MELBOURNE: Streetwear retailer Nique is preparing to follow in the international footsteps of sass & bide and One Teaspoon.
Founders Nick and Lucy Ennis have secured an agreement with Swedish distributor MNO, following a meeting with chief executive Mikael Engdahl in Stockholm.
While MNO is targetted at the Scandinavian market, it had also encouraged broader European growth for labels sass & bide and One Teaspoon.
Nick Ennis said this was the brand's first move into the international market, and followed a presence at the Bread & Butter trade fair in Berlin earlier this year.
“The most amazing thing about the whole experience is you’re so focussed on the domestic market you have no idea how you’ll be received at a global level,” he said.
“It wasn’t until we got interest from agents and distributors at Bread & Butter that we realised it was even a possibility – and one week later we had a deal with one of the world’s most highly-respected Scandinavian distributors.”
The brand's autumn/winter collection 'Smoke and Mirrors' is currently being presented to European buyers by MNO, with orders starting to trickle in from boutiques in Sweden, The Netherlands and Norway.
“Most of the interest came from these regions at Bread and Butter,” Ennis said. “In fact most of the buyers and press and press thought we were from Scandinavia by the style and direction of the label.
"So we didn't really actively seek out those markets – that's just where the interest came from.”
The coup follows steady retail and wholesale growth for the brand in Australia, with 130 wholesale accounts and four stores currently in operation. Nique opened two stores in the past six months; one in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy and the other in the Eastern suburb of Hawthorn.
Nique's latest menswear collection is an ode to its hometown of Melbourne with a colour scheme of black, grey, navy and ivory offset with stripes and splashes of red. It features vests, short-waisted tailored jackets, long hoodies, trench and duffle coats and leather jackets.
Highlights from the women's collection include silk harem shorts, crepe pants and delicate dresses.