SYDNEY: Jigsaw has clinched an exclusive department store deal with Myer in the wake of a brand ‘reinvigoration’.
The womenswear retailer’s head of brand, Claire Hodgkinson, revealed Jigsaw will cut ties with current stockist David Jones, pulling all product from the premium department store’s shelves before the end of the year.
“We are going exclusive with Myer,” Hodgkinson said. “We’re in their showcase stores and we’re going to be working on improving that business in terms of shop-within-shop.”
Jigsaw is currently available in eight David Jones and Myer flagship stores, including David Jones Bondi Junction in Sydney, Bourke Street Melbourne and Hay Street in Perth.
The new deal comes in the wake of a Jigsaw brand reinvigoration initiated by Malcolm Webster, the executive chairman of Jigsaw’s parent company, Webster Holdings. The impetus was the global financial crisis.
“The whole chaos in the market means that we had to do something different and he wanted us to step up a level rather than go down a tier,” Hodgkinson said. “In order to do that we had to bring a higher design aesthetic back.”
The reinvigoration commenced with an overhaul of Jigsaw’s design team, now lead by creative director Stephen Lisseman, formerly of Asprey and Gucci.
“He’s been with us now for about nine months and is really making a difference in terms of the whole design ethos, the fabrications, the simplicity, the luxury elements,” Hodgkinson said.
Other staff changes include a new merchandising director and “significant improvements” to the Jigsaw buying team, now manned by more senior people.
The result is design changes across Jigsaw’s four key categories: tailored work wear, casualwear, ‘desk to dinner’ wear and a bridesmaid line.
“We’re bringing in the English preppy side which I think we’d lost a little bit,” Hodgkinson said. The hero product for spring/summer 2010/11 is a nautical-inspired striped blazer.
Fabrication is also key. “We’re upgrading our qualities, we’re looking at Italian merinos, we’ve got European fabrics, textured fabrics, designer fabrics, limited edition prints – it’s all our exclusive prints.”
Jigsaw will promote the design overhaul via an in-store and outdoor advertising campaign that goes live this month.
Erin O’Loughlin.