Fat produces inhouse offspring
Melbourne-headquartered retail collective Fat4 are not keen followers of the "once bitten twice shy" school of thought.
The all-female group has recently launched a new inhouse womenswear brand - despite the collapse of its earlier incarnation Prince Billy.
Introduced as a means of filling the gap for quirky basics, the range has been put together as a joint collaboration with designer Dave Snow. Fat4 co-founder Bianca Wiegard said the new label, dubbed Rainer after 20th century German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, had been set up to appeal to the Fat stores' core customer.
"We have been thinking about it for a long time [and] were really keen to get a creative outlet. We also see the gaps in the buy are when we are seeing collections and can react to that quite quickly with having our own label."
Wiegard, who runs Fat with her three business partners, said it was the lessons learnt the first time around that gave the group the encouragement they needed to give the inhouse brand another try.
"Prince Bill was a very technically driven brand. It was high tailoring and intricate patterns. It was very expensive to produce as it was 100 per cent Australian made. Rainer is far more peeled back, a more minimal relaxed approach."
Wiegard said having Snow on board aided the label's production significantly with the biggest challenge finding onshore manufacturers.
"Finding makers in Melbourne that were reliable and who did the quality work was a little difficult. When everyone moved their production offshore for a while, a lot of production houses in Australia closed down. Of course there are other issues with offshore production so a lot of labels came back to Australia. As a result it has put huge pressure on the small industry that has remained."
Featuring jackets, hoodies, skivvies, tops, knits and detailed leggings and jodhpurs, the range is fabricated from coated waxed cottons, waffles and merino wool.
Boasting a "typically Melbourne" colour palette of black and grey, Rainer's retail price points range from $66 for a T-shirt through to $420 for a full winter jacket. Fat4 intends launching a small menswear collection into its spring/summer 2008/09 when they aim to begin wholesaling.
By Tracey Porter