Italy, UK launch plans dashed for Mildura’s Roccisano sisters

MILDURA’S Roccisano sisters fear they face a financial hit in the “hundreds of thousands” after the coronavirus forced the cancellation of an international launch party and trade fair for their Booby Tape brand.

Bianca and Bridgett were set to showcase their rapidly-expanding brand at the world’s biggest beauty trade fair in Italy this month before a party in London to launch a massive new deal with one of the largest distributors in the UK.

The fashion sisters had secured US celebrities Sofia Richie and Nikita Dragun for their event launch, and had invested in purpose-built staging for the trade fair.

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However, the cancellation of both those events due to worldwide mass gathering and travel bans has left the sisters to tally up potential losses.

“We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on everything from the celebrities, the PR firm and accommodation … we made this investment for our business,” Bridgett said on Wednesday.

“We said this was going to take our business to a new level and, now, to have all the money in lieu … it’s a really anxious time for us.”

Bianca and Bridgett were first alerted to the severity of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak when they received news the trade fair in northern Italy would be postponed.

The death toll in Italy has since surpassed 2500 people and more than 50 have died in the UK.

“I think Bridgett realised from when Bologna was cancelled that ‘okay, this is a big deal’,” Bianca said.

“I was probably more optimistic though … I thought the whole world can’t just shut down and that we could keep planning for London.

“We had a week of deliberation to decide whether to cancel London and we were hardly sleeping while we monitored the situation day and night.”

But when Sofia Richie and Nikita Dragun advised they would not be travelling to London for the event, the sisters knew there would be no launch party, and made the decision to postpone it indefinitely.

“We had already paid for everything in Bologna and in London … everything was built as we had people in Dubai building our stand,” Bianca said. 

“While our cash flow has been heavily affected because we have all our money tied up in these two events which were supposed to be an investment in our business, both our businesses have been quite resilient.

“It’s tough and it’s going to affect us, but due to the nature of our business we were e-commerce … we’re online. We won’t have bricks and mortar stores.”

But the sisters — who also own fashion label Bianca and Bridgett — understood they weren’t the only ones doing it tough with the economic fallout from coronavirus.

“Australia is starting to deal with the situation now … but we’ve been dealing with it weeks prior and we’ve had to foresee everything,” Bridgett said.

“We’re going to have an incredibly tough time, but as soon as things are better we need to jump back on and start supporting everyone straight away.”

Bianca and Bridgett have not yet locked in a date to officially celebrate Booby Tape’s distribution deal, given the uncertainty of travel restrictions, and future launches for their fashion label are also up in the air.

But it’s otherwise business as usual for the sisters, with Bridgett holding down the office in Melbourne and Bianca working from Mildura.

“I’m here in Melbourne and it’s just really quiet … there’s no traffic and everything is just quiet,” Bridgett said.

“There’s no milk, eggs or meat either at the supermarket. It’s a scary time.”