own the runway adorned in Viktoria & Woods as part of the PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival. “Having Elle Macpherson open our group runway during MFF this year was a huge brand moment. It was a great way to commence our 20th anniversary year,” Viktoria & Woods founder and creative director Margie Woods told Inside Retail. “An Australian icon connecting with a major Australian brand. In many ways, she’s quintessentially a Viktoria & Woods woman,” Woods added. The brand is set to open its biggest store to date with a new Sydney flagship, in the inner-city suburb of Rosebery. The new flagship will deliver the full Viktoria & Woods brand experience, with a boutique, personal styling suite and outlet store in one. The new Sydney store brings the state’s Viktoria & Woods boutique count to five in addition to the five boutiques in Victoria alongside an outlet, three boutiques in Queensland, one in South Australia, two in Western Australia, and multiple David Jones concessions. Meet Ms Woods The Melbourne brand was founded by creative director Woods, a pillar in the Australian fashion industry. After struggling to find clothes that fit her style, Woods decided to make them herself. “I like to be quite put together. I couldn’t find anything that was basic and of high quality or had a contemporary sort of expression,” Woods said.  To find stockists, Woods travelled with a suitcase of 100 per cent Merino fine-gauge knitwear to all her favourite multi-brand stores around Melbourne that stocked a mix of international and Australian labels. “Mind you, there weren’t that many [Australian labels] at the time, funnily enough. The second I opened up that case, every single buyer straight away got it,” she said. In 2008, the brand debuted its first blazer and since then, its identity has become synonymous with soft suiting and “anything I felt was essential in a woman’s wardrobe. That’s kind of how it all began,” Woods explained. Currently, 70 per cent of Viktoria & Woods garments are made in Australia, and the brand is focused on maintaining as much local manufacturing as possible.  “Wherever we cannot, we will chase the best craftsmanship around the world to get what we need,” Woods added.  This has resulted in the brand’s footwear and bags being manufactured in Italy, with some leather apparel produced in Turkey.  “Some of our more technical knitwear is out of China and then we’ve got others out of Portugal. We mix it up. A lot of our fabrics still come from Japan,” Woods said.  All of this is to ensure the brand’s unique selling point of only using quality fabrics together with quality craftsmanship. International expansion Viktoria & Woods has carved out its market share internationally and now graces the racks of prestigious British retailers Selfridges and Harrods, in addition to a few niche boutiques across the US.  “We want to maintain and slowly grow our international market. Our growth will come from online direct sales initially. For us, it’s about building brand awareness in these new markets initially and working with key influencers to drive our brand awareness and presence,” Woods explained. For Woods, every step of the brand’s journey has been marked with milestones and she felt that the first solo show on a global stage should be connected to a bigger moment. Celebrating 20 years in business was this moment and the perfect opportunity. “It’s the right time to show our collection to a wider audience. This is a big milestone for us, and an opportunity to stretch ourselves creatively,” Woods said. Growth drivers Reflecting on two decades in the industry, Woods emphasises the importance of the enduring relationships forged with customers over the past 20 years and placing them at the heart of everything the brand does. As an advocate for slow fashion, Woods has focused on consciously evolving the brand according to its timeline. “When I started this brand, I decided to build a legacy. I knew that this would take time. The brand is not anchored on me, it is anchored on the authenticity of our offering,” Woods said. In 2014, a decade after the brand was founded, the first Viktoria & Woods boutique was opened as a pop-up on Melbourne’s sought-after High Street shopping strip in Armadale. Within the same year, a retail partnership with David Jones catapulted the brand’s consumer awareness much higher. “I absolutely knew we were going to kill it in David Jones. I don’t know why, I just knew it was going to work. I knew what my gap was. I knew nobody was doing what I was doing at the time. And we did,” Woods said. “I thought we were well-known when I opened the [pop-up] store. Then overnight being in David Jones with a tiny rack, with the worst signage you’ve ever seen in your life, somehow everybody knew who we were. [Going into] a department store was a powerful move for us,” Woods recalled.  