So, you’d like to open a store with us, which is totally awesome news. However, in the interests of keeping the quality of items on the site high, and promoting South African design, we do have a few restrictions.
Compulsory: all items must be shipped from within South Africa.
- Items designed locally (in South Africa)
- Items made in South Africa (even if they were not designed here)
- Items outsourced or made by CMTs, as long as they meet one of the above criteria
- Vintage items (as long as they are sold locally)
- Curated collections, as long as all items meet one of the above criteria, and you have the explicit permission of the original designer, in the event that they are a contemporary brand
- Creative services such as photo shoots, pop-up dinners and so on
- Craft supplies
- Items that are imports but aren’t available locally (These are edge cases and we will review each one as it happens)
- Items that are imports but are sold in conjunction with locally designed and/or manufactured items
- Items that are imports but are intended as one-offs, or only available for a limited time, if we feel they fit the aesthetic of the site
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- Unaltered imports
- Branded products (international brand names other than local designers), except in certain instances where the item is a vintage item. These are reviewed on a case- by-case basis.
- Alcohol, tobacco, or any legal or illegal drugs or pharmaceuticals
- Anything illegal
- Livestock or live animals (and why would you even be doing that, you weirdo)
- Pornography
- Animal fur
- Anything that is not a locally designed or handmade item or creative service, and has not been given the okay by our team (This restriction is including but not limited to things like property, cars or car parts, firearms, computers and general technology, and certain services)
We realise that there are all sorts of grey areas here. For instance, if you buy charms that are imported, but hand-make your own jewellery out of them, that’s ok. If you design and paint limited edition hubcaps, those are technically car parts, but they are also ok. If you’re not sure, fill out an application form or email us!
One last point: to ward against imports and potential instances of plagiarism, all photographs in your Hello Pretty store are required to be of your own items – you cannot use photographs of similar items found elsewhere. You can find out more here.
The bottom line is that there are some amazing designers out there, but there are also people who will try and take advantage. In order to keep Hello Pretty the vibrant and successful design community it has become, we reserve the right to reject any application or close any existing stores without warning, and without further communication.
Basically, everybody be cool. Now that we’ve got the serious stuff over with, here are some pictures of kittens:
