Empower

Chrissy: Having always loved traveling, the inspiration for Flo & Frankie stores came about when we took a family trip to the Amalfi Coast, Florence and Provence and fell in love with the eclectic styling in cafés and fashion boutiques, which influenced our ideas for the design of our stores. Our ideas are always ambitious and much bigger than our resources, so to pull it off we roll up our sleeves, throw on our ripped jeans and ‘DIY-it’, doing a lot of the work ourselves. People often ask who designs the interiors of our stores, but it’s just us working with our close family, friends, and store teams with limited resources, and we’ve always found that these restraints make us even more creative.

Bella: The Flo Gives Back initiative came out of the desire to build a business that gives back, making generosity part of the business’s growth strategy. We’ve always been confronted by the fact that not all women have equal opportunities, and that the poverty cycle is one of the hardest things to break once in it. So, Flo Gives Back came about as a response to this, to help create empowered communities in places like Nepal, which can protect themselves from exploitation and slavery, and drive their own social and economic development.

To us, empowering means being supportive and working with those around me to bring out the best that we all have to offer. Being empowered means that we are confident, we trust our intuition, we have our big girls pants on and we back each other.

Chrissy: As women in business, we have a responsibility to be mentors and sharers of knowledge. It’s no secret that we only got to where we are because of the thousands of mistakes and learnings we discovered along the way, so I’d say the three things are:

• Be an open book. We have nothing to prove, but everything to share. Sharing your learnings gives the next generation of women in business the opportunity to do it better. That’s absolutely something to lean in to, rather than see as a threat.

• Ask questions. Age and experience doesn’t trump enthusiasm. As women in business, we should be open to learn from others, no matter how long they’ve been in business. Some of my favourite business role models are those who have less than half the amount of experience I do.

• Lean into love, always. Remaining kind in business is non-negotiable. Yes, hard conversations and circumstances come up, but that doesn’t mean forgetting to encourage and uplift others. Women can often feel a sense of competition between one another, and I’d love to see women in business empower the next generation to debunk this.

Bella: There are so many wonderful women I look up to however, I would have to say Malala Yousafzai. She became an activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, after being shot by the Taliban for attending a secret school for girls. I’ve always been incredibly inspired by her work in advocating for women’s rights to learn and empowering women to get educated. She says “Let us pick up our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons,” and I whole-heartedly agree with her in that knowledge is power and education empowers women to break the cycle of poverty and oppression.

Chrissy: Sure I’ve faced some challenges trying to juggle both and keeping my sanity along the way, however I quickly learnt there’s no way to best find balance, and giving both family and work my best shot is what makes me feel complete. One thing is for sure though – family always comes first. The role of being a mum far outweighs the role of being a business owner. Time with my family is precious, so while the needs of the business can be demanding, I always try my best to make time for my loved ones.

Bella: There are so many places I’d love to go, but first would be back London to visit friends and family.

Chrissy: Cultivate a network of support (be it family, friends, colleagues) who see your vision and have your back. With the help of a ‘small village’ of like-minded family and friends, our brand truly reflects who we are. That way when you realise there’s no such thing as being ‘Super Woman’, you’ve got them to fall back on, and will always feel supported.

Bella: Everyday looks completely different, but my favourite kind of mornings would be when I start with a peppermint tea and a sweaty flow at Basecamp Power Yoga. It’s the combo of mindful movement and having soulful conversation following it, that helps me get grounded and set intentions for the rest of the day.

Chrissy: Our Ethical Edit is a collection of all our favourite brands who are either locally run, working hard to improve their business practices by reducing their impact on the environment, improving the livelihoods of all employees in their supply chain or giving back to the community around them. Our aim with the Ethical Edit, is to empower our customers to use their dollar as a vote for what kind of brands they want to support.

Bella: I’ve loved working alongside mum and learning from her, as she’s always been amazing at giving me constructive feedback. She’s mentored me along the way because she wants the best for me and my career and wants to see me succeed outside of Flo & Frankie. This has meant I’ve not only had a boss, but an incredible coach and teacher.