Sleeping on the job

From Cottesloe to Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, womenswear brand Flannel is waking up the industry, as Assia Benmedjdoub discovers.

Given most pastimes there involve wearing little more than a few centimetres of nylon/spandex, 'fashion hotspot' is not a term one would use to describe Cottesloe.

But this is precisely why Kristy Lawrence and Brooke Anderson, co-founders of womenswear retailer Flannel, chose to locate their flagship store in the peaceful beachside town of Perth.

"Flannel is very much about the woman who wears it," Lawrence says of the area, which is made up of around 7000 residents and has a village-style mix of cafes, restaurants and specialty boutiques. "We choose the areas which suit our demographic."

The sisters decided to launch a store in their first year of business, with only a handful of lifestyle boutiques selling their debut range over spring/summer 2006. Having relinquished her stake in womenswear label Empire Rose - which she co-founded with current owner Kathryn Mudie - Lawrence says she always wanted Flannel to have a strong retail presence in Australia.

Today, the brand has two stores in and around Perth and a recently launched site in Sydney's fashionable Woollahra district.

"Past experience has shown me that there are much higher profit margins in retail," she explains. "It also means that we could control the way in which we communicate our concept to customers. It has been a challenge to get staff and in turn, clientele to fully understand our vision of the brand as mixing luxury with casual for day - after two years, people have actually got it."

Flannel can and has been described as a sleepwear offering; its range of slips, camisoles and pants in soft mercerised cottons, crochet knits and pure silks giving the impression of a night in rather than a day out. In fact, when department store David Jones Lawrence's unique concept is reflected through her approach to visual merchandising, which is updated fortnightly across all three stores.

"My stores are very minimal in colour palette with some antique and vintage pieces to conjure a relaxed and effortless feeling of being at home," she says. "We mix beautiful homeware labels in natural fibres to complement the garments. This creates a Hands-on training with her staff of ten is also crucial for retaining the brand's unique position, along with select sales periods of just two times a year.

"Nobody is doing casual luxury like us at the moment so it's important to have staff who are excited and knowledgeable about the brand," Lawrence explains, adding that select designer brands and furnishings are also sold through the store. "We have a continuous flow of new stock as Flannel is very much about how the garments are put together."

Its constant dance with the 'are they or aren't they pyjamas?' question means the brand will no longer be stocked in the sleepwear section of David Jones - an account that could potentially be revived in the womenswear category after its successful showcase at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week (RAFW) earlier this month.

Flannel's spring/summer 2009/10 collection, priced between $80 to $1200, took out top honours in RAFW's inaugural V Australia New Generation Rockstar Scholarship. The scholarship was open to all eight designers participating in the New Generation showcase and judged by eveningwear designer Alex Perry, IMG Fashion Asia Pacific vice president Simon Lock and Fred Segal Fun chief executive Jackie Brander.For Lawrence, it means she will be flown to the United States to meet with Brander and other fashion executives to promote the label internationally.

"There was something about your collection that was so beautiful, so beautifully put together that we thought we can't leave it in Australia, you need to share it," Perry cooed during the scholarship presentation.

While retail continues to be a key focus for Lawrence, international expansion is certainly on the agenda. To prop her national wholesale base of 24 retailers, she has just secured two clients in New Zealand and appointed a distributor for the United Kingdom.

"In our first year of business we had just one store in Cottesloe and a small wholesale base of mostly lifestyle boutiques. We staged a show at RAFW hoping to further promote our wholesale business but this award has propelled us into a fantastic place across our entire business."