Over the last year, Ragtrader has reported on a wave of wholesalers turning their hand to retail. Menswear label Brooksfield offers an insight into the process. Assia Benmedjdoub reports.
In 1951, the Comfort Shirt and Underclothing factory produced a shirt using 30 denier nylon and marketed it under the name of Gloweave. The ‘glo’ was a reference to the sheen of the fabric, while ‘weave’ was used to describe its woven appearance, even though it was in fact warp-knitted. So popular was the garment that in 1954, the company became known as Gloweave Proprietary Limited.
More than half a century on, a similar logic has been applied to the company’s edgier subsidiary Brooksfield, which undertook its own mini rebrand in the lead up to a retail launch late last year.
First introduced through department stores and boutiques in 2005, the brand currently offers its line of business shirts through Myer stores nationally, with its ‘urban collection’ ranged across 44 sites.
Over 100 menswear boutiques across Australia and New Zealand also carry the label, which recently expanded its collections to include suiting and accessories. So what prompted this successful wholesaler to venture into bricks-and-mortar retail in September 2010, opening flagship stores in Melbourne’s Chapel Street and Sydney’s World Square?
“It was the logical next step for the brand,” general manager Derham Moss says. “[Retail] provides great exposure and awareness to new customers, brings us closer to our customers and importantly provides a perfect environment to showcase the brand.”
This is a more complicated process than first seems. Experienced retail experts were enlisted to guide the wholesale-driven label into new territory. After selecting fashion hubs in Melbourne and Sydney to house the new stores, specific locations were weighed with the commercial realities of likely return, shop dimensions and square metre costs.
A 110sqm site measuring at 21.5m long and 5.2m wide was locked in for Chapel Street, while a 105sqm format measuring 14m long and 7.5m wide was secured for World Square.
Brooksfield’s design and marketing team then worked with creative agency Ortolan on a communication campaign to support the launch of its stores. Real people were enlisted as models for a spring/summer 2010 creative, with the ensuing result published across national fashion magazines such as GQ and Men’s Style as well as a Victorian-based outdoor campaign, in-store POS, online and through Brooksfield’s summer catalogue.
“We [also] worked with our creative agency to implement a mini re-branding exercise,” Moss says.
“As a result we updated the brand identity via upgrading major brand communication elements including the logo, labels, packaging and colour palette. Overall we strengthened the logo, ensured consistency in packaging across various Brooksfield sub-brands and categories, identified a colour palette which assisted with cut-through as well as reinforcing the brand’s core values, and ensure communication consistency across Brooksfield wholesale and retail proposition.”
To add further momentum, the brand created an exclusive range of Brooksfield garments for its new stores. The range represents 20 per cent of its total in-store product offer, featuring shirts at $150, trousers at $160, knitwear at $180 and jackets at $320.
The directional designs are manufactured using European fabrics and sit at a slightly higher price point than its staple counterpart. With the launch of Brooksfield retail stores now cemented, it will soon be available at Myer’s Melbourne, Chadstone and Sydney stores.
“Myer is and will continue to be a key customer for Brooksfield,” Moss says. “The brand has recently expanded into new categories, including accessories and suits, all of which have been supported by Myer.”
So integral is the department store to its operations, the brand commissioned designers at Edge Concepts (Melbourne) to develop its retail design around existing concession fit-outs within Myer. These ‘mini stores’ create a relaxed environment through the use of timber finishes, a mix of product display units and a collection of found objects including lamps and second-hand books.
The look was translated across both Brooksfield Sydney and Melbourne stores, with found items including an original ‘foreman’s bookcase’, vintage industrial lambs and original Danish furniture. Quirkier accents include a number of creations from Guy Mathews Mobilier Industriel such as wall lights and a feature cluster pendant light for the Melbourne store. Even the fitting rooms feature pin boards with photos, posters and magazine clippings.
“The idea with these is that the customer is free to add to it if they want, keeping it loose, informal and interactive,” Moss says. “Just outside the fitting rooms is a lounge area made up of comfy chairs and a coffee table covered in books. This area is dedicated to maintaining that interaction between the customer and the store itself.”
The brand’s winter 2011 collection is priced from $75 to $599 and includes 55 casual shirts, 45 business shirts, 15 outerwear pieces, 20 knitwear styles, 18 trousers, six jersey pieces and six suit styles. A selection of leather belts, slim ties and 15 scarves add colour accents to the range, with highlight garments including double breasted wool knits, an unconstructed blazer in cotton and wool blends and slim-line, cotton/wool shorted chinos.