Sugar Daisy Thrift was breathed into life by 19-year-old Courtney Digges in 2020. In her first year of studying foundation phase teaching in KZN, Miss Digges launched her second-hand clothing page at home during the Covid-19 hard Lockdown. "I started selling my clothes to cure the lockdown blues and make some extra cash, as students do." As many 2020 students know, schools were shut down abruptly one February afternoon, sending all of them on an at-home vacation. Courtney got creative during this time, and Sugar Daisy was born.

 

"My first couple weeks were very hard to get the word out because of not having a big social media following. It was also a challenge to get my goals and my image settled. I started taking pictures in front of my cupboard with the bare minimum, but slowly figured out my target market and what worked and what didn't. As soon as the lockdown was lifted, I started going to thrift stores and looking for clothes to re-sell and add to the aesthetic I was slowly building." A unique selling point about Sugar Daisy was the giveaways that celebrated their following milestones. Their first-ever giveaway occurred when it hit 750 followers in April 2020. The first giveaway was of kimono, cardigan and some hand-made postcards and had 200 entries. Three months later, it hit 2.6k followers, and the giveaway had over 1230 entries. Giving away a unique item in exchange for likes and comments was still relatively new to the Instagram space. Another inherently unique part of the sugar daisy brand is how the look and feel of the page have evolved over time. 

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"My earliest posts were of my sister and I modelling clothes and taking photos on our phones. We got another friend to edit the pictures, so everything looked more or less the same. From there, we started getting other people to pose in front of the camera. The reason was to get a wider variety of body types involved. Then I went on to do flat lays from plain white to grass to tar backdrops with a lot of styling. I aim to have many different people model and showcase what the clothes can look like in all shapes and sizes."

 

Another thing that she started doing was posting pictures of clients wearing their sugar daisy thrift items. It shows people the idea behind these unique items and creates a sense of inspiration on the page. This sense of community quickly crept into Courtney's life and became much more real than she anticipated. "Thrifting became such a special and personal hobby that it led to my boyfriend proposing to me in a thrift store. It became a part of me, which I value so much." Who would have thought then to have her now fiancé play a part in Sugar Daisy with her? From going out and sourcing clothes together to modelling and supporting her throughout.

 

As for the future of Sugar Daisy Thrift, Courtney would like to keep growing and reaching out to more people and try to source a much wider variety of sizes to accommodate everybody. Her next goal is to rebrand and bring a new face to the page that is fun and colourful. To acclimate that it's not just for girls, but to provide a lot more male clothing as well. Also, another epic giveaway in the near future. Maybe even go international, who knows! 

 

Follow Sugar Daisy Thrift on Instagram, and if you are in the Durban area, you can catch a look first-hand by popping into her Hatton Estate-based shop. 

 

@Sugar_Daisy_Thrift