Sensory assault at RAFW

 

It is been quite some time since I attended Rosemount Australian Fashion Week (RAFW) and I’ve got to admit it impressed grumpy ol’ me. Much of its inconvenience works in its favour.

Runway shows in different locations at conflicting times, and babbling crowds of beautiful people kept waiting to get in, all help to create a sense of expectation and discovery. Then there are the promised hidden nuggets in appointment-only viewings at the Westin Hotel and other off-site venues.

I joined the queue for Camilla, whose 11 o’clock parade eventually started at 11.40, and only lasted half as long as the wait in line. Once, I would have been critical of this, but now I see the value in it.

The show itself was something of a sensory assault. Sub-woofer sound palpated the backbone as the show opened with the 20th Century Fox fanfare and then proceeded to show scenes from Avatar. Camilla’s generous VIP show-bag also pushed the Avatar theme with a CD and DVD. Camilla’s kaftans predictably followed the hunt with abstract jungle and animal prints in dramatic colours.

Camilla has established her niche in what you can do with the kaftan and how much you can charge for it. This incarnation was quite stunning, and although you couldn’t say it was fashion it attracted a frozen avalanche of photographers in their corral at the end of the runway, some grabs on evening television and the vice-regal presence of Simon Lock.

I woke up to a couple of additional benefits of RAFW while I was undergoing my sensory buffeting. One was to designers like Camilla. Nobody in their right mind is going to order hundreds of pieces. Camilla’s appeal is in keeping volume low and prices high. This is clever marketing. A boutique might venture a small rack of Camilla’s filmy, flowing kaftans and definitely display one in the window, but come the end of the season too many of them unsold would start to look like a black hole.

Now, the problem for Camilla is how to show a collection to a fragmented, low volume market. That’s where RAFW becomes a most useful tool. A boutique buyer might order a dozen garments without the rigmarole of agents’ showings. Multiply that by a few hundred and you’d want to kiss RAFW.

Looking at RAFW as a whole, I realised that it represented the last stand of Australian garment manufacturing. With a few exceptions like beading from India, all these labels have to make in Australia because they are too small or too poor or simply don’t have the intestinal fortitude to go sniffing around Asia for lower CMT prices. Their customers, both retail and consumer, definitely pay more but win on the intangibles of exclusivity and quick response. We now have a Berlin Wall through garment supply in Australia and there are few gateways through it.

Smouha rides again

Philip Smouha, who has been through the financial wringer over the past year or two, has got right up, dusted himself off and started all over again.

Trading as Tex n Jean, (a name his late father Charlie used when he first came to Australia) Philip has moved into what he describes as a little office in Alexandria, address not supplied. But it’s not too little to fit in desks for former associates Paul Cowan and Peter Urvan, who have joined him to build a new textile wholesaling business. He’s on the lookout for a Melbourne affiliate.

Not having the funding horsepower of former times, Philip says he is taking things slowly, carefully, quietly, and any other synonym for cautiously. He intends to concentrate on fashion textiles but may use his overseas garment manufacturing contacts to source garments for customers. Another noble intention is not to carry stock – although fate may lead him in a different direction. When asked about his range he said he didn’t have one as such. Rather, he would work with his customers to produce what they wanted.

You may gather from all this that Philip has his cards firmly clamped against his chest and you’d be right.
Life of Brian

After selling his successful company specialising in ageless dresses and separates, industry stalwart Brian Cronin has hung up an agent’s shingle. He has some reasonably performing, little-known labels, but needs a couple of high profile ones to make it fly.

Brian says he loves selling but the tedium and financial risk of manufacturing got him down.

Besides a comprehensive database of NSW fashion retailers, his big asset is assistant Maria Ardita, who has a strongmanufacturing/sales background and makes a damn fine cup of tea.

I wonder how many Brians there are in circulation, being too old to find a new job, yet knowing so much about the industry and its people.