Rosie Connolly has revealed her plans to open clothing stores “across the country”.
The Irish influencer previously had a pop-up store in Dundrum, which stocked her unisex streetwear brand 4thARQ.
In an exclusive interview with Goss.ie, the mum-of-two revealed she is hoping to open more stores outside of Dublin in the year ahead.
Rosie said: “We have just signed our next pop-up location, with more to come around the country. I can’t say anything about where it is yet, but it’s coming.”
“With the Dundrum store, it was totally an experiment for us. We had never done retail before, we hadn’t a clue what we were doing. We walked in and were like, ‘How do we do this?'”
“I worked in retail before, but I worked when a shop was already there and I just had to walk in behind the till! So it was very different. I learned a lot, it was an amazing experience, and it hasn’t put us off, so we’re definitely looking at opening more shops.”
“I think for the moment, I think our model would be more pop-ups, just so we can get around. It’s a lot to manage a store full-time. We want to get out of Dublin and around the country as much as we can, so that is the plan this year,” she added.
Speaking about her other plans for the brand, Rosie said: “This year is a big year for us. We’ve taken on a much bigger team, which we needed because we were kind of drowning in it all last year. With 4th ARQ, it’s just about trying to keep up. It’s moving so fast and we’re running to keep up with it.”
“The brand has evolved and grown way beyond what we ever could have imagined for year one, so year two is about getting our team up to that standard about being able to keep up with everything.”
“We have a lot of new product development. We have new bodysuits launching on Thursday, March 24. We’re also branching into a little more knitwear. It’s kind of endless! For us, there’s always something coming down the line,” the Dubliner said.
The Irish influencer is also hoping to launch another charity collection, following the success of the brand’s limited edition pink loungewear set to raise funds for Breast Cancer Ireland.
She told us: “I think every year I have to do something charity wise, it’s just something I love to do. I think in my position, I’m very privileged in the social media world, it would be wrong not to use my platform for good at some point throughout the year. There’s definitely plans in place there.”
