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B C B U S I N E S S . C A
J U N E
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BROOKE JOHANSEN looks down at her
phone for a few seconds and types a quick
reply. In the next seat over, Zoe Tisshaw
stops our interview mid-sentence.
"Is everything okay?" Tisshaw asks
Johansen.
"Yeah, it's all good," Johansen replies
before looking up from her phone. "Sorry,
our kids are with the nanny right now and
I'm just making sure it's all right."
Tisshaw and Johansen have a four-
month-old and a one-year-old, respectively,
in the care of a nanny while we meet at an
East Vancouver coffee shop in the shadow
of their office. The nanny is a rare reprieve
for the duo, who have been taking their
kids to work since they became parents.
"It just is what it is," says Tisshaw, who
also has a toddler. "Since the kids were
born, I've been working. I do three days a
week right now, but we bring them in all
the time. It helps them be more social and
people in the office like it. But... it's my live-
lihood. Am I gonna be like, 'Okay Brooke,
see ya'? No."
The pair are the co-
CEOs of Vancouver-
based Park & Fifth, which began as a brand
for bridesmaid dresses. That's still the
core of the company, but it's also evolved
beyond that, as a place for anyone looking
for a dress to wear to an upscale event.
Park & Fifth has around 60 employees,
which includes office and warehouse work-
ers, as well as retail staff at its four brick-
and-mortar stores—one in Railtown, two in
Toronto and one in Calgary. Last year, the
company hit eight figures in revenue.
"Most of it really was word of mouth,"
explains Johansen. "It was just the two of
us for so long."
Tisshaw, who grew up in Vancouver
sewing and cutting everything she could
get her hands on and worked at local fash-
ion brand Kit & Ace, did most of the fabric
work in the early days. "Brooke learned
to cut too, and we took orders all around
town," she remembers. "It got to the
point where custom was too hard; we just
couldn't grow."
These days, Park & Fifth has such a vari-
ety of colours and styles—there are dozens
of shades of green on offer, for example—
that customization isn't much of an issue.
"Any competitors, especially in Canada,
they don't have the product range that we
have," says Johansen. "They can't compete
with what we have going on. And we have
an accessible price range."
Part of that is because most of the com-
pany's products are made in a shared office
and manufacturing facility. Staffing can
be difficult: "It's so hard to find sewers in
"Since the kids
were born, I've
been working.
I do three days a
week right now,
but we bring them
in all the time.
It helps them be
more social and
people in the office
like it. But... it's my
livelihood. Am I gonna
be like, 'Okay Brooke,
see ya'? No"
–Zoe Tisshaw,
co-CEO,
Park & Fifth
