Bella Katz, commercial business advisor at New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.
Brands on offer include iconic fashion labels Karen Walker and Kate Sylvester, home fragrance brand Ashley & Co and up-and-coming accessories brand Yu Mei, among others.
“We’re reminding Australians of these wonderful designers, plus giving them an opportunity to ‘discover new’ designers,” Katz told Inside Retail about the thinking behind the pop-up.
“We also think this is a great opportunity for Australian buyers and retailers to discover New Zealand brands and bring them into their own stores, as there is certainly a strong consumer interest.”
The impact of travel bans on buying
The pop-up coincides with the reopening of quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia last month. But before the trans-Tasman bubble was created, international travel restrictions made it difficult for brands to meet with retail buyers around the world, which is often a prerequisite for getting their latest collections stocked in stores.
Julia Browne, founder of the Melbourne Fashion Hub, an organisation that supports emerging designers, said international wholesale orders “would have simply evaporated” for some brands.
“Many designers would not have been able to take part in international trade shows and further engage with emerging new markets. And we’re not out of the woods yet,” Browne told Inside Retail.
“We’re still in the grip of a global pandemic, and the industry is changing, and we have to keep in step with that. That’s why it’s so important to invest in the local economy, different ways to access new markets, and technology.”
Katz acknowledged that international travel bans due to Covid-19 have been challenging for New Zealand brands, but said those with strong digital capabilities have been able to adapt.
“The impacts have led to quick and creative decisions like the launch of virtual runways and virtual showrooming,” she said.
“Direct to consumer has picked up significantly, and while these digital behavioural changes are likely to remain, there will always be a strong case for experiential, unique physical retail.”
How Kate Sylvester adapted to the ‘new normal’
Kate Sylvester is among those designers that have adapted to the ‘new normal’.
“The growth of our online store has made significant changes to the way that we retail,” Sylvester, who started her eponymous fashion label in 1993, told Inside Retail.
“Customers that never before had shopped online are now regular online customers, and through an increase of our digital marketing presence both in New Zealand and Australia, we’ve been able to talk to entirely new customers and in turn our marketing has evolved to support this online growth.
“From a stock perspective, we’ve become more nimble and flexible, working with our local New Zealand makers to create additional dresses or tops to create top ups where we need, and we have more product that carries over from season to season.”
In 2019, Sylvester co-founded Mindful Fashion, a group of leading New Zealand designers, fabric suppliers and manufacturers that aims to tackle industry challenges collectively, rather than as individual businesses.
“Throughout New Zealand’s Covid lockdowns, we were focused on supporting businesses, communicating retail guidelines at the different Alert Levels, [providing] advice on how to deal with retail rents during lockdowns and so on,” Sylvester said.
“But as New Zealand [has] opened up again, we’ve been able to focus on our vision and project agenda – working on a machinist apprenticeship scheme for our local industry, creating a sustainability framework for our members to adopt in their businesses and creating a full-circle t-shirt which showcases a circular and sustainable future for the industry.”
