Dion Lee vs David Jones debate
It has been recently publicised that up and coming Australian womenwear designer Dion Lee (winner of the recent L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Designer Award 2010) will be selling his upcoming S/S 2010/11 collection to Australian department store David Jones. This is an interesting debate of whether a designer has sacrificed the image of the brand in the case of adding more dollars in the bank account or has this become a more acceptable trend in recent years?
The arguments raised in this situation can be interpreted in a few ways. Does the rigid terms and conditions posed by department stores improve the brand’s efficiency and organisation or does it ultimately swallow small up and coming brands due to the corporate nature of the account and hefty contracts?
Australian brands that have taken this route and failed include Thousand Reasons (now Tuesday Night Band Practice) and Hem & Haw (now Malmo). On a side note, brands that have developed diffusion lines for David Jones include Chronicles of Never (Black Noise White Rain) and Josh Goot (Goot).
However, on a positive note if perfected well, this opportunity can increase the brand’s awareness, sales and perhaps lead to an increase in future accounts. Please comment below, we would like to hear your thoughts on the issue.
April 12th, 2010 at 8:16 am
ohhh so that’s what happened to thousand reasons… was it David Jones that they specifically fell victim to? If anyone has further details I would love to hear them 🙂
April 12th, 2010 at 9:04 am
Hmm tough call…… I guess in the current economic climate a brand needs to do certain things to make a healthy profit, having said that, for me personally a brand loses a lot of credibility in ‘selling out’ to a major department store, it takes the uniqueness out of having something that isn’t available to the masses. The diffusion line route seems to be a pretty good option I guess. On a side note, being a massive Chronicles fan I’m extremely disappointed to hear that the BNWR line will be available for David Jones, it’s bad enough its available in General Pants.
April 12th, 2010 at 10:29 am
I always thought that a place with that much influence would want to help nurutre and develop young Australian brands. After all it’s in their best interests for these brands to prosper, as it’s going to end up on their bottom line. Would be interesting to hear how Beat Poet and Nathan Smith are faring under DJ’s. And Ksubi’s range they put in there.
April 12th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Depends on how you want to look at it
From a designers point of view they need to make $$ to stay alive and diffusion labels such as ksubi’s old diffusion range at General pants, and suprisingly JJ’ or jeans west which ever one it was, as opposed to their fashion/cat walk range, and BNWR keep the labels alive, and allow designers to stay afloat.
From a customers point of view it sucks…i work at general pants and was devistated to hear BNWR was coming into existance becuase it took away the appeal of chronicles, and lowered the brands reputation (yes i realise the irony i work at gp and yet bag it…we need to pay bills somehow) and it now means that the “products” of general pants have access to it and will rape the label out of existence…funnily enough people still complain about the price which is thankfully a deterant.
David jones however do have concession stores,run by staff associated with the label it scanlen & theodore, collette dinnigan etc etc it would probably be more effective to have these, as opposed to a small sign, becuase it gives the brand a presence that it is a label inside david jones, asserting it’s independence.
All in all i guess it comes down to how you see it??
April 12th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
good on him i say. i think it’d be interesting to see what he produces, and how the clothes adapt in response. plus i think it cuts the wheat from the chaff, while potentially producing more chaff.
April 21st, 2010 at 11:56 pm
hate how chronicles developed that new “back noise white rain” line..
i used to love that stuff and no longer buy it. i have a “chronicles of never” shirt that has black noise white rain on it but everyone thinks it’s from the “black noise white rain” line..
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:54 am
I know all too well about David Jones and the company generally as a whole. This is meant to be a department store as is to Barneys New York in The States. But David Jones has completely changed its brand image from being one that was duly about products and service to profit-making and unruly campaigns such as the American Express card.
Initially, everyone would feel skeptical whether Dion Lee’s clothes would be successful in a large department store given that they require closer attention being more delicate and crafted. It’s challenging for him to have a balance between an idiosyncratic presence whilst also being a face of new Australian fashion and like it or not, he will have to also respond to the broader Australian female market.
Can I say however that from my perspective to make his clothes work from a customer level, he should hire at least two staff representing his brand because women in department stores become an abusing breed.
April 21st, 2011 at 9:35 pm
Now that Dion Lee design will be in David Jones…I will be shopping there. Theres a need for new trendy talent with quality and if David Jones sells D
April 21st, 2011 at 9:36 pm
sell Dion lee there has to be success. He is too good a designer as far as I am concerned.