Down under gets Stella treatment
NATIONAL: With one Stella McCartney launch already firmly under their belts, Australian consumers are set for another, also primarily under their belts.
United Kingdom-based McCartney has teamed up with New Zealand based lingerie giant Bendon to manufacture and distribute a Stella McCartney lingerie collection.
Scheduled to release to trade this month for a global retail launch early next year, the inaugural collection will comprise 11 sub-ranges including organic cotton, fishnet mesh, cotton mesh and silk mixes, silk chiffon, lace and printed silk lines.
Bendon general manager Australasia Jenny Mills said styles would cover a broad range of bras including soft cup, underwire and contour versions, with panties in boy leg, bikini and G-string cuts as well as camisoles, chemises and body suits.
"It's a very serious, full range of lingerie."
The collection - to be distributed through high end department stores and specialist boutiques - would be positioned "just under La Perla but above Simone Perele". Bras would retail at around $80 for a soft cup model while a top of the range version would cost around $250 and chemises could set consumers back around $350 to $400, Mills said.
Unlike McCartney's recent Australian collaboration under the 'Designers for Target' banner, the Bendon range was a "long term licensing agreement", Mills said.
"Stella approached us, because she'd wanted to do lingerie for a long time. She'd done her research and she knew we had the right expertise in the technical and structural side of the business; and that we'd collaborated successfully with Elle Macpherson."
That partnership with Australian supermodel Macpherson - now approaching its eighteenth year - had provided an invaluable template for current and future joint ventures, Mills claimed.
"The success of these deals is always relationship driven. It's about getting to know the person and their thinking in terms of what they want as an end result, and how that ties in with their brand. The great thing about working with Stella is that she has a very definite approach. She really knows what she wants and it's great to have that clarity to work with."
By Belinda Smart