Annie’s Ibiza, a boutique tucked away within the castle that is part of old Ibiza Town, for a while was an under-the-radar treasure trove of mostly vintage party frocks. Since it opened in 2018, celebrities like Margot Robbie, Cara Delevingne, Paris Hilton and the mother-daughter models Kate and Lila Moss have all made regular pilgrimages to the store to find head-turning pieces.
But these days, their secret is out. Annie Doble, 31, the store’s founder, went from avoiding the news media to courting it as she expanded her business to include a second location in London, which opened in 2021, and a line of glamorous clothes designed by Ms. Doble, which she introduced last year at London Fashion Week.
Dresses from the line have since been worn by celebrities like Zendaya, Sienna Miller and Dakota Johnson, propelling Ms. Doble into a new fashion echelon. She is no longer just a buzzy merchant but also a designer on the rise.
Ms. Doble’s clothes are made with deadstock fabrics and other leftover materials, which helps give them a timeless feel akin to that of the vintage pieces she made her name selling. Using finite resources for her designs also gives them more of a one-of-a-kind quality, she said.
“We make everything out of whatever deadstock we have,” Ms. Doble said in a recent interview at her London store. “As soon as that’s finished, that’s that. We don’t make anymore.”
She was wearing a long ocher wrap dress and had her wavy brown hair styled in a bouncy ’70s flip. Surrounding her were items from her latest Annie’s Ibiza runway collection, which included minidresses inspired by 17th-century garments, and slinky numbers she designed using Egyptian chain mail from the 1920s.
Ms. Doble described her clothes as “investment pieces,” and they are priced accordingly. Skirts and tops start at about $500, and simple dresses at about $650. More elaborate gowns, like the cobweb-style designs worn by Ms. Miller and Ms. Johnson, can cost thousands.
“I don’t sell clothes for every day or some one-hit wonder you’ll wear once or twice then throw away,” Ms. Doble said. “I want you or your daughter to be wearing our dress in 20 or 30 years.”
Ms. Doble’s interest in fashion started early: At 5 years old, she asked her grandmother for a subscription to British Vogue. Her collection of fashion magazines became so vast, she said, that their weight eventually cracked the ceiling of the kitchen they were stored above in her childhood home in London. But she didn’t envision herself becoming a designer while growing up.
After opening her store, Ms. Doble began to collaborate with new-guard British designers like Clio Peppiatt and Richard Quinn on pieces she could sell alongside her vintage stock. Those projects, she said, helped her build the confidence — and the necessary networks of manufacturers and suppliers — to try designing a line of her own.
The introduction of her line came at a time when quality secondhand pieces were becoming harder and harder to find, she added. Vintage clothes now account for only about 40 percent of her sales.
As Ms. Doble expanded her business, she deepened her relationships with many of her customers. Her Ibiza store, which is open from April through October, closes at 2 a.m., but she has occasionally kept the lights on even later to accommodate night-owl shoppers. (Ms. Doble lives above the shop, which makes it easier to work “24/7,” as she put it.) For certain clients who come to Ibiza on super yachts, she added, clothes have been taken out to sea.
“People will just shout up to my balcony during siesta,” she said, referring to the midday break in Spain used by many to take a nap. “I have to wake myself up and come down all the time.”
