Coquette Red's fun at the fair
MELBOURNE: Having recently arrived on these shores Coquette Red appears to be bagging serious interest from the Australian market.
The handbag and accessories label – recently re-branded from its previous moniker Coquette Hong Kong and officially launched at trade fair Fashion Exposed - is the creation of ex-lawyer Marita Hayes-Brown, who first established it in the ex-colony in 2002.
"I just wanted to create something that was high quality, classic with an edge and a little bit different from the trendy high fashion derivatives that you see everywhere," she said, adding the range's success among Hong Kong's ex-pat community spurred her to grow the business on returning to Melbourne last year.
Priced at $59 to $199, Coquette Red's collection features around 20 styles in a wide range of fabrications including luxe suede, mock-croc, micro fibre and leather, with colours varying from pistachio green or vanilla for summer to deep chocolate, chilli red or liquorice for winter.
Hayes-Brown also used Fashion Exposed to launch a sterling silver-based jewellery collection built around multi-stone necklaces. Priced around $150, the pieces include semi-precious stones ranging from onyx to red coral, citrine, garnet, turquoise and amethyst.
Since returning to Australia, Hayes-Brown has garnered around 70 stockists for Coquette Red, largely in Victoria. Such is the brand's rapid growth that the designer's husband Phil Hayes-Brown - formerly general manager of commercial operations with the Melbourne-based AFL Club, Hawthorn - joined the company as full-time director in August. Coquette Red's debut appearance at Fashion Exposed had proven invaluable to its long term strategy of further expansion within Australia and internationally, he said.
"During the fair we either clinched either leads or firm orders from a broad range of retailers including Yeltour in Tasmania, Anna Middleton in Byron Bay, a major department store in Rockhampton (QLD) and several retailers in regional Victoria."
By Belinda Smart