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Celebrating seven years in business, the With Jéan founders share their journey to viral success.
The long limbed model lazing against a terracotta wall, a bright pink bougainvillaea in the corner of the frame, and a sun-soaked finish—was this taken on film? The photo is a little grainy, a little bit saturated, but just the right amount. It might transport you to summer. You know that spot, is it Positano, or maybe the South of France? The model is wearing something effortless and oh-so-cool. A flippy summer dress made for throwing on over swimmers or prettily printed bloomers thrown on after an afternoon spent draping yourself over a rock, somewhere hot. The sort of outfit you drink Aperol Spritzes in, or ride on the back of a motorbike down a winding coastal road.
It’s the signature of With Jéan, who was creating Italo-summer-inspired pieces and shooting campaigns in a vintage-twinged hue since before it became the standard. In 2017, when contemporaries like Realisation Par, Reformation, and Sir were taking the world by storm with their version of the sun dress, With Jéan was also leaning on a healthy dose of nostalgia and resort dressing (a magic combination) to get their pieces in our wardrobes. Now, seven years later the brand has become a multi-hundred million dollar business with a global hook on summer holiday dressing.
Image credit: With Jéan
“Looking back, it’s wild to see how much the landscape has shifted. Starting With Jéan was all about seizing the opportunity and creating a brand that matched our vision and the digital age,” co-founder Evangeline Titilas tells Vogue. Comparing their initial connection to “like Bonnie and Clyde”, Titilas and Sami Lorking-Tanner saw a gap in the direct-to-consumer via Instagram model—now the norm—and jumped. “We were 23 years old, we had nothing to lose,” Lorking-Tanner adds.
Now, the business has become fodder for It-girls around the world. The founders credit Dua Lipa and Emily Ratajkowski for selling over 10,000 units of the brand’s viral ‘Rose’ top, which was pioneering in the rosette trend which swept the globe earlier this year, when flowers of all kinds were applied to everything from headbands to belts. Sales of the fire-engine red With Jéan halter top skyrocketed, going viral on TikTok and being pinned to thousands of virtual moodboards.
Emily Ratajkowski wearing the With Jéan ‘Rose’ top. Image credit: With Jéan
Says Titilas: “Seeing those girls in our pieces is incredibly exciting and so nice to see such influential figures embrace our brand — celebrity exposure like this definitely helps elevate the brand’s profile and reach a broader audience. But there’s something uniquely special about crossing a stranger on the street wearing With Jéan. It’s those moments that remind us of the personal connections people have with our brand, and there is no better feeling.”
“We design based on what we love and want to wear ourselves. So for us, staying true to our brand’s DNA is more focusing on timeless pieces and designs that resonate with our personal tastes. We approach trends more organically—if something aligns with our vision and feels authentic to us, we incorporate it in a way that feels natural.”
Image credit: With Jéan
“It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why [some] items become hits. We often ask ourselves this question or wish we could predict the response before a release—it would make forecasting so much easier! Sometimes, it’s just about the right piece connecting with our audience at the right time,” adds Lorking-Tanner.
“I think we are more drawn to the diverse styles and individuality of women collectively rather than focusing on just a few specific muses. We appreciate how all women bring something unique to the table, reflecting a wide range of tastes and styles. This collective inspiration is probably what helps us stay versatile, and allows us to create collections that resonate with a broad audience while celebrating the beauty of different perspectives and expressions.”
Image credit: With Jéan
In the beginning, starting off with $10,000 of shared savings and a vision, the co-founders credit a “tenacious” work ethic for their rise.
“Those early years will always stand out to me. Everything was new, every day felt like a first, and the excitement was unreal. It was just Evangeline and I doing it all, packing orders, handling customer service, designing, shooting campaigns, overseeing production, even writing our own press releases. We were all in, and honestly, we felt unstoppable,” Lorking-Tanner shares. “When [It-girls] started wearing our pieces, we had that moment where we looked at each other and thought, ‘Wow, this is really happening.’”
Image credit: With Jéan
The campaigns are Instagram catnip, and the brand’s dreamy, travel-inspired photos really resonate, blending the line between creating a super strong brand identity and good old fashioned nostalgia. It blends into the design framework, Lorking-Tanner shares, with the designers taking inspiration from hits of the past, albeit with a modern spin.
“Nostalgic pieces often become beloved again and again, and sometimes they don’t need to be modernised so much as reimagined for today’s style. This might mean making things a bit shorter, simplifying designs, or putting classic prints on contemporary silhouettes. It’s about taking those cherished elements and giving them a fresh twist that feels right for the current moment.”
“One year we went to the Maldives to take time off and ‘switch off’, we went snorkelling and saw a bunch of fish with really cool patterns and went and bought an underwater camera bag so we could take photos to use as inspiration—we used these prints on a swim collection. I honestly think anything you see around you can become a part of the story.”
Model Bella Hadid (and Hailey Bieber, and Kendall Jenner… the list goes on!) is another huge fan, repeatedly wearing With Jéan’s airy take on laid back vacation dressing, including swimwear. It’s an area of growth for the founders, which only makes up a small percentage of their overall sales, but is an area they want to expand on in 2025.
Bella Hadid wearing With Jéan. Image credit: With Jéan
While the pieces look like they could have originated in a boutique in St Tropez or a flea market in Copenhagen, the brand being local to Australia makes sense when you drill into the DNA. Essentially, With Jéan is a resort wear label rooted in effortless dressing. It’s something Australians do so well.
Image credit: With Jéan
“It is interesting that people perceive With Jéan as a European label. We draw inspiration from all over the world and our biggest audience is in the USA, but our roots are Australian,” Titilas who is based in the US, alongside Lorking-Tanner who is based in Australia. The je ne sais quoi of With Jéan is, really, very European, but this trans-Pacific operation doesn’t seem to quell the dream.
“We draw inspiration from all over the world and our biggest audience is in the USA, but our roots are Australian. Our travels and global experiences enrich our creative perspective, but the heart of the brand still reflects that laid-back, effortless style and spirit that’s quintessentially Australian. We are both very relaxed and don’t take ourselves too seriously. This is where our Australian core sits.”
Shop our favourite summer essentials from With Jéan
Image credit: With Jéan
From left: ‘Kea’ midi skirt $159; ‘Maia’ shirt, $169; ‘Bea’ shorts, $149