Darrah & Co. Magazine / Winter 2020

Page 12

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Viv & Lou

This fun, trendy line of bags, accessories and apparel has something for everyone.

love today — as “salt of the earth people” who are “full of life.” They raised Denise in rural South Carolina, where she learned a positive attitude and solid work ethic from her father, a DuPont mechanic, and her mother, who worked at Piggly Wiggly making $6.75 an hour. “We didn’t have a lot of money,” Denise recalls, “but they really made me who I am, taught me how to treat people and do the right thing.” It’s little wonder then that many of Viv & Lou’s 75 or so employees have been with the company for a very long time, or that customers tend to stick with the brand. “Once we get a customer on board, we really always try to overachieve for them,” she says.

UNIQUE DESIGNS

I

t’s a weekend trip with your girlfriends. It’s a special backpack for your first grader on the first day of school. A stress-free getaway to the beach. A perfect bridesmaids’ gift. It’s trendy, happy and bright. It’s Viv & Lou. Founder Denise Thigpen started Viv & Lou’s parent company out of the trunk of her car with an investment of only $5,000. Today, the fun line of bags, apparel and accessories is thriving thanks to its winning combination of quality products, reasonable prices and employees who care. But it’s not just customers who are noticing Viv & Lou’s success. In 2016,

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Darrah & Co. Winter 2020

the business was honored as one of Inc. 5000’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America. That same year, Denise was named South Carolina’s Female Businessperson of the Year.

NAMESAKE VALUES When it came time to name the company, Denise knew she wanted to honor her parents, Vivian and Louis. Moreover, she wanted her business and employees to embody a lot of the same values that her parents instilled in her: working hard, treating people right, maintaining integrity and having fun. She describes her parents — highschool sweethearts who are still madly in

All of Viv & Lou’s products and patterns are unique because they are designed in house by their own talented design team in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. (And all products are copyrighted.) “It’s a group effort too though,” Denise explains. “We have a full marketing product development team as well as our design team, so we work together. We also take advice from our sales reps and customers.” Even best-selling staples such as the oversized Ultimate Tote — “everybody’s favorite bag” says Denise — get regularly refreshed with new colors and patterns. Other popular items include beach bags for summer, travel-related spring break accessories, back-to-school backpacks and lunchboxes, and holiday items such as Easter buckets, Halloween totes and Christmas stockings.

WORKING WITH DARRAH Viv & Lou is new to working with Darrah — this show will be their first in Darrah’s showroom on the 18th floor rather than in their own AmericasMart showroom — but Denise says they are already thrilled with the partnership. “We did our homework,” she says. “We asked people, and every single person had something positive to say [about Darrah & Co]. That was very important to us. We asked reps, other showrooms, customers. It feels like a good partnership on many levels because we feel like


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