Red spot boutique goes Stella
February 03, 2007 12:00am
Article from: The Daily Telegraph
ONE of the great coups in Australian fashion history began with one speculative email.
Last year, Target's marketing chief Murray Chenery helped compose an online missive to the chief executive of Stella McCartney's global fashion label, asking the style mogul to consider designing a cut-price clothing range for Target stores.
Mr Chenery, 49, said 35-year-old McCartney - who has dressed A-listers from Kate Moss to Naomi Campbell - was the first designer Target considered.
"We thought, let's aim for the top, let's go for Stella," he said.
Even though Target USA - not affiliated with Target Australia - was knocked back by the high-profile fashion designer, Mr Chenery and Target managing director Launa Inman were undeterred.
Within a week, McCartney's London team emailed a response, saying McCartney was impressed with Target's philosophy of retailing "great style" without the "designer prices".
Mr Chenery said the email arrived about 11.30pm.
"We celebrated," he said. "This wild idea had actually come up!"
In August Mr Chenery was sent to London with Target's general manager of apparel to meet McCartney's staff at her Notting Hill offices.
After "a couple of hours", they had secured the exclusive deal.
"Target's 'democratisation of style' concept - the idea that fashion is accessible to all Australians -- really appealed to Stella," he said.
A few more meetings in London and plenty more email correspondence later and the rest is history.
"She (McCartney) loved the idea of bringing designer products to the masses at affordable prices," he said.
"Target USA tried to get Stella McCartney - daughter of ex-Beatle Sir Paul - but were unsuccessful.
"Target Australia beat them. We wooed her across to Australia."
The McCartney range brings 42 different items of clothing - including suits, shirts, a chunky knit, silk tops and dresses, skinny jeans and a trench coat - to about 100 Target stores across the country.
Prices range from $49.99 for a cotton T-shirt to $199.99 for the trench coat.
Already Australians are salivating at the thought of McCartney's range.
On Vogue magazine's online forum, fashion-hungry customers filled 10 pages discussing the necessity of increasing credit card limits in order to buy the entire Target-McCartney range. Some were even toying with the idea of taking off Monday, March 12 - the day the range hits stores.
"If the response is of any indication, it's going to be well received by the Australian public," Mr Chenery said.
"If you don't get in there on March 12, you'll miss out."