Dartagnan

Jun 20, 2023

Indies are innovating to stay ahead of competition from multiples, tightening consumer spend and declining footfall, but most are holding fast on discounting early. Share Drapers reported last week that independent retailers UK-wide were seeing a sharp uptake in footfall as a result of the warm weather - making up for a quiet start to the year for some. “We’ve never done as well as we have in the last three months,” said Isabella Wookey, founder and owner of Drapers Award-winning Willow & Wolf in Marlborough, Wiltshire. “But we are still catching up from one of the quietest starts to the year.” Wookey told Drapers that as a result of the cost of living crisis, the luxury womenswear store has seen a shift towards more considered purchasing. “People want one piece that’s amazing rather than several cheaper ones,” said Wookey. “They are thinking less about occasion wear, but want something they’ll be able to wear every day, like a Pink City Prints dress [£155-£295],” She adds that where a £250 pair of jeans would have sold easily last year, that would not be so likely now. She added that Willow & Wolf wouldn’t usually go into Sale until August, but the business is considering beginning its sale in the coming weeks due to an excess of stock from the previous summer and needing to keep up with competitors. Advertisement Matt Horstead, owner of Dartagnan Menswear in Chichester, told Drapers that trade in February, March and April was “horrendous” until the sun first came out. "There was a really good uplift until last week when it got too hot," he said. "We're very coastal so when it gets too hot people just go to the beach." Despite this, the store has not had to go into Sale early as it does not have to keep up with competition from its brands. Since the opening of Flannels in Chichester, Portsmouth, Southampton and Brighton, Horstead said that Dartagnan has had to “change [its] strategy”, shifting its customer base away from the younger generation as Four Marketing closed the store’s accounts with both Stone Island in 2022 and C.P. Company in June 2021 . He adds that Dartagnan spent over £1m in the past 25 years on Stone Island and that 60 other UK stockists were said to be in the same boat. “ DSquared2 [premium Italian label] was left sat on its own and the customer draw was gone,” he explained. “We’re 53 years old and the last generation of customers know us for doing these brands, so not [selling] them anymore changes the customer’s mindset towards us.” “We aren’t that store anymore,” he continued, adding that Dartagnan would now be focusing on older customers and trading off brands he likes such as Sunspel. “We’re going cleaner and offer a lower price point even though the products are actually nicer.” To further attract shoppers, Dartagnan has opened an in-store bar where customers can pop in for a drink and has transitioned to a more personal shopping experience by prioritising the idea of outfits over “rows and rows of items.” Advertisement At men's and women's clothing and footwear store Extons, which has fascias in Raglan, Abergavenny and Monmouth, in Monmouthshire, Wales, buyer Charlotte Exton noted that while shoppers’ priorities had also changed to be more considered, consumers were still snapping up formalwear. She added that far from moving into casualisation, menswear trade has actually shifted more towards tailoring than ever before because of the increase of pent-up weddings since the pandemic. Exton explained that "people are making more of an event of [weddings] than before, so are having more groomsmen." Dartagnan's Horstead has also noticed an increased demand for tailoring in-store - particularly their made to measure offering which starts at £925 for a tailored two-piece, compared with £200-300 for ready-to-wear. Horstead agrees with Wookey that customers are "discerning" and are looking for meaningful purchases with longevity. However some independents are witnessing the move to casualisation. Phil Lanigan, director at men's and womenswear independent Lanigan & Hulme says he is moving away from tailoring and has reduced the number of suit styles from 15 when the business first opened in 2017 to stocking just two now. Other challenges to independent businesses include falling customer levels. Lanigan told Drapers that his store had to pivot and relocate from Manchester to Knutsford - a move sparked by a combination of unaffordable rent via service charge hikes and reduced accessibility due to Manchester’s Clean Air Zone, which reduced vehicle access to the town centre and raised parking costs. Lanigan told Drapers: “We had no footfall, no one returned to working in town post-Covid and things had been getting progressively worse over the last six months." The new store opened two weeks ago and has brought back pre-pandemic customers as well as many more female shoppers. Whereas its Manchester clientele was predominantly male - Lanigan says this has now switched to 60% women. Lanigan told Drapers: “We’ve made more money in the last two weeks than we would in one month in Manchester,” he said, adding that the store has not had to go into Sale early and that he has never discounted as it "damages the brand." Wookey, of Willow & Wolf, added: "It would be amazing if the government could support stores more. Bricks-and-mortar have to pay so much in business rates. If we didn't have business rates we'd be doing [really] well."