Fairlie's Youngest Retail Entrepreneur

At just 22 Ben Dobbs is already an experienced operator in the retail fashion business. We caught up with him after the recent opening of his new store, InVogue.

Words: Pattie Pegler Images: Supplied

“I like buying for the season, I like the challenge of selling, I like doing the displays…I just like everything about it,” says Ben, when asked about the positives of retail.

Loving what you do is a pretty good space to be in and Ben’s enthusiasm for fashion retail shines through. Working at his mother’s fashion boutique in the school holidays gave him a good grounding in retail. But when he started out with his first store, Blank Space, in Fairlie four years ago – the concept was very different to what shoppers see today. “I was really into photography then and the first concept was a place to display my photography with a gift shop and some street wear,” explains Ben.

But it was the clothes that just grew and grew and pretty soon the only photography he was doing was of new fashion stock that arrived in store.

Eighteen is young to start a business but the only time it was an issue was with some hesitant suppliers. “Right at the beginning when I was contacting brands it could be a bit tricky but now I’m more established,” says Ben.

A physical store alone is simply not enough in these days of e-commerce and within a month of opening Blank Space Ben also had his online store up and running. He built the site himself using an e-commerce platform and now he is always updating it, improving it and working on it nearly every night, he says.

But he’s often also found in the store, serving customers and keeping an eye on what sells. It has helped him to hone his skills when it comes to ordering stock, one of the most important skills of a good fashion retailer. He admits that in the early days there were a few mistakes – items he thought would sell like ‘hot cakes’ that ended up on the sales rack at the end of the season. Now those mistakes are few and far between. “It’s really good to actually work in store and see your customers looking at things, choosing things, what they like…it helps when you’re trying to choose stock,” says Ben.

His second store, In Vogue, opened this July and is focused on fashion footwear for men and women. It was a natural expansion from Blank Space where he carried a small selection of shoes. InVogue stocks luxury European brands, on trend sneakers like Rollie, Django & Juliette, Lacoste and Beau Coops.

Ben’s enthusiasm brims over when he talks about his stores but he’s also got another project that he’s working on – which is to create his own Blank Space clothing label. He is currently in the process of talking to manufacturers and is hoping to create some good basic street wear pieces that are “clean, simple, and a little bit edgy.”

For this Fairlie-based entrepreneur this is just the start of his business journey. “I’m always thinking of what to do next,” he says.