The sweet taste of success

For those who think they've got the streetwear business licked, Chocolate City knows different, as Belinda Smart reports.

Richard Wiggan has a lot on his plate. In fact, the UK raised designer - who is rapidly gaining a reputation in Melbourne's street fashion circles for his Jamaican roots and snappy style - currently appears to be negotiating an assault course of change and growth.

A mere blink (or five years) ago he started out with a small range of street T-shirts, sold $3000 worth of them to the cool Cyberia boutique on Chapel Street and used the money to start a business. He moved on to operate a wholesale network peaking at around 60 stores across Australia, before launching into retail 18 months ago.

When the Chocolate City boutique opened in Melbourne's "off-Chapel" Greville Street, Wiggan astutely pared the wholesale business back to around 10 stores to concentrate on growing the Chocolate City brand, which caters to men and women with a liking for street without the clichés. If Wiggan makes this sound like a walk in the park, anyone who knows the saturated streetwear market and has felt the chill wind of economic downturn will understand the size of the task at hand.

Part of Wiggan's secret is remaining vertical. Almost all the stock in the boutique is the Chocolate City brand, and much of it is designed by Wiggan himself. Around 95 per cent is also made locally, with the exception of accessories and a recently launched men's suiting range that will cost blokes up to around $699 for a quality set of threads. With fabrics hailing from Italian mills and a high quality finish, the suits are intended to take on Melbourne's big boys.

"Calibre, AG and Soho are currently controlling the men's suiting area, so I thought I'd give it a go," he says, and something about his tone makes it seem eminently doable. The rest of the Chocolate City offer comprises mid to upper end streetwear must-haves, with men's T-shirts starting at $79, women's dresses including batwing T-dresses and backless shirt dresses retailing for around $150 to $179.

"I do a lot of designing myself - the pieces might be inspired by graffiti on the wall or tattoos. This season it's about 'Afro rock' - where music meets the realm of Africa." The downturn hasn't taken much of a bite out of Chocolate, he says, because while his offer is determinedly "street", it's also determinedly different.

"For example, the winter range had a lot of colour. I used a lot of yellows and browns with bat wing dresses for the girls. I really moved away from that winter darkness that you see everywhere, which is all about greys and blacks."

With boutique stores such as G-Star and Ksubi fighting for the same shrinking dollar, the strategy makes sense. Wiggan has also garnered good publicity. Recent coverage includes a Channel Nine TV interview, while the brand also advertises in magazines including Fashion Journal, Box Magazine, Fashion Trend and MX.

Like so many youth oriented offers, success is also about more than just clothing. Wiggan is known for throwing a good bash, while the Chocolate City Members Club (CCMC) loyalty initiative includes invites to VIP parties and showings, discounts on Chocolate City and other selected in store merchandise and night club VIP entry and drink specials from the brand's club partners.

In terms of catering to his market, Wiggan seems to have the formula nailed. The thing is, he'd like a little more of it. While conceding that "Greville Street is a great place to start a business; there are a lot of good independent stores in the street" - he's already planning a step further into "where-it's-at".

"If you have a shop front on Chapel Street or Little Collins Street you'll get foot traffic of around 100,000, whereas you only get around 2000 to 3000 on Greville Street."

A move to either of the aforementioned strips, or to a high recall mall like Melbourne Central or the recently revamped Doncaster shopping centre, is on the cards over the next one to two years, he confirms.

But that's not all. Coming months will also see the launch of two new unisex labels. The first, self-titled 'Richard Wiggan' line is a dressier streetwear label that Wiggan hopes to launch at L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival next March. Another streetwear label, whose brand name is yet to be registered, will launch next summer. Wiggan doesn't rule out buying in other (preferably exclusive) labels in future if the fit is right. "A fantastic denim label would be good, mainly because it's very hard to do denim well yourself."

He is currently investigating a cash flow and inventory overhaul as well as venture capital options in order to grow the business, with plans for the next three years including one or two more stores in Melbourne and a prime position in Sydney, probably Gould Street Bondi or Oxford Street. Expansion to New Zealand is also a possibility, while the icing on the cake, he says, would be homecoming of sorts to set up a London boutique for the 2010 Olympics.

Not surprisingly, Wiggan confesses that being interviewed by Ragtrader has been something of a wake up call.
"Thanks for the chat, [it] made me realise how much work I have in front of me." Something about the cool, calculated way in which he has driven his business to date suggests he'll take it all in his stride.

By Belinda Smart