Men are muscling in on the accessories market and the trend extends further than old-school ties and cufflinks,
as Erin O’Loughlin reports.
Should anyone require proof that men are encroaching on the accessories market, they need only stumble into a Diva store. Since January 2010, the fast fashion retail chain has made room among its rows of glittery headbands and heart-shaped charms for a men’s accessories collection with product including dog tag necklaces, stud earrings and gunmetal coloured rings.
The move was in response to blatant demand for men’s product, the retailer says, a demand that anecdotal evidence compiled by Ragtrader suggests is filtering through to all levels of industry. Here, wholesalers and retailers of bags, belts, sunglasses, scarves, hats, jewellery and more reveal how and why men’s accessories is a burgeoning business.
Buying into trends
Men shop for necessity: it’s an old belief but one that is still reflected in daily sales figures, retailers confess. Even so, there has been an increasing tendency among male shoppers and retailers to adopt seasonal trends, as Jeff Hurley from accessory wholesaler Dents explains.
“People, especially the retailers, are taking a little bit more of a gamble now with fashion, especially with men,” says Hurley. “A few years ago it was the likes of David Jones and a few of the fashion houses, but they’re all getting into it now.”
Among Dents’s vast range of gloves, scarves and hats, it is the headwear category that has experienced a particular resurgence, Hurley says.
“Headwear is very, very strong at the moment in menswear, especially trilbies... If you look at the men on the catwalks, you’ll always see them with either a pair of gloves in their hand and also a trilby or what they call a driver’s cap.”
Fossil Group Australia country manager Gautam Sharma says retailers have increasingly embraced Fossil’s men’s accessory product since the US-headquartered company established operations in Australia in 2004.
“Earlier the wholesale business was more of a female business, and our retail business was evenly split [between men’s and women’s sales]. But over a period of time we’ve seen that the wholesale business is mirroring exactly what retail is doing,” Sharma says.
“We’ve really become big in terms of men’s leathergoods. Smallgoods – bags and belts – and men’s jewellery which is steel jewellery – it’s all getting bigger by the day. It’s a huge segment for us in addition to watches.”
Unique and fashion-forward designs are also in demand among jewellery and sunglass buyers, says the designer and founder of Chronicles of Never, Gareth Moody. Signature materials in Moody’s current accessories collection include organic leather, metal frame eyewear and stone jewellery and stockists include South West Trader, Restricted Premises and Bessie Head.
“There’s so much mass production going on, people are looking for a bit of personality. Something that means something to them and not mass-produced, I like to think,” Moody says.
Technology take-up
Of course, not all trends work against men’s utilitarian approach to fashion, as Saba’s head of design Peter Naughton moves to explain.
“In recent years men’s bags have really resurfaced. It is somewhat due to everyone carrying personal computers, phones, Blackberrys and more, in which case men have more to carry than they did 10 years ago,” he says.
This season, Saba’s key men’s accessory is a laptop-sized bag in washed-back leather with hand-whip stitching.
“Our Jonathon Tote fits a 17-inch laptop, has a dedicated ipod and iphone pouch, and an internal key fob,” Nsughton explains. “It was a key trend on catwalks and the streets of Tokyo, New York and Copenhagen and we feel the Australian guy is ready to take on this trend.”
Men only
The options are expanding too for the customer searching for accessories conceived and designed with men – and men only – in mind. In Melbourne, Ravi Chhabra has been making men’s metal jewellery since founding his Blackbox label in 2008.
“The idea started out with rings, just offering something to guys because when you go out to a jewellery store, the range is usually pretty basic,” Chhabra explains.
Chhabra also markets his goods in black packaging chosen specifically with male customers in mind.
“When you purchase accessories, you usually get them in that crushed velvet kind of packaging, which isn’t overly masculine. So we redesigned both the product and the packaging,” Chhabra says.
Nowadays Blackbox produces a vast array of rings, watches, cuff links, bracelets and pendants for men, all made from a combination of tungsten carbide, titanium and ceramic materials. The label has also recently expanded into leathergoods, though it is Blackbox’s original metal range that Chhabra says customers are particularly drawn to.
“I get a lot of hits on the website for orders for Valentine’s Day or even wedding bands and things like that, just because a lot of people can’t find something unique,” Chhabra says.
“You can go into surf shops and you can pick up rings and other metal goods but they’re often stainless steel and very cheap end.”
A broadening of offerings
While Chhabra may not care much for the lower price end of the accessories market, it is the development of this segment – along with the greater investment in accessories by high street retailers – that is making the accessories market more competitive in 2010, says Hurley.
“The trend is that people who were in a different trade in the business – it might be clothing – have added accessories to their range,” Hurley says.
Both Saba and Witchery Man are among the chain apparel retailers with an extensive men’s accessories line, with both scheduled to roll out skinny ties, leather shoes, scarves and snoods (scarves with a hood) in winter 2010. Naughton from Saba says it’s all about complementing the brand’s core product.
“As we are an apparel brand we think it’s really important to offer our guy his whole look.”
Independent labels have also emerged to capitalise on the demand for a variety of accessory price points, with South Australia’s Lost Pigeon among them.
The unisex jewellery label has picked up over 100 stockists since its launch in 2008, says creative director Ulyana Bezeruk. While Lost Pigeon now also wholesales an apparel range, it is accessory product such as $30 long chains that buyers can’t get enough of, she says. Part of the demand is coming from a new segment in retail.
“We’re finding that more and more stores are splitting their store up into one store for women and one store for men.”
But despite the men’s accessory sector undergoing a renaissance of sorts, Bezeruk admits it will be some time before it matches the sheer scale and demand seen in its female counterpart.
“It’s a very competitive market but it’s probably a lot easier than the ladies’ at this stage.”