Kiwi designer treads new path
The past 12 months have not been easy on the talented Kiwi fashion designer who has not only had to adjust to life with a new born but also had her professional life blown apart by a former business partner who used their Auckland warehouse to sell drugs.
But now armed with her new baby, a new business partner, a new label and a new outlook, life for the former Insidious Fix founder and designer is again looking up.
A joint collaboration with Jason Gitman of Gitmans Knitwear, Davis said her new label still focussed on the same core knitwear and woven market as Fix - which had around 20 Australian stockists - but featured an enhanced array of product across a greater number of fabrications.
With a 90-piece strong debut collection, spread across T-shirts, hoodies, dresses, pants, shirts, jackets and accessories, the label - dubbed Stitch Ministry, was primarily targeted at women and men aged 20-plus.
However this, combined with the label's price points - ranging from $80 for a printed T-shirt through to $400 for a fully tailored woven jacket - meant it could easily appeal to a much more diverse audience, Davis said.
"It's predominantly focused on those aged 20 to 40 but because of the type of signature and hand-writing throughout the range those aged between 50 and 60 also seem to like it."
Having vowed to stand by her when the media furore surrounding her former partner was at its peak, Australian stockists have once again rallied behind Davis.
While Ministry will not be seen in stores before February next year, Davis said the label's Melbourne-based agent Marris Fotheringham had indicated the label had been tracking well in the six weeks it had been selling, garnering strong interest in its winter 2007 range from both existing and new stockists.
While eventually the duo hoped to focus on increasing its export market, Davis said for now her top priority was to help create an experience and build a culture around the label. This included getting the branding right for Ministry's first retail store - also opening in February - and working closely with local artists whose work would feature both in the collections and inside the store, Davis said.
"We've talked about childrenswear ranges and things like that but at the moment we're just concentrating on getting our systems and focus right and making sure the ranges are tight. We have to walk before we can run."