The label, created by founder Marnie Goding in 2004, was originally established as an accessory brand, but has since enlarged its collections to include women's knitwear, leather jackets, shoes and basic apparel, in addition to jewellery, bags and scarves.
The brand's latest push into men's accessories via the Mr Elk collection launch, will include a hand-woven jute and leather travel bag range and a sheep leather collection comprising of satchels, a tie case, wallet, card holder and document holder. The collection is set to drop into stores from mid-September and price points will range from $45 for a leather card holder to $270 for a leather satchel.
Goding will also boost her womenswear collection in September with the addition of a silk line, which will include two dress styles, a silk shirt and a silk/cotton blend shirt. Lightweight summer knits, made from a cashmere, cotton and denair blend will also be added to the Elk offering for the first time. Key colours range from silver grey and slate to sage green and product will retail from $65 to $230.
The expansion comes as Elk prepares for its North American assault, with plans to introduce the label to the US in 2012.
“We've been making a slow step towards increasing our export market, because we're doing quite well in Scandanavia and some other international markets. We're stocked in 13 countries now, but the US is always there as the ultimate marketplace and we're currently testing the waters by doing a few PR exercises,” she said.
“This has given us a good opportunity to see how the marketplace there works and it's giving us an idea of what we should take with us. Our offering is quite large, but based on the research we're doing now, it looks like we'll be launching a limited collection via a showing in New York next year,” she said.
Daniela Aroche