New Zealand

Carlin Rhain Clothing

• 021 345130
• Website Carlin Rhain Clothing

found there was a gap in the market for funky, exciting clothes made out of high quality material that would wear well and, without a wonderfully kind and supportive friend and now mentor Ali Hui (owner of Babu www.babu.co.nz) Rhain and Carlin Rhain would not have been born.

I vividly remember sitting in our lounge talking to Ali and some girlfriends yet again about the lack of choice in boys clothing when Ali turned to me and said, “Stop talking about it and do something about it!” So I thought I had better shut up or start our own business.

The first thing was the name. Shane and I (after many discussions) decided the labels would be called our children’s middle names, because we were developing this business for them. Carlin - Grayson’s middle name means Little Champion and Rhain - Devlin’s middle name means Warrior - which encompassed the focus of the labels.

Months of hard work followed - coming up with designs, conducting market research, trips to Vietnam meeting our most wonderful manufacturer, sleepless nights wondering what we were doing, and constantly learning (and still learning) about all aspects of owning a business. Needless to say Shane got used to waking up alone at 3am whilst I was downstairs working on designs or simply pacing the floor.