Fashion evolves online – Times Age

Mary and Mason directed by Sophie Mary Stevens and Charlotte Mason. PHOTOS/AVAILABLE

Two young entrepreneurs who met in design class at the age of 13 now run a successful online sustainable clothing label from an office in Greytown.

At the age of 21, Sophie Mary Stevens and Charlotte Mason realized the ambition they had always joked about growing up in Wairarapa.

Within 15 minutes of launching their company Mary and Mason on August 7th, they had very few T-shirts and jackets left.

It was last year’s lockdown that galvanized this duo for action.

Despite their early sales rush, Stevens and Mason did not take success for granted.

We are working very hard to make this dream of ours come true, said Mason.

The dream started life as a joke they shared in class.

They met in Grade 9 at St Matthews Collegiate School. Mason is a boarding student from Wellington, and Stevens becomes his first female friend.

The two girls stepped away from more academic subjects and found themselves in painting, sewing, design, and other creative classes together.

They are both dyslexic, and find their strengths in subjects where they can express themselves without words.

We really have a different perspective on life than a lot of other students, says Stevens.

After school, they each went on to further study, but ended up dropping out, lackluster and low self-esteem.

“We’re both in a bad place,” Stevens said. It is very difficult for us to know what we want to do and we cannot find meaning in this research.

Stevens studied fashion at Otago Polytechnic but left after freshman year. He then did assignments in business studies but also dropped out.

Meanwhile, Mason started a gap year in England before returning home to study design at Massey University. He also dropped out after his freshman year.

Leaving university, he thought it would be too risky to launch a business without any credentials or qualifications behind his name.

Ironically, last year’s lockdown provided the boost the duo needed to make things happen.

With an excess of time to ponder what they want out of life, they realize that the jokes they share aren’t all that absurd.

They started sharing design ideas and talking seriously about the project.

But Mason and Stevens realized they didn’t want to just create another fashion store.

Instead, they aim to build a platform where people can talk about their uncertainties, identify personal struggles, and share advice.

On Mary and Mason’s website, they are candid about the obstacles they face:

The relationship between personal identity, mental health and the fashion industry is something we want to talk about openly. As two dyslexics, we struggle to express our feelings.

When it came time to build a website, the two teamed up with Masterton-based marketing manager Dean Napier, whose side venture Sprang Digital also sprung up during last year’s lockdown.

Napier helps Mary and Mason with the customer-facing side of their website, as well as their reporting process, enabling them to make decisions based on real data.

He helped Mason and Stevens identify the type of experience they wanted for their customers, and then helped make it happen.

For Mary and Mason, the experience wasn’t just about buying clothes.

They want to sell products, but they also want to be a platform where they can talk about the design process and social topics, says Napier.

A few days after their launch party, they only had one t-shirt and three jackets in stock.

“We’re just out there and hoping for the best,” said Mason. So we were really excited when it went so much better than we expected.