Marijana Ana Diana
Oh, I know. And here's the clincher: they not just beautiful, they're vivacious and successful, too.
Irritating, isn't it?
By Dione Van-Heer
There's not a self-respecting culturazi in town who doesn't know the Derek sisters Marijana, Ana and Diana - the co-owners of itrip iskip fashion boutique in Braddon. Being self-proclaimed fashionista myself, I very eagerly put my hand up to cover this story.
I conducted my interview with the girls inside the boutique before opening hours. Outside, Braddon was slowly waking up and taking a stretch. Businessmen were scurrying into Debacle next door, hoping rather than believing they could get their coffees in the two-and-a-half minutes left before punch-in time.
Perched on a bourgeois chair, surrounded by pretty things and feeling pretty smug about my access privileges, I looked around the store with a slightly open mouth. A red piano looked back at me.
Diana told me how one day, an elderly lady had shed tears of joy over that piano. It kind of set the tone of the interview - there was something quite out of the ordinary about this store and its quirky, brown-eyed owners. The girls all had different priorities in life, led different lives outside of work and played different roles in their success, yet the common thread of family and childhood tied them closely together.
Without revealing too much, I can say it wasn't those pretty faces that won these girls their place at the top of the Canberra retail landscape: they're gutsy, hardworking, determined and passionate about what they do. Their professional lives spill into their day-to-day almost organically.
Make sure you catch the full story in In the City Summer 2010/11.
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