We were excited to discover identical twins “The Annies’” inspiring blog and even more excited to find out the gorgeous girls run their very own online vintage store through eBAY. With a selection of instantly wearable vintage treasures, Annie and the Mannequins has instantly propelled onto our fashion radar. Curious to find out more, iFashion got in touch with the entrepreneurial girls to learn about their brand, how they hope to see it expand and most importantly their unique style. Let’s just say we could be looking at Britain’s answer to Mary Kate and Ashley!

What inspired you to start Annie and the Mannequins?
Annie and the Mannequins was inspired by our personal love for vintage items. The idea behind Annie and the Mannequins came about when we were searching for vintage items for ourselves online. We were looking for pieces that we could wear with our skinny jeans or denim cut-offs on an everyday basis, as we love wearing ‘something different’ whilst still being ‘fashionable’. Whilst our search gave us many vintage sellers that were era specific, selling everything from floor length floral maxi dresses and ball gowns to veiled hats (that would look best teamed with long gloves and a victory hair roll) we didn’t find many vintage sellers with items that we could wear on an everyday basis. This inspired us to start selling vintage clothing items that are inspired by today’s trends and are wearable day to day.

What attracted you to vintage?
Nowadays there are a whole host of stores selling of the peg clothing items that are based on original vintage patterns and designs but all these ’vintage inspired’ items have one thing in common;  they are mass produced and every girl with an eye for fashion owns them. ‘True vintage’, on the other hand, oozes the appeal of owning a unique one-of-a-kind item that no one else will have. Vintage offers a welcome alternative to the high street and we wanted to embrace this by sourcing and passing onto others the very best of vintage clothing. 

What kind of products do you look for and how do you source them?
We love researching current designers and trends hitting the catwalks and love to incorporate these trends into our weekly capsule collections of vintage goodies. We believe the best vintage items are those items that are individual and unique, yet on trend, so we are always on the lookout for products that reflect the season’s biggest trends. This season it was all about the midi skirt at Annie and the Mannequins and we hunted out the best midis in pastel hues, pleats and prints. Each week we bring to the eBay world a capsule collection of vintage clothing items based on a specific trend so always go sourcing with an idea of colour palette and outfit builds.

Annie and the mannequins vintage clothing is being sold through an eBay shop at the moment. What attracted you to online selling?
There was lots of discussion regarding the best sales channel when we were planning on going full time with Annie and the Mannequins. Initially we dreamed of opening up our own vintage shop in a busy city centre (what girl wouldn’t dream of jingling the keys to their very own clothing boutique?) but we soon came to realise the opportunities available to us through selling online. We choose to start selling through eBay as it provided us with the foundations to immediately start selling online and gives us access to thousands of potential customers from all over the world.  We also quickly came to realise that there are many resources available online to help build our brand Annie and the Mannequins such as blogging sites, styling websites and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

How would you like to see your brand grow?
We are so excited about the future of Annie and the Mannequins and have set our hearts on one day selling our vintage items directly through our website and start our own online style/trend guide. At the moment as we continue to build our customer base and ‘get our name out there’ we plan to extend our current weekly collections of 20 items to 40 items and hope to start making and selling more re-worked vintage blouses. Further down the line we also hope to design our own Annie and the Mannequins clothing line and sell this alongside our vintage items.

What would you describe as signature ‘Annies’ style?
We would describe our style as candy store cute with a romantic modern twist. Romantic, on trend and wearable are the ingredients of Annie and the Mannequins style. We love to mix vintage and high street clothes to create a wearable on trend outfit such as a signature Annie’s peak collar sheer blouse and chunky knit pastel hue cardigan mixed with high waist denim shorts or skinnies. We also love to finish of our outfits with our signature bobby socks and wedges combo, and not to forget a classis leather satchel bag.

Whose style do you admire at the moment? Celebrity, Fashionista or even another blogger!
At the moment we really admire Natalie Suarez’s Style from Natalie off Duty. She mixes vintage finds with designer pieces excellently and really knows how to use vintage pieces to complete a look. As well as her inspiring pictures and style her blog is a really interesting read. Definitely worth a look.

What will you be wearing this A/W?
This A/W we will be teaming ankle grazing trousers with peak collar blouses and cutesy jumpers, layered under textured furry coats. There is something super feminine about a faux fur coat and will definitely be an Annie and the Mannequins must have outerwear essential this winter.

Thank you The Annies! Be sure to check out their covetable style via their blog HERE and even own a piece of handpicked vintage clothing by bidding through the eBay site.