Rochester-born Ashya McDonald always wanted to travel the world, which is why she studied international tourism, but despite never using her qualification as a carriage abroad, she found another pathway there.
Without any experience in fashion design, she took a chance creating a swimwear brand in 2021 — right in the thick of COVID-19 when many businesses fell to their demise — that has already hit the big league, shown off before the who’s who of fashion on a catwalk at Miami Swim Week this month.
Not even three years ago, Mrs McDonald started Full Bums Swimwear from the dining room of her family home on the Gold Coast she shares with husband Jack, and children Isaiah, 20, and Eden, 14.
Within the first few weeks of launching, she had sold out of most of her collections and realised she was onto something, so she decided to take the brand to the next level.
After briefly moving from the dining room to the rumpus room, the business needed a purpose-built warehouse and office and Mrs McDonald needed to step down from her roles in her and her husband’s other ventures to work full-time at Full Bums.
No strangers to business, the entrepreneurial couple had previously bought several established businesses, built them up and sold them.
They were mostly in the service and rental market, including the supply and service of water filtration systems to offices, rental of portable luxury powder rooms for events, the hire of temporary pool fencing and commercial cleaning businesses.
Full Bums Swimwear was their first complete start-up.
“We started it from scratch with no expectations of how it would go,” Mrs McDonald said.
“We had a bit of money that we knew that if it failed, we were happy to lose, and honestly I didn’t know how it would go.
“I was kind of winging it for the first 12 months, seeing what would happen, but in that first few months, I realised that I was really onto something, that there were women who still really wanted that full-bum coverage in their swimwear.”
Mrs McDonald, whose experience in the fashion industry had only ever extended as far as working part-time at clothing store Sussan in Shepparton while she was at school and a bit in retail in Melbourne, said while Miami Swim Week was more of a design thing, she was more of a business person.
“I’m passionate about business, not necessarily design,” Mrs McDonald said.
After finishing school, Mrs McDonald, who was then Miss Yeo, moved to Melbourne to study, where she met her husband. Together, they moved to Brisbane, where they got married, and then on to Port Macquarie before settling in Sydney for 15 years, where they started their family.
Six years ago, they moved to the Gold Coast.
“It was a bit of a joke when I moved to the Gold Coast; I said ‘One day I’m going to start a swimwear brand and I’m going to call it Full Bums because I’d noticed that there was a lack of coverage at the beach and then going shopping I couldn’t find it in surf shops, it was all leaning towards sheer coverage,” Mrs McDonald said.
Modestly, she puts the brand’s success down to being more about finding a hole in the market rather than her clearly impressive business and marketing skills.
“I think honestly I just found the golden ticket, as in no-one else was doing what we’re doing; there’s a lot of women aged 30-plus that have probably got more disposable income than younger people, so I think there are a few factors,” Mrs McDonald said.
“We’ve hit the target market with the right product at the right time and we’re doing the right thing and staying true to ourselves.”
With 525 reviews on the Full Bums website, all five-star, it’s evident the company provides outstanding customer service.
“Honestly, we don’t get bad reviews and if we did, it would go up on the site,” Mrs McDonald said.
“If there are ever haters, we want to turn them into lovers.
“I think we’ve been really strong on building a connection with our customers; we’ve built a really good community as well.”
The swimwear can currently only be purchased direct from the website and Mrs McDonald has no plans to open her own bricks and mortar store, but would like to eventually supply to other retail stores.
She said people were comfortable buying online these days, but swimwear and gym wear were probably the hardest things to buy online, so she wanted to make it easy for consumers.
“I think I’m one of the only swimwear brands that offers refunds, because I do want to make it easy for women,” Mrs McDonald said.
“After they have children, their body’s not the same; they don’t know what’s going to suit them. I want to take the fear out of buying online and make it easy for them.”
Mrs McDonald said most of her sales came from Victoria, followed closely by NSW.
When she started Full Bums, she shipped to Australia and New Zealand. Now, she ships worldwide, with customers in Canada, the United States, Thailand, Dubai and Singapore.
This year she took advantage of a government export grant to start targeting the US market more aggressively.
“If I only sell to Australia and New Zealand, it’s only a seasonal business,” Mrs McDonald said.
“So, obviously I need it to be a business that makes money all year round, so that was my big kickstart this year.
“I was already selling a little bit to the US, but I wanted to ramp that up by going to Miami Swim Week, just to get the brand out there.
Hers was the only Aussie brand selected for the Flying Solo NYC show at Miami Swim Week, which featured a curated collection of around 69 designers.
She had applied for a spot for Full Bums on the catwalk last year, and after a six-week review process showing selectors her collection and being interviewed via Zoom by a panel of New Yorkers, she was accepted in December.
“At the time the business had just turned two and here I was already heading across to the US to be able to showcase the brand, and that was amazing,” she said.
The business currently employs five staff, with another about to be hired as a part-time social media manager.
Mrs McDonald said with its growth doubling year on year, she was trying to maintain that incline.
“Because I just took a punt and didn’t really know how the business would go, I’ve realised the potential of it and what it could do, so now I’m dreaming a lot bigger,” she said.
“My goals are huge now.”
She wants Full Bums to be recognised as one of the top swimwear brands in the country before she sells the brand.
“I don’t plan on keeping it the rest of my life,” Mrs McDonald said.
“The plan is to sell in about four-five years and then travel the world.”
In the interest of adding a unique quirk to her brand, Mrs McDonald names all her designs after her friends and family. The Eden, named after her daughter, is her bestseller, selling at a rate of five times to each one of her other designs.
Mrs McDonald has also named a whole collection after her Shepparton friends — Nat, Peta and Hayley — with whom she attended Shepparton High School during the 1990s.
“When they come to my house, they leave with swimwear,” she said.
“Especially if it’s named after them; they raid the warehouse.”
Since her Full Bums Miami Swim Week experience, Mrs McDonald has been busy chatting to Australian media.
“I was on the Today show with Karl Stefanovic this time last week and had a massive surge in sales; the best day ever for July,” she said.
“The moment I aired, the website went crazy with visitors.”
The oldest of three siblings, Mrs McDonald has a younger sister, Kirby, who still lives in Shepparton. Their younger brother is in Melbourne, and their parents moved to Bendigo.
While she lives up north now, Mrs McDonald said her heart would always be down south.
“I’m still definitely a proud Victorian,” Mrs McDonald said, even though she didn’t see herself returning to the colder climate of the Goulburn Valley.
“I would never call myself a Queenslander; even if I live here for the rest of my life, I’ll still be a Victorian.”