Born out of a genuine combined love for arts and pleasing visuals, sisters, Dana and Elina created Outlet KL, an online marketplace connecting art collectors, art lovers and artists alike. Providing opportunities for smaller artists to reach a bigger audience. We had the opportunity to sit down and have a chat with Outlet and find out what drives them and what comes next for the online marketplace. 

How and why was Outlet created?

The idea for Outlet came about during a car ride together. We spoke about our time in London and the creative/arts scene over there that really inspired us. We frequently went to art fairs and markets that had a multitude of visual artists from illustrators to designers to photographers to ceramicists, and so that really inspired us to start a platform here where people can discover visual artists and buy their works too. We often had conversations with friends about where they can buy artworks from artists and we noticed a bit of a gap in the market, and so we thought, why not start a platform where people can not just discover artists but support them by buying their works too. It also helps that the both of us are also avid lovers of visual arts so creating OUTLET happened quite naturally and felt really organic.

How did Outlet X NH come about?

Nelissa Hilman reached out to us early some time last year and spoke about wanting to collaborate. Through brainstorm sessions over Zoom, Nelissa shared some of her ideas with us and offered OUTLET a pop up shop at her store. We’ve always been familiar with NH collaborating with local creatives so we really liked the idea of coming together to do something special. The collaboration felt really organic as both parties were all about celebrating and supporting artists.

How has the collaboration managed to impact the artists at Outlet and how has it managed to help the art community?

This collaboration allowed us to work with artists on something both Outlet and the artist(s) have not done before, which is curating an art installation as a store window display. Three artists from our platform were given the opportunity to create a window display for the NH store and sell exclusive works throughout the duration of their installation. We were given a space in the NH store to utilise for our popup and it was really exciting because it was like working on a blank canvas. We were allowed to get really creative in terms of how to display and sell our artists’ prints in a physical space. This was a great way for OUTLET to showcase their works and provide them another platform to sell their works. The response from this collaboration has been amazing in terms of sales and also getting our names out there. We think this collaboration really showed not only us, but the community the beauty of working together and supporting local talent.

What are your plans for Outlet in the future?

We plan to expand our range of products and work on more apparel-focused products. Social impact is also something we want to tie in with our brand - collaborating with NGO’s and artists is something we have in the works. We also hope to do more events, curation and collaborations to keep evolving and challenging ourselves creatively. Ultimately we hope to keep supporting more artists locally and internationally.

If there are artists out there who are interested in having a marketplace at Outlet, how can they reach out to being working together with Outlet?

We are always on the lookout for as many artists we can work with - be it an exclusive collaboration, consigning their products or any form of creative collaboration. You can reach out to us via email (hellooutletkl@gmail.com) or slide in our Instagram DM.