Despite the ongoing surge in Covid cases across Australia, David Jones menswear GM Chris Wilson says smart dressing for men is making a comeback.
In an interview with Ragtrader, Wilson says a contributing factor is the backlog of delayed weddings and formal events.
“We've seen what we call our tailoring category – our smart dressing category – explode. If you think about New South Wales and Victoria over the last two years, in and out of lock downs, guys are now wanting to get out and about and really dress up.
"That being said, it's never really gone away – guys have been wearing suits for hundreds of years – it's just a different version of a suit now."
David Jones' Bourke Street flagship store has seen wedding parties book out its 'Styling Suite' over the coming weekend.
“So we're seeing that wedding uptake and we’re really optimising our made-to-measure service," Wilson says.
Weddings and formals aside, Wilson believes there is one more contributing factor for the surge in smart dressing among men and that is the return to the office.
“We’re seeing though a lot of linen blazers, deconstructed jackets coming back – a lot of purchases within that component,” Wilson continues.
“You are still seeing that mix and match look. A nice blazer – or what we call an item piece – you can dress up and down. So, you can wear it with a pair of chinos, and you can wear it with denim.”
“Our job as much as merchants is always to make sure that we get into the right trends. I do think gender neutral is a huge trend that's not going away, and we're really embracing that.
"And also, the customers – they don't just want sustainability attributes in their product, they expect it. And we're working really hard to make sure that we have sustainable attributes across all of our different brands and really make sure that we talk that up."
Relaunching menswear in Melbourne
In line with the current trends around fashion, David Jones has just opened its new menswear department at 299 Bourke Street.
Wilson says the launch of the new department is an opportune moment, and is a continuation of the store’s transformation.
“If I go overarching, we really wanted to elevate the brand mix within our menswear building and we've been able to do that,” says Wilson.
“We've got some key international luxury brands coming into the equation – Alexander McQueen, Versace, Dolce and Gabbana – as well as some of those contemporary brands like Axel Arigato, Maison Kintsune.
“There are also nearly 31 bespoke installations that are really on brand – brands like Calibre, Politix (pictured), Academy Brand, MJ Bale.
“They’re some of the uplifts that we've done from this building, and we've really worked hard on our service proposition, including easy shopping for the male consumer.
“We've been able to centralise a lot of our shopping suites. Having that styling suite that's complimentary to our customers is huge for the male consumer."
Optimising the supply chain
With the ongoing issues around Covid and its disruptions around supply chains, many businesses have had to make shifts and compromises to ensure the steady arrival of products.
At David Jones, Wilson says it is mostly about being organised.
“Everything is just taking a little bit longer to get here. On average, it's two to four weeks longer in transit. It just means you're buying a lot a little bit earlier.
“It's not about production, it's just about the length of time it's taking to arrive.
“And we've got a great buying team that understands critical paths, and as long as we adhere to that, we're not seeing the delays.
“We did this refurbishment during COVID and then managed to open up a beautiful store on time, and if you come in here and have a look it's fully stocked.”