Fashion retailer defies downturn with new Auckland store

Wynn Crawshaw was working as a surveyor before he decided to turn his love of fashion into a business.

Five years later, that business, Wynn Hamlyn, is gearing up to open its first retail store in downtown Auckland’s Commercial Bay shopping centre.

Despite the economic downturn, now is a better time than ever, says Crawshaw, following an increase in local demand since May.

Wynn Hamlyn will fill the shopfront that formerly housed Ingrid Starnes in Commercial Bay’s Little Queen St.

The mainly wholesale operation makes most of its money from sales through international retailers, including Moda Operandi and Middle Eastern group Ounass.

But Crawshaw is hoping for more direct-to-consumer sales once its store opens on October 1.

“Wholesale is hard, the margins are a lot different to retail, and so any sale we can make direct to consumer means a lot more to us than a wholesale sale,” said Crawshaw, though the wholesale side would continue.

“It’s been interesting for me to see a whole bunch of labels just drop wholesale completely,” he said.

The brand has invested about $30,000 to set up the Commercial Bay store, and Crawshaw has been working on the fit-out daily, doing a lot of the work himself with his team.

Two months ago, the shop wasn’t even planned. Crawshaw had turned down Precinct Properties’ offer to open a store in the centre about a year ago.

But Wynn Hamlyn’s wholesale business had contracted in recent months as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and it was finding it harder to secure new stockists, which was why it had decided to take up a tenancy when the opportunity came up for a second time.

“We’re still selling virtually but it is harder to pick up new stores and it’s harder to grow in that department. The existing clients are fine because they know the product, but new clients are really hard, so this is diversification,” Crawshaw said.

“It’s a time where we’re wanting to diversify and we’re wanting to have more of a connection with our New Zealand customers.”

The brand employs four fulltime staff, and will take on one more, as well as three part-timers for the 54sq m store.

Crawshaw said he felt excited by the move into retail, but also a little bit crazy to be taking the leap during a downturn. The brand would monitor sales before making any plans about more stores.

“It’s definitely scary, but I’m really excited,” he said.

“All of the opportunities that we’ve had that have got us to where we are now were scary in the beginning.”

Crawshaw had been working as a surveyor for more than three years before starting Wynn Hamlyn.

He had an Auckland studio, where he would be whenever he wasn’t working, and eventually negotiated to reduce his working week to three days before committing to a future in fashion.

The first stores that took him on were Fabric in downtown Auckland, Caughley in Wellington, Slick Willies in Dunedin and Palm Boutique in Nelson. Today its collections are sold in Ballantynes in Christchurch and a string of other stores.

It launched an e-commerce site after two years of operations, in 2017.

The brand sells high-end, high fashion pieces, priced between $200 and $900 a garment, and despite doing most of its business internationally, did not rely on the tourist dollar like some brands in the Commercial Bay precinct, Crawshaw said.

It had experienced growth in local demand since the first lockdown.

Wynn Hamlyn used the wage subsidy and was able to retain all of its staff. Despite the fall in demand for its wholesale business, Crawshaw said it was nice to slow down a bit through the lockdowns.

Crawshaw typically spends 60 to 70 hours a week working on the business.

He said opening the Commercial Bay store would allow the business to offer made-to-measure and alterations services, and he was interested in growing the business into other areas outside women’s clothing, including footwear.

He would also like to see the team get bigger.

“I’d like to grow the business to a place where we’re still a small business but we have a team that affords us to be specialised. I’d like to be more the designer whereas now I am the designer and the general manager.”