Australian eyewear label Pared director Ed Baker discusses London Fashion Week,VAMFF and the impact those events can have on a brand.
How did the opportunity to feature at London Fashion Week (LFW) occur?
Pared Eyewear was inducted into the Australian Fashion Council (AFC) in 2016 and we were lucky enough to be invited to showcase our collection in the designers abroad program in Paris in October 2016.
The LFW experience was closely tied to an AFC and British Fashion Council initiative to support brands who wanted to grow their brands in the UK market.
We had a great event and signed some amazing accounts including Harvey Nichols. We also rubbed shoulders with Edwina McCann, Julie Bishop, Alexander Downer and even had a quick sighting of the queen when she visited LFW.
What contributed to you getting the opportunity?
The opportunity is based on an application process where brands apply and are approved based on their potential in the market. We were joined by some amazing brands including We Are Kindred, Manning Cartell and Harman Grubisa.
What did it mean for the brand and how has it impacted since appearing?
The LFW experience was a great platform for us to further expand our brand into the UK and EU markets. The partnership with the AFC helps to elevate your position in the market and we found it a huge supporting factor for securing some amazing accounts visiting us at LFW. The entire program creates a huge 'halo' around emerging brands which is a huge driver in breaking into new markets.
How was the reveal of the collection at VAMFF?
We recently wrapped up a huge week at VAMFF. The event was amazing and we were thrilled to launch our new collaboration on site with model Helena Christensen and designer Camilla Staerk from Denmark who both flew out for the launch. The collaboration launched on site within the 'shop the runway' space at VAMFF.
The festival was an amazing way to engage with customers across the 6 days with over 3,000 people on site each night. It was so fantastic to meet customers who had followed the brand for a number of seasons and it was hugely inspiring to see their engagement with the Pared product.
How did this partnership come about?
We had been very interested to expand our presence in Australia further and being Australia's biggest fashion festival, we thought VAMFF would be the perfect opportunity.
Helena Christensen had previously visited VAMFF a few times so we though the collaboration was the perfect opportunity to partner with VAMFF on. It was a huge platform to launch the collaboration on and we were thrilled to have the support of the VAMFF team.