Slouch if you want to
Apprentice winner Sian Gabbidon has launched a new loungewear range at Asda. She talks to Stephanie Smith about rethinks during lockdown and Lord Sugar’s constant support.
It is fair to say that 2021 has not been a good year for bikinis. Last year was probably worse, and that left Sian Gabbidon and her swimwear brand Sian Marie facing one or two problems. “It’s been tough, very, very tough,” says Sian, who won BBC business reality show The Apprentice in 2018. “The pandemic has been a wipeout for any UK bikini brand. We had to very quickly adapt. We did sell small amounts of loungewear, but we knew that was where the money was because that was what everybody was wearing.”
So Sian designed a new, larger range of leisurewear for Sian Marie and launched it at the end of the last year, when it was an instant hit. “We had so many big celebs like Molly-Mae [Hague, of Love Island fame] wearing it, that it just flew out,” she says.
Now, from this month, with the support of business partner Lord Sugar, Sian Marie loungewear is available at George at Asda, online and in-store at five branches across the UK, including Asda Morley. There are oversized T-shirts, cosy hoodies, joggers, and padded gilets dropping later in the season, all in either nude or black, with cool Sian Marie branding.
“It works perfectly,” says Sian. “You can never go wrong with a black hoodie, and everybody loves a bit of nude. It’s been a bit of a win because it’s a second revenue stream for us now.”
Sian used to work for Asda, in