DIY retailing

A group of emerging fashion designers have made a great fist of setting up and running their own outlet in Sydney's The Strand arcade. Matt Porter caught up with the creative forces behind The Graduate Store to discover how a unique addition to the retail landscape came together.

Handy mates at handy rates. That was a vital key to turning an intriguing prospect into retail reality, according to Andrea Cainero, one of the Graduate Store's six founding designers.

The fledging retailers - all graduates of the East Sydney TAFE Fashion Design Studio - were largely left to their own devices when setting up the store back in February of this year.

"We've all got qualifications in fashion but that's it. It was a matter of going and finding out about all the other things because setting up a retail store is not just fashion it's business. It was a massive learning curve."

Cainero, along with the other designers involved in the project - Naomi Swalwell, Toby MacLean, Michael Losordo, Melissa Polynkova and Karla Spetic - each brought something and someone to the table in order to get the store up and running.

Cainero called on the services of a solicitor friend to help set up and register the group as a business entity and negotiate the licensing agreement.

Swalwell put her architect father to good use to design the shop layout and fast-track council approval. Likewise, Polynkova's  brother-in-law and Losordo's father - both builders - were invaluable at fit-out time. Spetic's partner, who works in the food industry, was equally useful with catering for the grand opening and the likes of collection launches. MacLean networked his PR contacts to help co-ordinate the launch.
"The shop wouldn't have happened without mate's rates," Cainero says.

The Graduate Store is the brainchild of the Fashion Design Studio's course co-ordinator Nicholas Huxley.
It is the realisation of his goal to provide a space for his most talented graduates to showcase their wares while cutting their teeth in the hard-boiled world of fashion retail.

Huxley hand-picked the sextet. Apart from the pre-requisite that each must already have established ranges that are selling, the designers were chosen based on their professionalism, commitment and talent.

Having all graduated in different years, most of the group did not know each other prior to the project, a major positive as far as Huxley is concerned.

"I think if they all knew each other too well it would start getting a little slack, become all too friendly and be about socialising and not working. I didn't actually look at them as far as 'did they know each other'. I looked at them as far as 'would they get the job done and be professional about it'."

Apart from some funds provided by the TAFE for the initial store fit-out and some general overseeing, Huxley's has been a very hand-off role.

"It's purely a business between them." Seven months on from opening he is more than happy with the store's progress.

"I think they're doing very well. I spoke to (The Strand) management and they're very thrilled with how it's going."
He is impressed with the quality on the store's rack.

"It is excellent, I was actually in there one day and a girl who works in the Strand came in and said 'it's so nice to have a shop where you can go in and find something different.' Not many shops have that sort of variety on display in one shop. It's another advantage in that all the designers - who each has their own very different look - are all assembled under the one roof."

John Klein, group marketing manager for Ipoh Management Services - the company which manages The Strand - concurs.

"We're really happy with them, especially considering for all of them it's their first retail venture.
"Like all people that start out in a retail business I don't think anyone truly appreciates how difficult it is until you go to do it.

"Some of the designers in the group are more business savvy than the others and they're able to focus the group on those business goals, so I think they've got a good mix in the group."

Sawlwell, who was heavily involved with organising the store fit-out, says the hardest part was complying with The Strand's strict procedures and requirements.

"They were forever saying 'you can't put the cord behind that counter, you can't do this to the air con', so back and forth, back and forth. It was more stringent and rigorous than we thought it would be."

Cainero points out that most retailers employ a design consultant to handle the store fit-out.
"We didn't have that so we all designed... and sourced everything (for the fit-out) individually."

This involved sniffing around auction houses for bargain furniture and fittings, which often had to be revamped.
In the countdown to the store's grand opening Cainero found herself "running around with a drill and a paint brush doing some finishing touches".

"Bunnings Warehouse is my new favourite store."
Creating a retail space is one thing, making it work quite another.
So, just how did six vibrant creative forces in the notoriously highly-strung, ego-driven world of fashion design, manage to pull it all together in one retail direction.

Polynkova reckons the early trials and tribulations would have been great fodder for a reality TV show.
"It wasn't all smooth sailing but we've came together pretty well.

"There's a lot of communication that had to go around just to make a small decision. The phone bills... Telstra loved us.
"For me the most challenging and rewarding aspect of this has been working as a team.

"Everyone has different strengths... this is such a tough industry, it's great to do things collaboratively and have that mutual support."

For Cainero there was "conflict but not bitchiness".

"We are all very open in our communication. Issues are brought up, argued about and done with, without things dragging on.

It's quite a challenge coming to a compromise and has taken almost 12 months of getting to know each other to reach this point."

The designers take turns manning the store, with each rostered on a day a week.
They are very mindful of not skewing customers towards their own particular lines on the rack, says Swalwell.
"We're there to facilitate what they (the customers) need. If it's one of our personal garments they're after then that's great. We're there for each other, we all work as a team, so I think that's really important.

"It would be embarrassing if we did have designers in the shop just looking at selling their own stuff."
Spetic adds that customers really enjoy the fact they are dealing with the designer directly at the store.
"Something that not all the other stores have is that level of personal service... whether it be alterations or whatever, people can trust us."

With the store located on level two of the arcade it is a retail destination not exposed to a lot of casual foot traffic.
This has not been a problem because the unique nature of the store and the quality coming out of it has created quite a buzz, says Klein.

"People are interested to see what these young designers are producing and that's really worked to their advantage. There's been a lot of media interest in the store and that has generated a lot more traffic than what might have happened ordinarily.

"The Strand customer loves seeking out hot designers."
Ipoh were also happy to lend a hand leading the horse to water with gift for purchase promotions throughout the arcade redeemable only over the Graduate Store's counter.
So where to from here?

The plan is for the designers to eventually take flight with establishing their own retail presence as a new batch of graduates takes their place in the store, says Huxley.

"They've got a year to prove themselves. The Strand hopes that at the end of it all each one will go out to a shop in the arcade when one becomes available and we'll slowly bring in a new group to take over."

Before year's end Huxley will get together with the group for a full debrief of where the store is financially, and see where the designers are at and what their plans are. Klein, for one, is very keen to grow the model.

"As long as there are graduates of a high enough quality to go into the store each year I don't see why we can't continue it."

For the meantime the designers are happy to stay put and grow their labels via their unique vehicle.
At the time of writing the summer collection had just been released and they were looking forward to the heightened retail activity in the lead-up to Christmas.

It has been tough but they have survived and are beginning to thrive.
"We've been thrown into the deep end but that's worked out very well," Cainero says.
"It's given us more ownership of the business - it's our business and gives us a different level of respect for the business as well.

"Whoever comes in after us will run a retail store but won't have that chance to set it up. That experience has been priceless."