Challenges At Hand

Finally reading some quality reporting, La Presse has gotten a rare treat of interviewing the business side of the Montreal designer, Andy The-Anh about the future of expanding his business.

Surprisingly, 60% of The-Anh’s sales come from the United States, that’s a high number considering he makes his homebase in Canada. “10% is sold in Greece and the Middle East, the rest is sold in Canada,” wrote Stephane Champagne of La Presse. A shame they couldn’t put exact figures for Canada. But like many other designers across the globe, his brand was not immune to the 2008 recession, where sales fell dramatically that year and had pushed the company to restructure their approach in the international market.

To put his brand into consumers’ perspective (and mine), Andy The-Anh doesn’t aim to be the next Gucci or Prada, or face competition in Milan or Paris, as those brands dwarf his company’s finances in comparison. Instead, he offers his brand as a nice alternative to those mega brands, and hopes to open a second store in Toronto for the time being.

The reason I loved this article is that it is so rare to read about the financial status of Montreal designers, as I’ve previously posted before, some great talents vanish under the radar without so much of a whisper. Then one has to realize or ask themselves “Hey whatever happened to such and such?”

Meanwhile

A recent interview with Denis Gagnon was published on the Montreal Fashion Week website asking the designer why he had stopped creating a line for men. “Ah, it’s the market here, it’s very tight[...] we have to be a big brand. With men it’s a completely different playing field,” he explained. Even someone as talented as Gagnon admits that some things that even he cannot possibly conquer in the market. Thus it was in early 2007, amid growing debt and no public or private investor in sight, the designer was forced to close his boutique on St-Laurent, cease the release of making entire collections, and recoiled in contenting with different collaborations and private clients to fuel his designing needs.

Gagnon has since rebounded back into the spotlight in fall 2008, and has continually produced collections with critical acclaim. He now sells his garment through his own atelier boutique.

Montreal Designers…who?

Despite efforts to promote awareness of Montreal fashion designers, a recent survey reported by Eva Friede at The Gazette, said that of the 600 polled, the majority were “woefully unaware” of who and where local Montreal designers are found. Marie Saint Pierre came out on top of the list with a mere 12%, while Philippe Dubuc was not far behind with 11%, according to Diane Duhamel, fashion commissioner of Montreal.

And here’s the kicker that Friede asks on her blog: “Now, how many of us know there’s a fashion commissioner?”

She brings a very good point. And why is it that despite such a huge media venture to promote Montreal Fashion Week, costing about $1 million to produce this year, are people still unaware? MFW has been around since 2001, and to the admittance of Chantal Durivage, co-president of MFW, Montreal is not at the forefront of fashion weeks like Paris or Milan, but “on par with Barcelona and Berlin“.

Now that’s a surprising statement for me because I was under the impression that the verbiage MFW used to promote itself came off as trying to dig its way to be like Paris, Milan, London or New York. And you can’t really blame me, with words like “leading design in the fashion world” in their current press release makes me think primo numero uno on the fashion echelon. But I guess that’s like every radio station saying it is THE number one station in Montreal. So I’ll let that slide.

If they’re on par with smaller cities like Barcelona and Berlin, ok, I can take that. And perhaps, I should just lower my expectations next time around.

Image credits: Stephane Champagne, MFW, Jimmy Hamelin