Currently, the brand is prioritising investing in technology throughout its whole supply chain, as opposed to further building out its store network. “Our technology ecosystem is ever-changing. At the moment our focus is providing a seamless customer experience online and in-store,” Woods said. “We have invested a lot in our customer engagement platforms and in-store clienteling system so we are reaching customers with the most personalised messaging, service and product offering at the right time, based on their tastes and past purchase behaviour. [Technology is] our focus for the next few years, and I feel really good about that, especially with what’s going on in the economy right now. With inflation, it’s a good time to pause for me. I’m a sole owner. I have no investors,” she added. Timeless style, ageless customers Remaining true to the brand’s core and not compromising on quality has allowed it to evolve and develop locally and globally. For Woods, this means it’s about “the quality of whom we associate ourselves with, where our stores are, and particularly the fabrics we use, the quality of our suppliers and makers, and the quality and longevity of our designs.” “We are a design-led business, with our own pattern makers, and sample machinists,” she added. Viktoria & Woods also has an in-house atelier, a further point of differentiation in the fashion industry. With a focus on producing timeless pieces, Woods doesn’t define the brand as targeting a particular demographic. “I’ve got customers that have shopped with us for 20 years and they are now coming in with their daughters and buying them their first work capsule wardrobe, but at the same time, they’re picking up a piece from our new collection for themselves,” Woods said. Woods notes that the brand’s commitment to quality naturally resonates with a younger consumer group that is focused on “buying less and buying better”. “I’ve been sharing my wardrobe with my daughter for many years. She’s 17 now. They wear it their way and I think that’s what you can do with wardrobe essentials that stay quite eternally modern,” she said of younger consumers. Viktoria & Woods leans into this mother-daughter shopper dynamic in its annual Mother’s Day campaigns, which often showcase how the brand’s collections can be worn across generations. Woods and her daughter Ruby have featured in these, alongside Australian model Lindy Klim and her daughter. Now the next generation is starting to work in the business, too. “I’m about to hire my daughter and all her friends,” Woods shared. As part of their training and development, all staff are invited to visit the head office to experience the brand from the inside out (not that it’s an issue for Woods’ daughter). In addition to flexible scheduling, the business has found its commitment to local manufacturing and sustainability, alongside in-house promotion opportunities, have helped it attract great people. “We focus on hiring a workforce that is agile and can juggle constant change. I am unsure if there is any faster, more challenging industry. You just need to love and be comfortable with the pace,” Woods explained. Navigating challenges Like any business, Viktoria & Woods has encountered its share of challenges, from the uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic to grappling with rising costs and competition; however, Woods views them as opportunities to learn and grow. “I feel privileged to have 270 staff, and a brand that is known and represented nationally,” Woods said. “There are constant challenges in this business,” she noted, listing off a few: “Covid; inflation; declining availability of skilled makers; machinery; the rising cost of quality fabric and freight; new competitors with deep pockets; balancing productivity and wellbeing.” The key is to embrace tough times as opportunities for growth. “You’ve just got to become more creative and have that mental strength to keep going,” she asserted. “Every single challenge has been a [lesson] we can bank on, and has propelled us forward.” One of the biggest challenges the business faces today is manufacturing in Australia. “The problem is, there’s a shortage of skilled workers here and a shortage of the right machinery that we need,” she said. When its local manufacturer couldn’t meet the production demand despite having machinery running 24 hours a day, Viktoria & Woods purchased another machine for the Sydney supplier, who is part of the brand’s Aus Merino program.  “That’s how difficult it is and that’s not my business to buy machinery, it is to design and market, but we felt like we had to because we are so passionate about maintaining that quality and finish of that particular program,” Woods said. Leaving a legacy In addition to quality, responsible business practices are central to Viktoria & Woods’ ethos. From ethically sourced textiles to its partnerships with aligned organisations like the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, sustainability is woven into the fabric of the brand. “We have a dedicated responsible business department that informs our sustainability framework, including environmental, social and governance” concerns, Woods says. In April, the brand announced its partnership with the GBRF. Viktoria & Woods will donate $1 from every online purchase to the organisation’s ‘Plant a Coral’ initiative, through the i=Change charity platform.  As she looks to the next decade, Woods is focused on building a global presence while staying true to Viktoria & Woods’ core values.  The Sydney store expansion and meticulously aligned international retail partnerships are just the beginning. Viktoria & Woods will continue to innovate, evolve, and inspire women around the world with its timeless designs and unwavering commitment to quality. Which personifies and is the essence of Margie Woods. This story first appeared in the May 2024 issue of Inside Retail Australia magazine.