling bespoke fashion

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Di Petsa, the distinctive wet look ready-to-wear and jewellery brand that launched in 2019, has quickly reached international recognition via a series of high profile custom pieces made bespoke (and not gifted) for stars like FKA Twigs, Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat, Kylie Jenner and Gigi Hadid. Such celebrity endorsements are a powerful marketing tool for her customised looks, says founder Dimitra Petsa.

Di Petsa now has 16 ready-to-wear stockists across the US and Europe. Ssense, The Webster, H Lorenzo and Selfridges all came on board this year for Spring/Summer 2022, following the brand’s first ever in-person presentation at Paris Fashion Week. However, the brand’s defining factor is its made-to-order business, which accounts for half of sales. While other emerging brands rely on wholesale and direct-to-consumer drops, Di Petsa caters to customers who she believes want to shop differently than past generations with unique, customised pieces made to fit their body shape, outside of “the constraints of traditional sizing”.

Revenue is growing steadily at under £1 million annually, up 74 per cent from 2020-2021, according to the company. The brand is entirely self-funded. Wholesale accounts for 40 per cent of the business and DTC sales the remaining 10 percent.

Di Petsa’s pre-Spring offering consists mainly of sheer separates sold for £150-£650. Developing the bespoke, pre-collection and main season lines at different price points has helped drive the business forward in the last year, Petsa says. Like other designers, her pre-collections are designed to be more “commercial” and stay in stores longer, while Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter collections are updates of bolder, more expensive and intricate styles.

To take the business to the next level, Di Petsa is investing in her e-commerce operations and the online user journey for bespoke clients, to help meet growing demand.

“It all started in my bedroom three years ago and now we have a team and connections with manufacturers,” Petsa says, “I can’t believe how far we have come. We’re growing steadily each season, which is helping us learn as we go,” says Petsa, who graduated from the fashion MA Central Saint Martins in 2018.

“There is a modern empathy with Di Petsa that is relevant to our clients' ethos,” says Greg Armas, founder of boutique fashion store Assembly New York. “The brand performs very well, both from clients who were knowledgeable of the brand, and new people drawn to the messaging and aesthetic.”

Bespoke is in demand but can be tricky to scale

Di Petsa’s bespoke wet-look pieces sell from £2000 to £6000, depending on the level of detail. For each order, the designer personally speaks to the client to ascertain their needs, how they will move and how they want to feel in the look. For some bridal clients, a growing revenue driver for the business, she creates a custom mood board, with suggestions for the makeup, hair, nails and bouquet, Petsa says. “Young people are shopping differently today. They want something that is special and customised for their bodies.”

Bespoke also allows the brand to escape traditional sizing, which the founder feels is insufficient. “That’s the amazing thing about custom, you don't feel like you're too skinny or too fat or anything. You just feel like this is my body and they made a dress for my body.”

For now, the level of orders is manageable and changeable from week to week, between Petsa herself, her team of two and her roster of eight freelance seamstresses. However, as the brand scales, the designer is not ready to hand over the consultation and will instead instate a waitlist for the bespoke service.

Currently, custom orders are done via email, which can be admin-heavy for Petsa and her team, says the founder. The brand is launching a new website in a few weeks to “streamline” the ordering process for popular bespoke styles, like the wet-look mini dress recently worn by Bella Hadid. This doesn’t reduce the personal touches but just skips a few steps in the beginning, Petsa adds. The site will also improve the DTC customer experience, for those buying the more affordable ready-to-wear pieces from the online shop.

For Spring/Summer 2021, Di Petsa launched a made-to-order wet look capsule with e-tailer LN-CC. The collection of seven styles on the site was available to order from the Di Petsa atelier and turned around in one to two weeks. The approach helped Di Petsa win LN-CC as a stockist as it didn’t need to demand the usual deposit for inventory, says Di Petsa brand manager Sophie Marlow (nee Rix). Since then, LN-CC has continued to buy Di Petsa ready-to-wear lines.

For LN-CC, the aim of this project was to reduce overproduction of such unique items and avoid overstretching an emerging brand with high order quantities, says Lara Djandji, LN-CC’s core and conscious buyer. “It has been an excellent way for us to forecast demand for these one-of-a-kind looks and responsibly introduce Di Petsa to LN-CC’s world.” The capsule performed really strongly and LN-CC received orders for these bespoke handmade pieces from all around the world, Djandji adds.

Despite the success of the LN-CC bespoke collection, Di Petsa doesn’t yet have capacity to do custom orders across all its retailers, Rix says. “We can’t yet afford to have the full team full time,” says Petsa, “We're a brand that does a lot of things. For example, we do jewellery, you know, so we have one person for this, we have another for corsetry, so people come in as needed depending on the orders.”

Exploring categories that women need

Petsa is proud to be a woman designing for women, something she feels is still lacking in the male-dominated luxury industry. Bridal pieces are some of her favourites to produce, she says, and the brand even invited some of its previous bridal clients to the SS22 presentation at Paris Fashion Week. “For me it’s about challenging patriarchal notions I have,” she says. “Often, designers cover women up as a form of empowerment. I find that to be challenging actually because for some women, they don’t want to be covered up.”

While slow fashion and made-to-order is applauded, Petsa wants to maintain craftsmanship and tradition when it comes to sourcing, even as wholesale accounts multiply and she produces ready-to-wear collections. “I want to set more sustainability goals as we grow to make sure we stay true to the brand.” All fabrics are sourced from Greece and Italy from known suppliers.

Di Petsa is also one of few luxury labels to incorporate maternity wear into its collections, which can be worn during pregnancy and after, because of its stretch fabric.

“For me, it's very surprising that there's such a gap in the market in terms of [luxury] maternity wear,” Petsa says. “And in the market, forgive me for saying this, but, I feel everything's quite ugly — I don’t find garments that are interesting, beautiful, youthful or couture.” The label has produced maternity wear since launch and continues to expand on the offering each season, based on its success, says Rix. For Autumn/Winter 2021 it introduced a breastfeeding raincoat and maternity knitwear, which accentuates and celebrates the bump rather than hiding it under smock styles.

Di Petsa has a loyal fanbase, which the founder has cultivated through social media and online community events. The brand’s unique, virtual full moon ceremonies, designed to nurture its community, feature live performance, poetry readings and movement practices, attract hundreds of participants at £40 a ticket.

“The good thing about growing a business gradually is that you can really respond to what your customers want,” she says. “The first workshop we had over 200 people apply for it. And then we started doing them like every month, then they started doing like four different time zones. I was doing two on the same day, one for American audiences and one for Europe.” 

Key Takeaway: Di Petsa has built a profitable business in three years from mixing made-to-order bespoke gowns mixed with a cheaper, ready-to-wear and jewellery business sold DTC and wholesale. Organic celebrity endorsements have boosted awareness, but it’s the bespoke line adored by younger customers, where she is investing for future growth.

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