25-year-old turned 50-cent jeans into a multimillion brand worn by Taylor Swift

Elena Bonvicini did not got down to begin a multimillion-dollar denim brand worn by the likes of Taylor Swift, Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner. She simply favored thrift procuring. 

Each summer time as a teen, the Southern California native would go to Wisconsin to see her grandparents. She’d go to thrift shops within the space and rifle by means of the denim choice, trying to find Levi’s that she may trend into cutoff shorts for herself and her associates.

Initially, it wasn’t speculated to be a enterprise. Bonvicini had enjoyable making the cutoffs and, as she instructed CNBC Make It, “always loved having things that no one else had.” However that modified when she was again at highschool and somebody requested about her shorts. 

“I got stopped by a girl who was two grades below me and she was like, ‘Oh my gosh, where’d you get those shorts?'” Bonvicini, now 25, explains. “And I said ‘Oh, I made them!’ And she was like ‘Can I buy a pair? Can you make me a pair?'” 

Bonvicini had by no means bought clothes earlier than, so she relied on her greatest “guesstimation” to set the value for her first sale at $30. Extra women began asking Bonvicini in regards to the pants, and the younger designer realized that she had a enterprise on her fingers. 

This was earlier than Depop or Poshmark, so it was form of a new concept to be upcycling and shopping for garments from the thrift retailer and making them cute.

Elena Bonvicini

Founder, EB Denim

Bonvicini was quickly promoting tons of of reworked classic pants to classmates from her highschool and different colleges within the space. Each Friday, she would arrange store in her fitness center locker room and promote jeans for $10 every. 

“I would lay them all on the locker room floor and the girls would come and have a try-on party,” she says. “This was before Depop or Poshmark, so it was kind of a new idea to be upcycling and buying clothes from the thrift store and making them cute.”

Even charging her associates and classmates simply $10 or $30 for a pair of jeans, Bonvicini turned a good revenue. 

“In the Midwest I was buying [the jeans] for 50 cents. In some places, you could buy a trash bag filled with anything for $8. I could probably fit 20 pairs of jeans into one bag,” she says. “There was a huge profit margin there.” 

When shorts had been out of season she requested her mom for a stitching machine so she may strive her hand at taking classic boy’s jeans and turning them into one thing she and her teenaged prospects may put on. Her mother agreed to get her a $300 machine on one situation: they might go to their native Joann Materials for stitching classes. 

By the point she was approaching her highschool commencement, Bonvicini was decided to develop her brand. She created an Etsy account the day she turned 18 and got down to use social media to assist flip EB Denim into the following huge factor.

Taking EB Denim to the following stage 

Elena Bonvicini was making cutoff shorts for enjoyable earlier than she realized she had a enterprise on her fingers.

EB Denim

Early on, Bonvicini knew that her greatest guess to get extra eyes on her designs could be to get widespread individuals carrying them.

“I decided that I wanted to reach out to people I thought were cool on Instagram, message them, find their email,” she says. “I didn’t care if they posted it or not. I just wanted them to have my design.” 

The gifting technique paid off. The teenager founder was shocked to not solely hear again from influencers and magnificence icons like Chiara Ferragni and Danielle Bernstein, but in addition see them submit themselves in her garments. 

“She’s like the Kylie Jenner of Italy,” she stated of Ferragni. “I didn’t expect for her to DM me back. I reached out to every single email that I found, and her assistant ended up replying.” 

The publicity proved to be an instantaneous boon to her enterprise. 

“I started seeing traffic coming through our website and an immediate return on investment,” she says. “It was just immediate sales. That’s when I really knew that I actually had something.” 

I needed to achieve out to individuals I believed had been cool. I did not care in the event that they posted it or not. I simply needed them to have my design.

Elena Bonvicini

Founder, EB Denim

At school, Bonvicini labored diligently to increase EB Denim. She employed an assistant to assist her ship orders that got here by means of her web site. Her weekends could be spent buying tons of of pairs of jeans on the Melrose Buying and selling Submit or Rose Bowl Flea Market and constructing relationships with suppliers. 

She added a number of new designs for reimagined Levi’s, upped her stock and saved gifting jeans to celebrities and influencers. She additionally continued promoting to classmates — this time, to sorority sisters at USC. Gone had been the $10 jeans. Now, she was charging $220 for her extra refined product. 

“I would do trunk shows at my sorority house and I would invite all the girls,” she stated. “I did this thing where if they posted on their Instagram story they would get 10% off at checkout. So every single girl was posting it, putting it on their feed.” 

Bonvicini acquired every pair of jeans for round $20 and spent $14 transforming them earlier than washing them in her residence washer. To maintain up with a lot demand, Bonvicini had employed seamstresses to tailor the jeans to her specs. On her greatest day, she says she bought $12,000 price of pants in simply a few hours. 

With momentum constructing behind her brand, she took her income and reinvested them into her firm by hiring a PR company to assist her with influencer outreach. 

“I wasn’t looking for it to be a money-making machine,” she says. “I always knew that in order for it to grow into this vision of what it could be, I needed to put everything I could back into it.” 

“There was a huge world of people I didn’t have access to and couldn’t get a hold of,” the 25-year-old provides. “Why are these people going to respond to a 19-year-old? I got really lucky at the beginning. [My firm] got me on Kylie Jenner, Hailey Bieber, Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid.” 

This publicity additionally obtained EB Denim into high-end retailers like REVOLVE and Selfridges. By the point she was a junior, she says EB Denim was bringing in over $1 million in income and had a small handful of staff and interns. The brand was doing so nicely, the truth is, that she was debating leaving USC altogether. 

“I wanted to drop out,” she says, “but my mom was like ‘You better stay your a– in school!'”

As an alternative, she centered her research and tried to use all the things she discovered to her enterprise. 

“Any time we had an entrepreneurship assignment, I would make it about my brand,” she says. “It made me think about everything in a more professional and sophisticated lens, which I think really helped me in so many ways.” 

The Taylor Swift impact

EB Denim continued to develop over the following few years, including attire, t-shirts and jackets to its choices. It continued to be a favourite of influencers and tastemakers.

All the things got here to a head after the 2023 Video Music Awards. 

Bonvicini group had been notified by Taylor Swift’s stylist that the pop star could be carrying one in every of EB Denim’s gadgets, however they did not know which one or when. Then, whereas she was out at a Vogue Week celebration, Bonvicini cellphone began to buzz.

“I remember looking at my phone at three in the morning and someone had sent me a picture of Taylor Swift walking out of a VMAs after party wearing the dress,” she says. “I was like ‘Oh, that’s so cool.'” 

“Then the next morning I woke up so hung over and saw [so many] Shopify notifications,” Bovincini continues. “Mind you, this dress is like $500. I was stunned.”

Because of the heads up, the brand had press releases able to ship out to retailers as EB Denim was featured in countless articles and roundups chronicling Swift’s model.

EB Denim is on monitor to usher in $3 million in income this 12 months, a far cry from its $30 begin. Regardless of her success, Bovincini generally has a exhausting time believing how far she’s come.

“I have imposter syndrome,” she says with a snort. “I don’t think I even now feel like a businesswoman.”

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