In the midst of World War II, Monica Upton's nonno fled Italy to find a better life and more opportunities for his family in Australia. It's ironic, then, that about 70 years after the war ended Upton returned to Italy and kickstarted a business venture that has since turned over almost $10 million. "My dad often says that if nonno could see what I was doing now, he'd be pretty blown away," she tells 9honey proudly.
READ MORE: Tammy had to go by a fake name when she started eight-figure business Now a mum-of-two and CEO of luxury leather bag brand Vestirsi , Upton's founder journey began in a Melbourne office while she was working in luxury beauty PR. It was the mid-2010s and Upton, then in her 20s, was keenly aware of the one thing that all her most influential colleagues and clients had in common; a good leather handbag. "They would have beautiful, big Celine or Prada or Yves Saint Lauren totes, which I couldn't afford," she recalls.
"I was on a PR assistant salary. I had no money." After work she'd wander Melbourne's department stores looking for a classic, black leather bag under the $4,000 mark, but all she found were cheap PU leather (artificial leather polymer made from plastic) styles that were still expensive.
Upton couldn't afford a high-quality designer bag, nor did she want to rock up to the office with a knock-off – and she wasn't the only one. "I was so sure that other women would want these bags for that price point as well," she says, and the entrepreneurial side of her brain latched onto the idea. If the bag of her dreams didn't exist, she'd just have to make it herself.
Upton started designing a series of timeless leather handbags that would only cost a few hundred dollars and last a lifetime. With about $20,000 in savings, no mortgage and no kids, she had the resources to really invest in the idea and within a year she was hunting for a manufacturer more than 15,000km away in Italy. READ MORE: Sandy made $8 million selling item every Aussie already owns "We needed to have meetings with these people and work out who was legit," Upton explains, so in 2018 she opened her laptop and booked a flight.
Touching down in Italy more than 20 hours later, she was on a mission to find the finest Italian leather manufacturers and artisans. Between meetings, she pursued a more personal goal to explore her family history and return to the place her nonno called home. "I showed my partner the hut that my nonno was born in, in the hills in northern Italy," she recalls, "that was pretty amazing.
" Upton eventually settled on one manufacturer and created Vestirsi's first ever collection, which came home to Australia jammed in her suitcase. There was no cash for professional photoshoots or marketing, so she relied on a mate for photography, paid a friend of a friend $300 to model the bags, and built her own Shopify site, which cost $30 a month. All the PR and marketing she did herself; every press release, every media pitch, every phone call to magazine editors.
Vestirsi launched in September 2019 and in a matter of weeks, the brand had sold over $100,000 worth of bags. READ MORE: Argylica started a business with $1,000. Now it's worth $60 million Upton was over the moon and her excitement grew alongside the business over the next few months.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and sales dried up overnight. "It's not like we could pivot into selling sleepwear or candles or masks or skincare," Upton says, "we sell work bags!" Vestirsi only got through the worst of the Melbourne lockdowns because the business was still small and the handbags weren't going to go bad sitting in a closet for a few months. Through most of 2020, Upton just had to be patient and bide her time until Aussies returned to work - and when they did, sales exploded again.
But by then Upton had a new challenge on her plate: motherhood. She welcomed son Kingston in 2021 and daughter Coco in 2023 and has been juggling the business with parenting ever since. It's tricky, but not impossible.
"If you want to be an entrepreneur, especially an entrepreneur with children, you have to be a bit obsessed with it," she laughs. READ MORE: Kate makes an extra $8,000 a month using nothing but her voice Some people underestimate her ability as a CEO because she's a mum, or judge her parenting choices, but Upton doesn't have time for critics. "There's people in my life that perhaps thought I should just park the business for a few years to focus on the kids," she admits, but that's not going to happen.
"I think I'm setting a good example for my children, especially my daughter, to show that you can be a working mum." And what a working mum she is. At the time of writing, Vestirsi has already sold nearly $10 million of Italian leather bags across the country.
The brand made six figures in 24 hours during the last campaign launch and June 2024 was the brand's biggest month in history, making more in 30 days than in all of 2023. Upton has no plans to slow down either, with four new collections set to launch over the next six months. As for her advice to Aussie women with an entrepreneurial streak – especially the mums – it's simple.
"There's never going to be a perfect time, you just have to dive in." FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE : Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.
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