Fringe Bars to New York

Logistics company, DHL, has revealed local brand by johnny as the winner of the coveted DHL Express Fashion Export Scholarship for 2015.

The scholarship was open to Australian fashion designers who had been exporting for less than four years. Entrants were invited to complete an official application and submit a design portfolio, which was judged by fashion industry leaders across a variety of categories, including: design, marketing, business and export strategy.

Founder and designer of by Johnny, Johnny Schembri, has been growing his label in leaps and bounds since 2009 when he operated out of the Fringe Bar markets. Since then, he has starred in and became a finalist on Project Runway Australia, signed a much-coveted contract with prestigious Australian department store Myer and dressed a number of celebrity fans including Jennifer Hawkins, Katy Perry, Gigi Hadid, Kelly Osborne, Jodi Anasta and Dannii Minogue.

As winner of the scholarship, by Johnny will receive international freight to the value of AU$10,000 and coaching in freight and logistics from DHL Express, as well as a trip to New York Fashion Week to be a guest at the DHL Exported show and meet a major buyer with IMG Fashion..

“Over the last six years I’ve worked so hard with my team to create a strong foundation in the Australian marketplace –and I am so grateful to the local buyers, stockists, and supporters here for making it all possible –but I am beyond excited to be given this stepping stone to the global market by DHL Express and IMG Fashion. I can’t wait to start working with them to take by johnny from the streets of Sydney and Melbourne to the footpaths of New York and LA,” said Johnny.

“It’s been really full on, it’s been great, and it’s a credit to my amazing team, the people I work with and our suppliers. We make everything here locally and we all work together to make things happen.

“The next step was to expand the reach of the brand and pushing it out to the US and that’s been very exciting. We had been selling to a few little boutiques in the US and also, from showing at Fashion week, we also met with a few major retailers that flew to Sydney to see the show. We have been meeting with them and now that we have had Myer under our belts for twelve months, we feel comfortable to take something else on.”

“It’s very daunting trying to work out how you are going to transition into selling into the US – transporting garments, freight and making sure things are going to get there on time – it’s great to have DHL onboard so that they can help us with all the logistics and everything else so that we can focus on the product and make sure that everything runs smoothly.”

Gary Edstein, Senior Vice President of DHL Express Oceania said, “We believe this is a fantastic opportunity for by johnny and we’re proud to add the label to what has become an illustrious list of Scholarship winners. We are excited to see how the DHL Express Fashion Export Scholarship will help Johnny realize the international exporting potential of his brand. The trip to New York to attend the DHL Exported show is sure to inspire him to grow his business and we look forward to being a part of that process.”