Designer Profile
Material Boy is the work of one Mic Eaton, a self-taught designer who surfed professionally until the age of 19, but when a recurring knee problem forced him out of the water, the Material Boy label was born.
Eaton made his runway debut at Perth's Fashion Festival in September 2003, stealing the limelight with a 1980's inspired range of low-rider jeans and layered print T-shirts.
Eaton and his label has since gone on to feature in the New Generation Showcase at Mercedes Melbourne Fashion Week in 2005 and last year scoring a solo show at Australian Fashion Week, unveiling the only solo menswear collection of the entire week.
In its relatively short life, Material Boy boasts a impressive list of stockists in Australia through the likes of Fat 4, Dirt Box, Capital L, Fiasco, Cumquat and From St Xaview. Internationally the label is sold through Midwest stores in Japan, American Rag in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Surface 2 Air in Paris, London boutique Kozon To Zai and Proxi in Dublin.
As Material Boy heads into its fifth collection, 2007/08 is shaping up as a big year for the label and the business.
A new, as yet unnamed label is on the cards as is expansion into more international markets. Another 10 stockists will soon be announced throughout New Zealand, Hong Kong, Dublin, London and Scandinavian.
"Scandinavia could be the next big market for us," says Eaton.
"Everyone there seems to be coming out of their shells and dressing in a lot more quirkier way. Stores there buy well and they pay well.
"My designs fit into London, Paris, Japan and are more experimental, avant-garde and not so clean cut; so the focus is on those countries," he says.
Eaton says the business has seen its revenue base double each season, driven largely by organic growth from existing stockists and from new accounts.
Eaton, now based in Bali full time, has big ambitions as a designer and plans to show in Paris within 12 months either under the Material Boy label or as a self-titled designer.
"I would like to have a self-titled label one day and show in Paris as a designer. It's been on the cards for a while now, I'd say Paris could be 12 months away. A lot of designers go to Paris for the trade shows, but that's a different area."
Named 2006 Designer of the Year by the West Australian Arts Council, the 25-year-old Tasmanian makes no bones about his plans.
"I want to be the best menswear designer in Australia and the biggest in the world.
"We've put ourselves into this place where we are selling into high-end boutiques, it's good to be sitting in those stores, but we are not a designer label, we're a brand."
But firstly there is a new label underway, which will take a more commercial flavour in a bid to keep Material Boy as an exclusive brand.
"There's a new label that will start after this current production is over. It's going to be produced on a much more commercial level and we won't be so fussy with who we're selling to," Eaton says.
"Even though Material Boy is a brand and not a designer name, it will always remain as an exclusive brand. But in order to retain that exclusivity, we have to do something on a more commercial level."
And exclusivity is just one way to describe Material Boy's Winter 2008 collection entitled, A Vomit Affair.
Launched in a warehouse in Melbourne late last year, the collection is best described as a regurgitation of past colour influences. A yawn of technicolour, of sorts.
Eaton says each Material Boy collection is a departure from the next, but the labels ongoing tangent of sarcasm and humour, seen in the likes of the Michael Jackson-like "thrilla" jeans and MC Hammer inspired low-crotch baggy jeans of last season, continues in the Vomit Affair.
"For this season the new 'happiest pant' is a completely new direction for denim. Don't be deceived by the title of the collection, it's a tasteful collection, the perception of vomit will be changed," he says.
If all this is not enough another dimension to the clothing label are sponsorship of many and arts events. In the past year Material Boy has opted not to spend money on advertising, but rather on touring bands and hosting some pretty big (and wild) parties. To launch the Vomit Affair the label hosted The Horror Ball in Melbourne featuring live music from local bands like The Amazing Phillips Sisters, Children Collide and Sydney's Goons of Doom.
DJ's including Tim Hoey from Cut Copy have also been recruited to develop music for runway shows.