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In a world where there are many beauty and wellness brands, making yourself stand out from all the rest is hard. However, Slip has done just that with with real purpose.
The Australia-based company Slip has become the epitome of understated indulgence. The founders’ goal was to merge science, self-care, and high-quality silk fabrics to create an amazing product for consumers. Slip’s founder and CEO, Fiona Stewart, launched the company back in 2004 when her dermatologist suggested she sleep on a silk pillowcase to improve both her skin and hair. What was once just one silk pillowcase has now grown into a global beauty trend – including eye masks, scrunchies, and slip pillow cases made from Slip’s slipsilk ™ material.
In this edition of the GRAZIA career edit, discover more about Slip and the scientific basis of silk, and how they are defining an everyday luxury in new ways.
My current role is…
Co-Founder and CEO of SLIP.
When I was younger, I wanted to be…
Having a passion for creativity, I would say probably a film producer or an interior designer.
My favourite subject at school was…
Art, I would say, I’ve always loved it. It’s a subject that has taught me how to be creative in thinking, free to express my ideas, and see things in a different light. I have a love for painting, although I just recently stopped but I’ve been doing it for years.
My first job was…
I started out babysitting when I was young, and once I was old enough, I got my first job as a sales associate in a fashion store.
My career path so far has been…
So I was very lucky, when I left school, I went and worked for an advertising agency, which wasn’t at all what I’d studied, but it was a really great opportunity. They ran some of the biggest ad agencies in Australia to managing startup companies. It was really grounding because we had to do about five people’s jobs each. From day one, it was so fast-paced, I’d say a lot of the time it was a demanding role within a high-pressure environment, which taught me so much. Moving on from that next job, I moved to the film industry as a publicist, and I stayed in the film industry for just under 20 years. And I even kept my job as a film publicist while I had Slip starting. I worked for Universal and Paramount Pictures, then I moved to 20th Century Fox, and then we made the decision to take Slip international, and that’s when I left the film industry.
The story of Slip is…
When I was working in the film industry, I started suffering from Acne on my face. I’d never had acne, not like this before, just the normal few pimples as a teenager. I ended up on Roaccutane, during this, I suffered badly with the side effects like everyone does. My hair was falling out, my face was extremely dehydrated, and the longer I was on the medicine, the worse they were getting. So, I eventually went back to my dermatologist and said, What can I do? This is terrible. And he said, I had to finish the course of medicine.” He said these things drink heaps of water, and sleep on silk sheets. So, I went to try and find one, however, this became a mission. I couldn’t find one anywhere. I ended up putting it to the back of my mind, but one particular morning, I woke up with such bad sleep creases that they were still there about three hours later when I was out at brunch. And quite strangely, that cafe is now where I have… It is the same street as our office is now. That is how Slip was created.
My daily routine consists of…
My day always starts early – because we chose to stay in Australia to raise our children. Since we have an office in New York, I’m on a 4:35 AM call with the American team most mornings – our US market is a huge part of the business, and it’s been like this for 10 years.
After the morning work surge, I spend time with my kids before heading into the office. Once I’m there, anything goes: running a PR plan, presenting to retailers, or negotiating a big co‑op for next year with another major brand. I’ll also handle job interviews and even talk about office renovations. With my marketing background, I often joke I’m the “marketing manager” not the CEO.
My role as Founder & Creative Director entails…
Yeah. Look, it means, well, obviously, very many different things. Between Justin and me, we’re both co‑founders – it’s our jobs. There are lots of things. Obviously, we want to be the number one silk pillowcase brand. We wanna keep our title as the original, the best, at being the market leader. So that’s very, very important to us because we did start the category and now, you know, dupes are everywhere. But it’s really important to us that we don’t just fade away when someone takes over.
So we’re doing all these cool things that kind of keep us, first of all, they keep me excited to keep working, and they also keep us at the market leader. But then there’s another side to it. I think that it’s our job to create a really nice environment for our team. So the team side and how we treat our staff is extremely important to us because Justin and I both had jobs that we didn’t love and didn’t love going to work. So that’s also, I mean, that’s kind of part of the role. Like, it’s like your duty, I think, to provide this lovely environment for your team.
The biggest hurdle I have experienced in my career…
Yeah. I’d say, well, I’m sure lots of founders talk about this – it’s all the dupes. We’ve got so many aggressive copy‑cats that whatever we launch, they’ll do a week later. That has been quite challenging because originality and creativity take time, effort and work, and then people just come in and do the exact same thing.
The biggest milestone I have achieved is…
I would say when I travel around the world to see us in all the retailers. I recently took my kids to London and to see us in Selfridges or in Australia to see us in Mecca, in the beauty aisle or section – I was extremely headstrong about it being a beauty product. So for it to be recognised as one, and to see it in a retailer like these, is still very exciting.
A quote I live by is…
There’s not one in particular, but I’m very, very much about looking forward and positivity. And, really, to me too, I say to everyone, Don’t be frustrated by our situation, just look where we’re going.
What I hope for 2025 is…
There’s not long yet, but I keep saying to everyone, “There’s long enough to do good things.” For me, I think the biggest thing that I plan on doing till the end of the year is working on some really big projects that will be game changers for next year. And also obviously, the Skims collab is a really amazing highlight for us.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a founder?
There are lots of things I’ve learnt along the way, but the biggest would be this: ask a lot of questions and recognise your weaknesses. You’re not meant to know it all when you start a business or brand – you grow into it.
