Marnie Skillings launched her eponymous womenswear brand fresh out of college. It’s been an action-packed decade ever since, as Assia Benmedjdoub discovers.
Creative freedom vs business reality
Does fashion school prepare you for the industry? I don’t think it can. You learn all that when you get out there. When I studied fashion design at East Sydney TAFE [now TAFE NSW Fashion Design Studio] the course had more of a creative skew. One of my favourite classes was adaptation; we looked at different eras in history, different art movements and used that as inspiration for [producing garments]. We also had really good, really thorough patternmaking classes. Before I did that course, I actually did an arts degree. I think I was 21 at the time.
Pay as you go
After I graduated, I spent three months travelling. When I came back I launched my own label and worked part-time at Entity, which is a fashion boutique owned by Fiona [Nichols]. Most designers have to do it this way, work part-time while their label is still taking off. I’ve always been a slow and steady kind of girl. A lot of designers talk about private investors, but it’s not something I’ve done. If you have the right investor, it can do incredible things for your [business] and I have seen that happen. But then I’ve also seen the not so great things too. There are some investors out there that don’t really understand the fashion industry and, because of that, the pressure can fall back on designers. Some [investors] expect to make back a certain amount of money over a certain amount of time. But there’s a lot of costs involved in running a fashion business and you’ve got to be in there for the long run.
Australian Fashion Week, 2000
I launched [Marnie Skillings] as part of a group show with three other graduates. I went straight into it instead of working for another brand, which maybe was or wasn’t a mistake. I learned a lot which isn’t a bad thing. The Corner Shop and Capital L were I think my first big stockists, along with four or five other boutiques. Back then I was producing 15 to 20 key styles whereas now I do around 50 pieces for each drop. I’ve introduced a lot more basics so customers can pair back some of the [statement pieces]. Why do basics? Why would I want them to shop anywhere else? I have about 50 stockists now, locally and abroad. I think I’m finally ready to sell to a department store – I’ve always been a bit fiddly with that in the past because if I do something, I want to do it right and maintain long term relationships. I started working at Entity and today I supply to them.
The sssshhhh syndrome
I never had a problem with getting manufacturers or finding the right suppliers or anything like that. I had a lot of those contacts from my time at [school]. I generally deal with the same people unless I need to do something dramatically different or specific. I know everyone says that designers guard these contacts with their life, but that’s because they’re hard to find and you want to keep working with the best!
The retail front
I was always really interested in the retail phenomenon. As a pure wholesaler, you can feel quite dictated to because buyers will select bits and pieces from your collection. It’s their edit, not yours. That’s why I opened my first store [in Woolhara in 2007]. I think I drove past the [vacancy] sign 10 times before thinking, I’ve got to have it. It has a studio upstairs, which we still use for showings. It’s quite formulaic, retailing, which I love. You can learn which size is the most popular, what percentage of tops are selling and in what styles. You can also use that data to develop your next range. I dabble in a bit of everything; the retail side of the business, wholesale, looking after accounts, cash flow. I did it all myself when I started. Now I have about five full-time staff as well as contractors for different areas.
Hard lessons
I’m really focusing on my local [business] at the moment. We did a good push into the US at one stage but we got hit pretty hard during the financial crisis. Boutiques weren’t able to pay for orders and our agent over there went under. I would like to grow that part of our business again at some stage but not for a while. I’ve just launched an online store and I’m looking at opening one or two more boutiques in Sydney and Melbourne. Things are getting better in terms of retail here. There was one stage where every store around us was having massive sales – 50, 60, 70 per cent off. We didn’t go down that path but it was a bit terrifying for a moment there.