We’re often happy to make do,’’ says Sophie.Īttracting loyal customers: “We have some customers that have only ever worn Thundies undies. THE SUCCESS SECRETS OF JOSIE AND SOPHIE’S FASHION BUSINESSĬareful costs: Being based in Martinborough means low overheads, especially significant in the set-up phaseīeing modest: “We don’t need the flash stuff. The cup Sophie holds is made by local potter and friend Rachel Bartlett. They were fun and exciting times planning our first commercial run.’’ “We spent many hours drinking coffee on our veranda plotting Thunderpants world domination and cutting wood blocks for the original screen-prints. Josie says her whole flat was taken over by undies. In 1995, with her friend and flatmate Victoria McKenzie, she screen-printed $30 worth of fabric, sewing it into the first Thunderpants, which the duo sold in a Nelson gallery. I was in the art or sewing room any spare time I had.’’ One of her polytechnic assignments was to design comfy undies that “don’t go up the bum’’. At 30, she enrolled for a diploma in fashion and textiles in Nelson. When Sophie was in her third year of study, Josie decided to follow her sister to Nelson.
(Sophie’s first daughter is now 25, lives in Auckland and is part of the Bidwill family.)
The sisters drove to Pukekohe to meet the baby’s future parents. At 24, she got pregnant so Josie returned from Australia to help her little sister plan an open adoption and to be there for the birth. Marlborough's scientific taxidermy expert gives native New Zealand animals a second lifeīut eventually Sophie had enough of the heat of the kitchen and followed her real passion, enrolling for a visual arts degree at Nelson Polytechnic. Teenagers were always happy to end up at our place after parties as Mum could feed large numbers with amazing food and plenty of it.’’
Young single farmers randomly turning up at 5–5.30pm as they knew they would be asked for dinner. Says Josie: “Our house was always somewhere people wanted to come for food. They spent weekends foraging on the farm for mushrooms, pulling in crayfish pots at Riversdale Beach and collecting paua off the rocks. Their childhood revolved around food, and the collecting of it. Their mother was an accomplished cook who passed on her skills to her daughters. They both started their adult lives as cooks, reflecting now that they weren’t given adequate career advice at school so fell into food. While Thunderpants are a snug fit for their customers, the business of becoming a clothing and underwear manufacturer wasn’t initially a natural fit for the Bidwill sisters. They fit your body where they’re meant to,’’ adds Sophie. Each is symbolic of what makes the Bidwill sisters tick – they like to have fun, they spend a lot of time laughing, and they care deeply about their community and the environment. Inside their workshop and pop-up store, kids’ leggings decorated in a banana print dangle on hangers near a black Thunderpants bikini made from recycled nylon fishing nets. One story is of a young boy who wears a pair of Thunderpants boy’s undies handed down by his older brother, who inherited them from an older cousin. If they have a crisis, they don’t need to worry about work,’’ says Josie.īuilt to last is not just an ethos. “We have always said people over profits so staff can pretty much do what suits them as long as the work gets done. Babies and dogs are welcome in the Thunderpants headquarters.
All five full-time equivalent staff are paid a living wage and the sisters say they love their work as much as they do. They never follow fashion fads or launch seasonal ranges and the business must fit into their lives. (Left to right) Joan, Sophie, Josie and eldest sibling Kate. The sisters see their mother Joan most days. “They share a love of horror films,’’ says Sophie. The cousins spend so much time together they could be mistaken for sisters. Billie (14) is Sophie’s daughter, pale-skinned with white blonde hair Maddy (13) is the daughter of Josie and her partner, Tahir Ali, of Fijian Indian-Polynesian decent. They each have a daughter, teenagers they jokingly nickname Ebony and Ivory. Both are keen cooks – Josie (57) cooked for a career for 15 years and Sophie (49) followed her into restaurant kitchens some years later. They take turns at popping a meal over to their mother each evening. Their lives are so interwoven that when they aren’t working, they share meals or spend time with family and their many joint friends. Sophie and Josie Bidwill at Riversdale Beach with their two SPCA dogs, Pebbles (left) and Boo.ĭuring summer weekends and in the holidays, the pair often retreat to the family bach, a 1960s beach house hidden in the dunes at Riversdale Beach, where they spent whole summers as children.
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