Vancouver fashion brand Brunette the Label marks a milestone

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Once a brand finds a niche, it can be hard to move away from it.

It’s a not-so stylish struggle Vancouver entrepreneur Miriam Alden knows all too well.

Over the past decade, the founder of Brunette the Label has built a mini empire out of sweatshirts, most of them featuring cheeky logos and slogans like Babes Supporting Babes, Brunette, and Blonde.

Starting the brand back in 2014 with a sweatshirt that read Brunette is the New Black, Alden leaned into her connections as a clothing wholesaler, finding early fans for her creations among her distribution company’s existing retail partners. 

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“We just kept going with that trend, and it was doing well for our retailers,” Alden says of the relaxed pieces.

But, after 10 years in business — including a successful few years spurred by the pandemic-led penchant for lounge wear — the clothing creative is eager to steer her company into more fashion-forward territory.

“Now is our time to step into new categories,” Alden says, noting Brunette also ventured into children’s clothing this year. 

The question then becomes: how do you chart a new direction when your customers expect you to stay in one lane? According to Alden, the answer is all about the approach.

“How can I create the value system, keeping the community the same, keeping the feeling around the brand the same?” Alden recalls asking herself at the time. “We started moving into categories that kind of felt like lounge, so knitwear and matching sets. Outerwear, which I feel like has actually become a really important part of the business. And then, sort of stepped into basics.”

While fuelled by a personal desire, the shift has also had much to do with the post-pandemic pendulum swing away from lounge wear back toward more structured styles.

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“The brand started to slow down for (retailers) because it was lounge. People weren’t buying lounge anymore,” Alden says.

Having ticked many major achievements off her list in a decade — including retail pop-ups at Holt Renfrew and partnerships with brands such as Goop and Juicy Couture — Alden says she took a long, hard look at what the future of Brunette might look like amid the business slowdown. 

“That could have been an opportunity for us to probably not move forward very much longer,” Alden admits. 

The road hasn’t always been easy. The direct-to-consumer and wholesale company shuttered its only stand-alone store in Vancouver after only a few years. Alden also cut back the number of her employees from about 35 to eight.

“It’s been a tough couple years, but I’m so excited to move forward,” Alden, who is sole owner of the business, says. “I feel like it’s the end of something — and the beginning of something else.”

Some of these struggles — such as shipments being held up at the border, and shooting a collection campaign herself — she shares with customers and followers on social media, in an effort to provide a realistic picture of what building a brand looks like.

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“I want them to see all sides of it,” Alden says of her transparency online. “It’s not this perfectly curated experience all the time.”

Alden has also become a prominent face for the brand, sharing behind-the-scenes content, her personal styling, her family and more.

“It’s really interesting to say because I feel like you would think, at 10 years, you would be able to chill,” Alden says with a laugh of the roller-coaster ride of a small-business owner. “I can honestly say, this year, I’ve never worked this much, ever.

“Not, probably, since I started driving around in my car, selling things out of the back of my trunk. It’s been such a changing time.”

But now, she’s ready to charge forward.

The company’s evolution has seen the brand introduce more fashion items, such as one-shoulder satin tops, an oversized blazer, slinky slip dresses and more, within its holiday collection. Aiming to further the distinction of the brand as a fashion offering, Alden also showcased her latest designs during a glamorous runway show in a downtown Vancouver bar in December.

“You can call it an everywhere brand,” Alden said of the revamped Brunette the Label offering. 

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While she says the company has always felt like it reflected her personal style in some way, Alden notes the new and future collections reflect who she is — now.

“It always felt like me, but then I changed,” she says.

Looking forward to the future, Alden is excited about what’s in store for her Brunette brand  — with a small limitation or two.

When asked if there is any clothing category she’d never venture into, she answered without hesitation: “Menswear,” she says with a laugh. “I’m gonna leave that to other people.”

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Looking for a few more ways to shop Canadian in the fashion and beauty space? Check out our roundup of 20 cool-girl Canadian brands to know here. 

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