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Jess Williamson launched her own swimwear brand in less than a year with no previous business experience at just 22. 

The 30-year-old, from Perth, attributes her 'delusion' that she could front a global brand, entrepreneurial mind and unabashed determination to Ete Swimwear's immediate success. 

Just a few days after launching Ete back in 2016, Jess was invited to show a collection at New York Fashion Week and spent every waking minute in the six months before the runway showing preparing. 

While on the outside it seemed like Jess was doing it all, on the inside her health and mental well being was suffering from burnout and hit her 'rock bottom' when her card declined trying to pay for parking. 

Jess told FEMAIL her 'rock bottom' taught her to always prioritise herself and has since sold Ete Swimwear to focus on helping women in business learn to 'work smarter, not harder'.




Jess Williamson (pictured), now 30, started her own swimwear brand Ete when she was just 22 with no business experience. The label made $300,000 in its first year

Jess was working tirelessly to prepare for her big break at New York Fashion Week in every spare moment she had from her full-time marketing job. 

'I would wake up super early, work on my business, drive an hour to work to a job I hated, and then I would have anxiety because there was so much I needed to do,' she said.

'I would have a lot of toilet breaks and go on my phone then in my lunch break I would have to run to the post office to take all orders.'

After work, Jess had her hour-long commute home where she would continue to keep Ete up and running and organise everything for the New York Fashion women usa Week collection into the night.

'I wasn't looking after my health, I wasn't looking after my well being at all. I was just grabbing a quick muesli bar or banana, I wasn't prioritising myself at all,' she said.  

One day she swiped her card to pay for parking at the office and her stomach dropped when she saw it had declined. 

'My whole life I had been a great saver. In that moment I was confused. It was a rock bottom moment,' she said. 




Jess was juggling her full time marketing job with running the business. She was burnt out and neglecting her health ad hit 'rock bottom' when her card declined trying to pay for parking

'It was more shocking because I didn't see it coming. I honestly didn't even realise I just kept spending the money, and then it was all gone.'

Jess' response to running out of money was to 'double down' on making Ete a success. 

'I thought I'm going to send more emails out, I'm going to get more strategic with my Instagram content, I'm going to hit up more influences and really double down on the marketing,' she said. 

'It was great having the buffer of a full time job. I was only on something like $40,000 a year but that tiny amount allowed me to have a safety net.' 

The invite to attend New York Fashion Week came through just one week after Jess launched Ete Swimwear in 2016 and she had just six months to prepare. 

'First I thought it must be a scam, because who the hell is inviting me to New York? I had only just launched online and hadn't sold too much because I was one week in,' she recalled. 

'You can't take an old collection to New York Fashion Week so I had to think of a whole new collection, get it manufactured, spend the money to create that and also spend the money to fly to New York and book accommodation.'

Miraculously she got everything ready and sorted in time to show her brand on the runway in New York despite juggling the business with her full time job. 




One week after launching Ete, Jess was invited to show a collection at New York Fashion Week and she had six months to prepare





She said the experience at fashion week was like 'something out of a movie' and she spent the remaining part of her trip building valuable contacts landing her a deal with a major retailer

'We got there and we did fittings to make sure which model needed what size and which outfit, we did the whole Polaroid situation, and it honestly just felt like something out of a movie,' Jess said. 

'We were working with international models and it was really high calibre. I was thrown in the deep end and had a bit of imposter syndrome rocking up there in in that kind of space but it was really really cool.'

All her hard work over the past six months came down to one four minute runway show which she described as a 'whirlwind'.

'One thing I kind of regret about the whole thing was, I never really stopped to say, 'How cool is this?' I was in pure stress mode and like, 'Let me just get this done',' she said.

For the rest of the trip, Jess spent her time building valuable contacts with fashion heavy hitters like model Matilda Djerf who later designed two collections for Ete.

'It's not about the actual show, it's about what you do with it. I was quite strategic. I met a lot of buyers from big departments stores and things like that,' she said. 




All her hard work over the past six months came down to one four minute runway show which she described as a 'whirlwind'