Our Experience Working With Flying Solo NYC

by Michelle Chen February 1, 2024

Flying Solo NYC mannequin Avery Swimwear

From Toronto to New York City, 2023 was a big year for Avery. It was the first time our collection of sustainable suits were made available for purchase at Flying Solo NYC. Along with being available in New York City, our pieces were part of their highly coveted designer showroom for stylists and photographers to pull for editorial shoots. This marked a major milestone for us! We finally made it big in the Big City.

Working With Flying Solo NYC

From May to August, our products were sitting pretty right in the heart of SoHo. We originally had our collection at Flying Solo's 420 West Broadway store but was relocated to the 419 Broome St store halfway through. The Broadway store is a beautiful and massive space with many independent designer collections featured that ours could easily get lost amongst them. The Broome location felt a little more personable, with a warmer feel to it.

When we first saw our collection displayed so beautifully at the West Broadway store, it felt like a complete shock. We'd only been available online with regular pop-ups before then. Seeing them available in real life at Flying Solo felt like a dream come true, especially with the upscale feel of the store and trendsetting crowds that frequent. It was exactly the space we'd envisioned for Avery.

Avery Bikinis Available in NYC

After filming a short clip for Flying Solo's featured designer segment, we were left to marvel at our own suits and take some of own content as well. Here we are with our sustainable suits at their original spot. We got a little emotional seeing them here; it was even harder to leave afterwards but we knew they were in good hands.

Our bikinis were displayed on stylish full-body black hangers, with staff regularly making sure everything was set properly. We loved how each bikini set was highlighted and given its own spotlight. Thanks to Flying Solo NYC for taking such good care of our babies!

Located in the Heart of SoHo

Both Flying Solo locations are located right in the heart of SoHo, making them part of the most frequented shopping districts in the world. This gave us a great advantage with the amount of eyeballs coming across our brand on a daily basis. We couldn't have asked for a better location to gain this kind of exposure. With a crowd of young twenty-somethings coming to shop daily, it was exciting for us to know we were amongst one of the independent brands New Yorkers were sifting through. To us, that was priceless.

After moving to the Broome St store, we finally felt our suits could take center stage. This is where Flying Solo hosts their montly Discussion Panels with various industry leaders and invite-only cocktail networking parties. We attended the July party and loved how amidst networking with all the models, photographers and fellow designers, you were also able to check out the collections in store. That and with all the photos being taken at the party, we spied our bikinis in the background in some of them. This only equaled to more exposure for Avery - it was a win-win.

Flying Solo NYC Avery Swimwear SoHo showroom

Find us on Broome St

Something neat about being featured at the Broome St store was having our bikinis displayed on their super cool motorcycle-chic mannequins. We were lucky enough to have two styles displayed for the month of August - our Liv Bikini in Maven and Mai Bikini in Nostalgia. These were some of the most edgy-looking mannequins we'd seen so far, that they went so well with the bold and feminine look of our suits.

It was so exciting going back and forth from Toronto to New York City last year. The first time to visit our swimwear in store and then later, to drop off new inventory to Flying Solo and the Copper Showroom. As we mentioned earlier, along with being available in the retail store, ten of our styles were stocked in the designer showroom located downstairs of 419 Broome St. We were lucky enough to have our pieces pulled for multiple major publications including Harper's BAZAAR Vietnam, Glamour Bulgaria and ESTIMAG.

This was definitely the biggest takeaway from our experience with Flying Solo. Aside from making sales, our swimwear pieces were featured in acclaimed publications giving Avery the exposure it deserves. Working with Flying Solo was a major investment on our part but with the amount of times we were published that summer, it was well worth it. On top of that, we also got to showcase in Miami Swim Week that same summer!

It was incredibly difficult to take our collection out of Flying Solo by summer's end. We'd gotten so used to seeing Avery looking better than ever in SoHo, New York. Alas, it was time to pack up and take our sustainable pieces back to Toronto. We went in person to retrieve our collection pieces from stores and the Copper Room. It was the end of an era but we got so much out of the experience - and we learned a lot!

It was our first time having our collection being in sold in New York City but we'll bet our top dollar, it won't be the last. Make sure to stay tuned to see what Avery has coming up next. With the way 2023 went, you can expect some more big things up ahead.

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