When Covid hit and the high street began to crumble as footfall fell away, most of the fashion industry panicked - but Rosie Bowden and Zoe de Abreu saw an opportunity.The now 36-year-olds had met at work, then spent time on opposite sides of the industry: Bowden led the sales team of a fashion manufacturer supplying the British high street, while de Abreu had worked there too before becoming a buyer at Arcadia. “We’d always talked about building something of our own, but the timing had never quite felt right. Then Covid came, major names were shutting their doors, and there was a clear gap in the market for modern, feminine, timeless womenswear at an accessible price point.”
The duo and Rachel Heather, owner of the manufacturing firm where they’d first met, decided to launch their own fashion brand. “Rachel had owned the manufacturing business for over 30 years, so we were fortunate to have long-standing, trusted relationships with fabric mills and factories across the globe. She became our CEO, and set up a WhatsApp group called ‘Taking Over the World’, which we still use today.”
Ro&Zo launched on 1st February 2021, with a range of dresses in colourful prints. “As it was COVID, we couldn’t really have a big launch celebration, so we just had a small toast to the three of us in the office.” The early days were scrappy by necessity: the founders modelled everything themselves, shooting street-style campaigns on the pavements of London and Wales with outfit changes in the back of a car. Bowden built the website with the help of a friend's boyfriend who worked in tech. “The early days were incredibly hands-on and at times challenging, but we look back on that period so fondly."
At the time, big names including Arcadia’s brands and Karen Millen were struggling or closing. “There was suddenly space available in stores, and we showed our products on Zooms, brands like John Lewis knew Rachel so trusted we had the infrastructure to deliver, and Next and John Lewis both backed us from launch,” de Abreu explains.
That put Ro&Zo in front of millions of customers from day one. For its own website, the duo used Instagram as their shop window and primary marketing tool. “We were also fortunate to have some influential names organically wear RZ in those early years, including Holly Willoughby and Louise Thompson - we would send out lots of products, and finally Holly wore one on This Morning.”
Investment came in October 2022, when Pembroke VCT put in £1.5 million, later adding a further £1 million. “It felt like validation - not just financially, but in terms of belief in the brand.” By 2025, the duo were targeting £10.5 million turnover. But M&S’s cyberattack hit their largest retail partner and disrupted stock and revenues. Turnover hit £7.6 million last year.
Now with 31 employees and celebrity fans including Olivia Palermo, Willoughby and Christine Lampard, Ro&Zo is targeting £12 million revenues in 2026, with physical retail on the horizon within the next 18 months.“One of our proudest moments has been watching our own D2C website go from strength to strength - there’s nothing quite like spotting real women out and about wearing the brand, it’s such a special feeling. Reading the positive reviews and seeing that genuine connection with our customers makes all the hard work worthwhile.”
Is there an exit plan? “Not yet,” they laugh, “we’re only 36 and we need our jobs! But our plan is to make loads of clothes and loads of money!”Despite negative headlines about Britain as a place to grow a business, the duo see the UK as a hotbed of scaling innovation. “We’re in a growth phase, acquiring triple-digit customers each week,” Bowden says. “We want to open a London store in 18 to 24 months, then focus on international growth in the US and Europe. We’ve still got a lot of work to do with the UK, but when we’re ready to go international, the ecosystem is ready for us to go.”
