High Street fashion giant Cue is now reportedly Australia’s largest womenswear manufacturer. Assia Benmedjdoub discovers its commitment to onshore production is as much about ethics as it is about on-the-pulse style.
It would not be the first time a Little Black Dress has caused a stir among grown men.
Cue chief executive officer David Kesby is sitting in an air-conditioned office overlooking Sydney’s Clarence Street, the steam outdoors rendering most women in shifts, pencils or sleeveless sheaths. But it is not their choice of dress that has him and company founder Rod Levis in a fluster this thick, summer morning.
“This is the garment, this is it here,” Levis enters the room, brandishing an A4 sheet of paper. He places it on a long boardroom table and points to a campaign image from Cue’s autumn/winter 2010 collection. A model is hunched over what appears to be a white, contorted step ladder; she is wearing a black mini dress with a panel of sheer netting stretched across its neckline. Bordering this is a rich golden applique, heavily embellished and resembling the curled handles of a Grecian urn.
“David is in charge of production meetings and when he saw this, he said I only want to run 400,” Levis explains. “And he was cautious about it for many reasons. To clean it, you have to take that applique off. Pulling studding from a garment that has netting is very dicey and difficult. This is a high risk item and to be honest I didn’t think it was very commercial either.”
Cue design director Debi Rolle, who has been with the company for 29 years, insisted on a larger run. Kesby and Levis pushed on.
“So we shopped the design around to the staff because we try to involve them in as many things as possible,” Levis continues. “And everyone loved the dress, raved about it. So David said okay, I’ll keep quiet on this one. Most retailers would run ten of those or 300. We ran 800.”
This is a formula that has worked well for Cue Clothing Company, a 42-year-old business which operates over 215 stores across its Cue and Veronika Maine womenswear brands and has concessions in both Myer and David Jones.
Cue in particular has become well-known for its directional fashion offer; its winter range encrusted in feathers, faux fur, vibrant block colors, clashing prints and rich embellishments such as chains, studs, epaulettes, beads and colored crystals.
For any brand which manufactures its garments onshore, this level of detailing would be enough to prompt nervous stares at the bottom line. For Cue, which has been recognised as Australia’s largest womenswear manufacturer by the national industry union, it is at the very heart of the way it conducts business. Cue produces the bulk of its clothing in Sydney, with only knitwear and its Cue in The City range manufactured offshore.
Despite this, Levis insists designers do not operate under pricing constraints.
“We like to encourage creativity and I think that is exemplified by that dress. We take risks every week by doing lots of small runs – 100 or 200 pieces – and if they work, we can repeat in season. So there’s a lot of creativity here and that’s what keeps Cue different from all the other retailers.”
Kesby confirms the company works with approximately 16 makers in Sydney, and has the ability to get fashion forward garments into stores in as little as four weeks. He estimates that between 20 and 40 styles land on shop floors per week – and stock is dropped 50 out of 52 weeks each and every year.
“It’s a big advantage we see over other fashion brands - that speed to market allows us to be there quicker than anyone else. We’re planning two to three months in advance where I guess other fashion houses are planning six to nine months in advance. We have meetings in February where we’re talking about product for late April. We’re that quick.”
Buying and production meetings are held weekly. Rolle presents design concepts to a five-person panel which includes department heads across retail, visual merchandising, commercial development and distribution. Decisions on the number of runs are made on the spot and, chortles Levis, because many of them have worked together for decades “they often agree too much on everything”.
Rolle develops collections in collaboration with a head of design, a senior designer and a junior. But she insists there’s one more.
“David’s a frustrated designer,” she laughs. “He has developed a wonderful understanding of fashion and is often involved in the design decision making whether it be color, fabric selection or even shapes.”
Fabrics are sourced from six key suppliers in Europe, which service high-end fashion clients such as Hugo Boss, Armani and Max Mara. Kesby says this does not slow down local production - if a particular fabric is in short supply for an in season repeat, a “complimentary” style is either selected from Cue’s local warehouse or air freighted in directly from suppliers.
