Annette Sharp: Aussie fashion now in the hands of money men, not designers
The list of Australian brands that have gone to fashion’s graveyard makes for depressing reading, writes Annette Sharp — and Covid was the final death knell for some.
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Collette Dinnigan has shut her boutique doors and turned interior stylist, Sass & Bide’s Sarah Jane Clarke is playing dress-ups in her wardrobe after selling out, nine years ago, with partner Heidi Middleton for a motza to Myer, and industry icon Carla Zampatti has gone to meet her maker.
The titans of the Australian fashion industry, the foremothers whose passion for garment design helped put our nation on the map globally, have taken their tape measures and tailor’s chalk and left the arena — and in a nick of time, too, as the industry, thanks to Covid, is now on its stone-washed knees.
After two years of crippling pandemic, during which designers have had to shut their stores, put their hands out for government relief, sack unpaid staff, expand their online operations, and overcome border closures — preventing them from both receiving and delivering stock — the veil is being pulled from the fashion industry, and accumulated losses being exposed and counted.
Last week came word that administrators have been called in to streamline and salvage prestige brand Ginger & Smart after the brand, thought to owe some $500,000 to creditors and suppliers, was acquired by a private equity group two years ago.
That was sold to me on Friday as good news for Ginger & Smart founders Alexandra and Genevieve Smart, who managed to sell their operation to investor Alceon in the middle of 2019, before the onset of the pandemic.
Many other passionate true believers who somehow managed to hold onto their shirts during the past decade, despite depressed market conditions, have been sent to the wall by the pandemic.
What remains to be seen is who has survived and who has joined Joe Saba, Kirrily Johnston, Lisa Ho, George Gross, Harry Who, Charlie Brown, Marnie Skillings, Rosemary Armstrong, Trent Nathan and the dozens of others in fashion’s graveyard.
Among those to throw in the towel during the pandemic was Gorman founder Lisa Gorman, who resigned last year from her brand after 22 years.
The label endures under the stewardship of David Heeney’s retail company Factory X, the same capitalist who bought Alannah Hill’s brand and later fell out with the designer after Hill raged in 2014 that she could no longer “compromise” her vision, prompting her to resign.
“Compromise” is something of a dirty word among the fashion industry.
One who knows this well is Willow founder Kit Podgornik, who was unceremoniously dumped from her label in 2013 by the investors Apparel Group, which also owns a Saba-less Saba and Sportscraft, and which just two years earlier had been making plans to grow her brand.
“I was the founder, creative director … and my business was gone overnight. It was like having a child ripped away from me. I can take a lot of pressure but it nearly broke me,” she said in 2016 after launching a new label, KitX.
Nicky and Simone Zimmermann’s eponymous brand also changed hands during the pandemic, after a 70 per cent shareholding was on-sold from American backer General Atlantic to European investment fund Style Capital in 2020.
Possibly an exception to the rule, the brand and sisters appear to be prospering, but time will tell.
In late 2020, Alice McCall put her label into voluntary administration after running up $7 million debt to creditors, including staff, landlords and her bank.
She later said the administration was necessary: “ … fundamentally it was to get out of 11 commercial leases that … were dragging my business down. Covid hit and took doggie paddling to a state of drowning.”
As the former cowboys of Australian fashion — the Peter Morrisseys, Wayne Coopers, Jonathan Wards — remove their dusty chaps and ride into the sunset, in their place stand fashion’s new cowboys: the capitalists and bankers who have emerged as the dominant influencers of Australian fashion. The David Heeneys, David Briskins, Solomon Lews, Will Vicars, Gary Novises and Richard Facionis – formerly faceless men who have the means to decide which designer brands survive post-pandemic and which aren’t worth saving.
FUTURE TALKS FOR KINDRED FASHION SISTERS
Magazine fashion editor-turned-designer Lizzie Renkert and sister Georgie, the founders of bohemian luxe fashion brand We Are Kindred, are the latest design team believed to be in talks with potential business investors.
