What more could a girl ask for than a fashion-savvy guy? How about an ambitious, entrepreneurial, fashion-savvy guy? Sound too good to be true? Meet senior Charlie Stanton who incorporates the perfect balance of fratty and sporty in his own high-end clothing line, VoyVoy.
Charlie is a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon from New Canaan, Connecticut and has been extremely busy this year promoting and running VoyVoy with his friend, Matt Disston, a senior at Georgetown University. VoyVoy launched in February of 2010 and has experienced exponential growth.
VoyVoy clothes are made in Peru from 100% cotton with environmentally-friendly dyes.
“At VoyVoy we make casual clothing with a twist,” says Charlie. The clothing line’s personality is best described as frat-meets-sport and currently includes polo shirts, tees and hats, though the duo is planning on expanding.
The tees come in an array of colors including peach, plum and navy and have a unique checkered pocket above their monkey logo. The monkey’s name is Howler and “the little guy with the big smile reminds us to take care of his planet, each other and ourselves,” says VoyVoy’s website.
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Charlie says VoyVoy was inspired from a life-long passion for surfing. Charlie and Matt grew up surfing together and even made surfboards at one point before they launched VoyVoy. Even the name VoyVoy is a Central American expression meaning, “I go, I go … to signal to others that one is riding a wave,” says the site.
Although VoyVoy is not a surfing company, Charlie and Matt try to live by a surfing lifestyle of relaxation, comfort and happiness.
“We like to think of it as an in-between between surfer brands and Vineyard Vines,” says Charlie.
The company is already gaining a ton of momentum, as evidenced by the plethora of VoyVoy shirts seen all around campus.
“I’d like to give a shout out to my friends in Sig-Ep for being the first ones to rep VoyVoy around campus,” laughs Charlie.
Charlie hosted a trunk show at Wake and Elon earlier this semester where he sold out of everything he had in stock.
“Right now we are planning shows for the spring. I’ll be at different colleges every weekend promoting our name,” says Charlie. While Matt and Charlie “pretty much do everything together,” Charlie’s responsibilities air more on the marketing side of things.
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VoyVoy has already made a name for itself and three stores have already invested in the company to sell the line including Darien Sports Shop in New Canaan and Westhampton T-Shirts in the Hamptons.
So how does a senior at Work Forest have time to manage his own company?
“It’s not easy,” laughs Charlie. His passion and motivation are certainly the driving forces. Charlie has made VoyVoy a priority and is constantly working to grow the company’s name.
“My mom is a freelance marketer, and my dad is a self-employed architect, so the passion to go out and create my own job has always been there,” says Charlie.
He even made bright turquoise VoyVoy wristbands that can be seen on more and more Deacons’ wrists every day. Charlie is so excited about the support his peers at Wake have offered and looks forward to VoyVoy’s future.
“We want to try to be global—we want to go everywhere. We started on the East coast because that’s where we are but we plan to go West and eventually international.”
If big ambitions have gotten them this far, international dreams are sure to follow!