Rolle says a large portion of fabrics are changed to meet Cue’s specifications. Exclusive prints can be turned around as quickly as required, with the design team in daily contact with printers and fabric suppliers overseas.
“This is something our head designer created from scratch,” Rolle says, presenting a fragmented union jack print called ‘The Clash’. “It can be very quick. Two weeks to get the design right, probably a week to do the screens and then six weeks for printing, then the shipment from Europe is five weeks. We’re in touch with them all the time; one company we’ve been with for something like 38 years so we work very much in sync.”
Rolle can’t stress how important Cue’s in-house patternmaking department is to the overall design process. There are around eight employed to work on garments for Cue, six for Veronika Maine.
“It’s all manual,” she explains. “It’s something that they don’t train and encourage enough in schools and colleges, so we get girls who have a real talent and passion for it to come in and do work with us. We’ve got a real success story with us now who trained at Whitehouse [Institute of Design] and just become one of our best patternmakers.”
Kesby says around half a dozen employees work in the production department, ensuring these garments are produced quickly and ethically. This transparency in its supply chain has now been officially recognised by the Australian Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA).
Cue was accredited under Ethical Clothing Australia earlier this year, a joint business-union initiative which ensures local garment workers receive fair wages and good working conditions. The company achieved this by throwing open its doors to TCFUA officials who, over the course of three to four months, analysed all aspects of its supply chain, from the 16 makers it deals with directly to the external subcontractors they employ.
Kesby says the company has been working with the union for “many, many years”. A point confirmed by the union’s NSW compliance officer John Owen.
“The TCFUA has been associated with David...for a number of years and we are proud to say that through his leadership we have been able to develop a strong working relationship, which has enabled us to deliver on improved wages and conditions within the Cue supply chain. Cue has in fact proven to be a model example of a company genuinely attempting to maintain a viable manufacturing unit in Australia in ethical workplaces.”
Owen is a key point of contact when any issues surrounding working conditions arise.
“Where our makers use subcontractors is where we work very closely with the union,” Kesby explains. “In the rare instance that a problem arises, we sit down with the maker, with the union and we discuss it. The use of subcontractors is an area that can get very loose for any company because it’s in the maker’s control not ours.
“So we supply all of our figures to the union on a regular basis; on the amount of work, who makes it and then they do their own independent checks to make sure it’s all on par.”
New swing tags promoting Cue’s accreditation will appear on garments for the autumn/winter season. In the meantime however, all thoughts are geared toward the Myer collections showcase later this month. This is where the department store will showcase its latest fashion offering to media, celebrities and VIP delegates.
For the first time, Cue has been separated from its retail competitors and elevated to the ‘designer’ stable. This new standing was first communicated in Myer’s autumn/winter 2010 Designer Catalogue, where Cue garments were featured alongside collections from camilla and marc, Aurelio Costarella, Manning Cartell, Fernando Frisoni, Nicola Finetti and Toni Maticevski.
No other High Street brand has managed this coup and Rolle - who is hopping in and out of the boardroom between design briefings - is keen to capitalise on Cue’s new position at the parade, which will take place in Melbourne on March 15.
There are six key looks in development for the show; a selection of one-off creations and key campaign styles from Cue’s winter range. The fashion illustrations Rolle puts forward today all seem to pay homage to her favorite era “of all time” – 80s glam rock. There are cinched jackets with oversized shoulder pads and elaborate feathers; a black mini dress paired with an orange, fluffy feathered wrap; a shocking orange and black printed mini dress; and dark patent animal skins offset with rough, jagged textures.
“Oh we’ll do 20 runs, not mass market,” she says of the one-off garments. “If you saw what was going on up there [workroom] today you’d probably be horrified because we’re all going mad. It’s just such a buzz for us. Such a thrill. It means an enormous amount to be recognised as a ‘designer’ offer because it’s taken us years to get that recognition.”
Levis is also finding it difficult to contain his excitement.
“What Debi’s doing is really taking Cue in the Myer parade to the absolute upper limit,” he says. “She’s doing things that will probably only run in three key stores. We’ve given her the total carte blanche to do things at a total design level. So we’re looking forward to the Myer parade - to see just how we stand up against those designer names.”