Industry sources claimed last week the sisters have spoken with Richard Facioni, the investor who purchased Ginger & Smart in 2019 from sisters Genevieve and Alexandra Smart.
On Saturday this column attempted to put the question to the Renkert sisters and Facioni, the executive chairman and founder of Alquemie Group. Neither returned our calls.
The Renkert sisters launched their label in 2013, after Lizzie’s successful tenure as editor of Bauer Media’s Madison magazine came to an end with the mag’s closure.
“Owning my own business is not something I ever thought I would do … it wasn’t until I was made redundant from a high-profile job in magazine publishing that We Are Kindred was born,” she said later.
“My sister, best friend and now business partner, Georgie, and I had been joking about launching our own label since we were little girls playing dress-ups, but I don’t think either of us thought we would ever have the courage to leave the security of our jobs to enter the start-up world,” she said, adding it had been an exhilarating, anxiety-inducing, humbling and rewarding ride.
In 2015 she told a media outlet she was finding the fashion business tough going.
“I find myself in a situation that I never thought I’d be in in my 40th year.
“I am broke. I am watching friends go on incredible family holidays, upgrading their cars, buying the latest bags and shoes that I once coveted, but this just isn’t on the cards for me any more.”
PARIS HOME FOR FASHION, DARLING
Six years after she left Australia for Paris, Kym Ellery will return to our shores for her latest fashion collaboration.
With more than 90 per cent of her client base living internationally, the high cost of manufacturing in Australia, and our country’s isolation from the global fashion capitals, the designer made the decision to leave Australia in 2016, shut her local operations in 2019, and give an international career her best shot.
And it’s paying off, with the bubbly brunette cementing her status as one of the country’s most successful fashion exports.
With a brand new website, her wares sold through a number of exclusive stockists, and a captivating new collaboration with x brand Witchery, Ellery is fast ticking off her long-term goals.
“When I first had a conversation with Witchery it felt like such a natural fit,” Ellery told Sunday Confidential from Paris.
“We share a very similar vision. We both want to create stylish pieces our customers can invest in and make them feel good about themselves.
“Through this collaboration we wanted to create accessible luxury.”
While she’s concerned she is becoming a little less Aussie, Ellery says she plans on remaining in Europe a little while longer.
“Paris feels like home now, to be honest,” she said.
“I really love living here, there are so many great things about experiencing this culture.
“I was in Australia my entire life before this so I am really happy to be able to live in another country, learn another language.
“Paris will be home to me for a little while longer. That’s the plan.”
Ellery will launch the 30-piece Witchery capsule collection on Thursday at Darling Point.
— by BRIANA DOMJEN
AUSSIES SHINE IN FRANCE FOR FASHION WEEK
The hottest names in Australian fashion and beauty have descended on France in the midst of Paris Fashion Week.
After recently hitting major career goals in the US, where celebrities including Katy Perry, JLo, Lady Gaga, Heidi Klum and Cindy Crawford have worn his threads, Alex Perry’s team are in Paris meeting with all their global partners for the first time since the pandemic, with the meetings touted a success.
The brand has secured every major stockist including Neimans, Net A Porter, Nordstrom, My Theresa and Forward.
“After a two-year (seven-season) hiatus from travel, it’s fantastic to see all our global wholesale partners in real life again in our Paris showroom,” Perry told Sunday Confidential.
“FW22 has been very strong, we have a lot of colour in the collection, which has been very well received by the brand’s long-term global partners.
“The team are in Paris for sales and it’s a very strong season thus far.”
Popular designer Dion Lee is also in Paris, fresh from his runway show at New York Fashion Week, and brother-and-sister design duo Camilla Freeman-Topper and Marc Freeman have also made their way to the city of love for meetings.
Facialist to the stars Melanie Grant, whose clients include Victoria Beckham and Kim Kardashian, is also currently in Paris.
— by BRIANA DOMJEN
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