Women’s retail giant Specialty Fashion Group is on the hunt for brand partners, following the development of a collaborative venture through its City Chic label.
The publicly listed company, which counts chains Katies, Millers and Crossroads among its stable, has capitalised on the success of plus-size designer Megan Moir Pardy with the launch of a joint womenswear collection. City Chic will release five dresses created by Moir Pardy in its 80 stores across Australia and New Zealand this month. Moir Pardy founded high-end plus size womenswear label Damn You Alexis in 2010, and is also an established blogger and contributor to fashion magazines.
Specialty Fashion Group general manager Phil Ryan said this marked the third partnership for City Chic in recent years, following collaborations with streetwear label Ed Hardy and local brand Billion Dollar Babes. He confirmed the chain was on the hunt for additional partners, with a background in the plus-size category not a requirement.
“People don’t expect a designer range to be put into plus and we really try and be that brand in the plus size space, the one that will push the boundaries and do that little bit more and offer that real fashion product,” Ryan said.
He said Moir Pardy’s widespread online audience appealed to the company.
“If you look on the blogs and the fashion pages, she has a really strong following and that's a great thing for her. She's created something that the market really wanted.”
Moir Pardy’s five dresses will retail above $200 and include an above-the-knee dress in blue velvet; a black one-shoulder design in ponte fabric; and two designs that incorporate faux leather, including a floor-length strapless maxi. The designs debuted at L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival.
“There will be a presence in all stores but not all styles will go to all stores,” Ryan said of the product.
For Moir Pardy, the appeal of the City Chic collaboration lay in the learning opportunity it presented.
“I really like the idea of testing the water for different customers because my price point is higher than City Chic,” she said. “I tend to use real leather, silk, that sort of thing, whereas their customer prefers a more cost-conscious item and they'll use imitation leather, they don't want to dry clean everything and hand wash everything.
“It's a different price point and I really wanted to test it out to see if I should be offering maybe a diffusion line myself.”
Erin O'Loughlin