And let’s not forget over 22,000 followers on Facebook. We chat to the Two Broke Divas, to find out what makes their page so popular and what women in Ireland look for when it comes to buying an outfit for a big occasion.
What is Two Broke Divas all about?
“We would like to think our page is a place for people to go to when looking for a little bit of style inspiration, we feature attainable, wearable fashion for normal Irish women, just like ourselves. We style casual, work and wedding wear using shops from the high street, as well as Irish boutiques. As much as we might love a Mulberry bag, we are definitely more Zara, Dunne’s and Topshop kind of girls.
“We would like to think that our page provides people who are stuck in a style rut with inspiration. We style complete outfits, we find the latest ‘must have’ items – this helps people who don’t have a lot of time on their hands to shop online without having to trawl through several websites, we’d like to think we make shopping a whole lot easier.”
How do you know each other?
“We met while working together in a secondary school in Laois back in 2008. After many lunchtime chats and a few staff nights out we quickly realised we had a lot in common and have been friends ever since. We no longer work together, as Louise has moved back up to Leitrim where she’s from. Our social life took a sharp nose dive with the move, but it was definitely best for our work life.”
How did the page start?
“Two Broke Divas started on a whim in the summer of 2015. We regularly sent outfits over and back to each other, so we decided to set up a page where we could have all the outfits together in one place. Much to our amazement, people started to follow Two Broke Divas. We quickly upped our game when we discovered people had a genuine interest in what we were doing – we started to post outfits, beauty reviews and travel reviews more regularly, and with this our following continued to grow. We could have never imagined such a positive reaction.”
What outfit posts get the biggest reaction?
“Definitely occasion wear, people invest quite a lot of money in these types of outfits, so it’s something they want to get right. Weddings and ladies’ days in Ireland have become such stylish events, there is a certain amount of pressure that comes with them, so people definitely appreciate occasion-wear inspiration. We keep a sharp eye out for a bargain, people always seem to appreciate a good sale find.”
Do followers ever contact you with special requests?
“All the time. We love when we receive messages from our followers and we always try to help out where we can. Sometimes it’s a struggle to get back to people as quickly as we would like to, due to the pressures of our full-time jobs, however we always try our best. One of our favourite things is receiving pictures from our followers wearing outfits we styled, it’s lovely to see people getting value out of our posts and really enjoying the outfits we style.”
What are your favourite high street shops?
“Zara is a firm favourite for the both of us, we love the casual and workwear style, the clothes are always on trend and are at quite a reasonable price point. I don’t think either of us have ever gone into Zara and not picked something up. Dunne’s have really upped their game in the style stakes in the past year or so. House of Fraser is one of our first stops for occasion-wear, it has a really good selection of brands, and it’s almost like a one-stop shop.” CL