Rickie Dee and James Ridgen spend a lot of time together. They work together five days a week on their hip retail concept Superette. They travel together, hunting for new collections of clothing and homewares to stock in their stores. And, miraculously, the twosome also choose to be together when they’re not working.

“We met when we were 13 and 14 and we still hang out together pretty much every weekend,” says Dee, 32. “We have days when we might yell at each other but we move on quickly. I can only stay mad at him for an hour.”

The pair grew up and went to school on Auckland’s North Shore (where Ridgen still lives with his wife Renee and daughter Sloane and where the Superette head office is based) and had the bright idea in their early 20s of opening their own fashion boutique and travelling the world. Since their first store opened in Freemans Bay in 2001, the Superette brand has grown to encompass three North Island shops stocked with fresh, colourful and edgy apparel by Ksubi, Sass & Bide, Camilla and Marc, Stolen Girlfriends Club and others.

In April of this year, Dee and Ridgen diversified into homewares, opening a larger Ponsonby store filled with fashion and furnishings and named Superette Space. Before Christmas, the Superette Newmarket store will double in size and become the second Superette Space outpost.

“We both started off doing exactly the same things, but now time doesn’t allow for that,” says Dee (who lives with her husband and two kids in Point Chevalier) of their roles in the business. “I’m more about retail and buying. I try to be in one of the stores once a week.” 

“It’s happened organically; we’ve drifted into different areas,” agrees Ridgen, 33. “I do more of the online systems and business. We’ve become more structured and focused but at the end of day, we have to love what we do. Whatever you choose to do, you’ve got to love it or you’ll end up hating it.”

Urbis: How did Superette come about?

Rickie Dee: We were friends. James was away travelling and I was in advertising and we were both over what we were doing.

James Ridgen: We had the concept for Superette, went to the bank and they gave us very little. We were 21 and meant to go travelling together around the world but we made it to Australia, blew the budget [on clothes for the store] and had to come back and make it work. We roped our mates in and did the labour ourselves. It was a creative more than a financial investment; we painted, we poured the concrete.

U: How has the business grown since then?

RD: Our Newmarket shop opened five years later and then Ponsonby opened in 2009. Our online store also opened that year. Then our Wellington store opened the following year.

JR: We did Newmarket at a time we shouldn’t have. Financially we weren’t in a position to do it. Then we started our own Superette brand. We took on a lot of people and were under huge pressure. From that point on, we were a lot more careful. We’ve become more steady. We make sure we cover the bases.

U: What else have you learnt over the last 12 years?

JR: You’ve got to work hard. You have to be sensible with decisions.

RD: Everything in the shop is what we like wearing. Quite a lot of our designers are quite different but we love what they’re doing. We try not to do too many projects at once now. We know our customers a lot better and they’re awesome; we have 10-year-olds and 80-year-olds. We have customers that come in three or four times a week. That’s why I spend time on the shop floor; it means we’re almost shopping for particular clients when we buy.

U: When did you start thinking about taking Superette beyond fashion and into homewares?

RD: We have always offered small numbers of gift and home items in all of our stores and had a great response [to them] so we wanted to expand on this. We have always seen homewares as a concept that could sit nicely with our fashion offering. It’s an extension of the brand. It’s adding another dimension and it’s the way the brand is going. And it makes it more interesting for us. It’s awesome seeing someone buy a bedroom set and a pair of jeans.

U: Have you been surprised at how popular the homewares have been?

JR: The younger ages have been a lot more into it than we thought. People are making up their own trends and looks. And it’s easier to change a cushion than a $4000 couch.

RD: Sheepskins and cowhides do really well and so do our framed prints. Ornaments and gift-y things are growing in popularity. Meanwhile, the fashion side of our retail hasn’t really changed, but we’ve noticed a rise in fashion purchases in Ponsonby since we made the changes to our store.

U: You stock homewares from House Doctor, David Fussenegger, General Eclectic, Antler & Horn and Evie Kemp. You also design your own collection of homewares – why?

RD: We had quite a lot of demand for stuff we could make. It’s worked really, really well. Our pillowcases do really well; we can’t keep those on the shelves.

JR: We wanted to do our own thing. It’s another way of keeping the staff interested. We sit around and throw ideas around in our weekly meeting. Our design manager, Jocelyn Closs, makes our designs happen but all of us come up with ideas and it’s a team effort. It also makes the store a better place to shop.

U: What’s in-store at the moment?

RD: Summer 2014 and our new capsule collection of pillowcases and other Superette home pieces. Since August and until December, we have been releasing a clothing collab with a different designer every month. In October, we have two or three exclusive pieces from Stolen Girlfriends Club, Beau Coops and Friend of Mine.

U: What are you coveting when it comes to homewares this spring?

RD: Kip & Co’s new-season’s bed linen and a Superette ‘I Want it All’ framed print.

R: A zebra-printed cowhide and some of the new Pony Rider cushions. superette.co.nz