How Melbourne’s top designers are building brands with staying power during a fashion industry crisis
With fashion labels struggling to survive, this is how savvy Melbourne fashion designers have cracked the code for thriving in a ruthless retail landscape.
We are all here for the hype around a new flashy fashion brand that has hit the market with gusto.
From a swish soiree, to celebrities donning their looks on a red carpet or major event, all amid a frenzy of social media content.
But what happens next?
Creating an independent label that isn’t just the new flavour of the month but has true staying power can prove far more difficult.
So often we see a brand with so much promise fizzle out. In recent times we have seen the decline of multiple cult labels enter bankruptcy or file for administration. Because in reality they have a lot to contend with.
Bricks-and-mortar wholesalers were already struggling pre-pandemic, the e-commerce bubble then burst, leaving independent brands with unpaid invoices and a decimated retail presence. Together with fast fashion rip-offs, geopolitical tensions, “reciprocal” tariffs looming, navigating raw material shortages, inflation, a cost of living crisis – all at once – it’s no wonder we see small business too often go bust.
But it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. VWeekend spoke to some of our Melbourne-founded labels who are taking on the Australian retail industry and the world, to see what it takes to create and keep a successful brand.
Despite their varying beginnings and differing aesthetics, each of them echoed the other – from knowing your customer, building with intention and never looking sideways.
Someone who knows the industry from inside to impeccably tailored back to front is Christian Kimber.
Together with his stylish wife Renuka, they have created what is regarded as Australia’s leading menswear label.
His eponymous Melbourne-founded brand has not only redefined what the Australian man looks like – think the effortless cool, polished, modern male travelling from city to coast and country – but has done so while helping build a strong fashion community from its very fibres.
Having come to design later in life, he learnt the trade vocationally, working on London’s Saville Rd – the technique and creativity was there from the foundation.
Going on to win countless awards, including the David Jones National Designer Award at the Melbourne Fashion Festival in 2019, Kimber’s “slow approach” to fashion and commitment to quality, durable and timeless garments saw him leading a new frontier.
It was a turning point and helped him grow the confidence to see himself as a designer as much as a businessman.
In a full circle moment, he and his wife now sit on numerous boards in an effort to build the industry from the lens that represents the designers’ interests, from Melbourne Fashion Festival, Australian Fashion Council and Australian Fashion Week.
“For us it’s very much about building something that is much more of a legacy and a unique contribution to the fashion discourse and the fashion landscape,” Renuka says in a joint interview with her husband.
“It’s not just about creating a trend or the next hot garment, although that’s part of it and can often be an offshoot or outcome, but it’s about lifting the standards of Australian fashion and what is out there and lifting the expectation of consumers and show what should be considered appropriate to add to your wardrobe and invest in, while creating truly beautiful things that bring a lot of joy.”
The label is now much sought after across the globe and Kimber sees his role very much as putting back to support Australian designers … not just seeing themselves as creators but business owners.
“There are a lot of people who make beautiful clothes but it’s not a business,” he says. “I think one of the reasons we are still here is we have really focused on the business being lean and growing sustainably and being thoughtful about everything we do and not rushing anything.”
VWeekend’s Fashion Takeover issue cover star is designer Rochelle Gregory, founder of cult brand Rocky Rafaela, along with her girlfriend and modern day muse, content creator Phoebe Chakar.
From humble beginnings Gregory has single-handedly built her label from the ground up through fierce passion and hard work. Her one-of-a-kind jackets can be spotted on the likes of Paris Hilton, Ruby Rose and Gigi Hadid.
Having worked from designing one-off, cutting-edge pieces for celebs in LA, to creating in Bali, the designer is back in her Melbourne homeland – for now.
She started out studying at Sydney’s Whitehouse Institute of Design which led to some of her graduate collection pieces being at Melbourne Spring Fashion Week. But it was her own unique style and look and some direct messaging on social media which saw her brand flourish into the celebrity must-haves.
She is now expanding her label, dressing talent from musicians on stage like Robbie Williams and singer Sofi Tukker to TV appearances with Dannii Minogue, red carpet events and the opening entertainment for the Australian Grand Prix.
“Having a platform and dressing stars definitely helps get people to know the brand,” Gregory says. “But it is also about knowing your craft and who you are and not following trends.”
