Nalini Diary – Bluewater Ball

Nalini’s Summer Diary

 

 

The summer months have been fantastic at Bluewater, sales have been the best for 2005 so far, and the Boutique is getting more exciting each day! Even if I do say so myself the layout and merchandising of the shop keeps looking better, and now with more designers in the store than ever before (record 36 designers!) we have created a great sanctuary for the shopper. I always rant on about how unique our products are, but that is definitely why we are completely maintaining our customers because they are desperate to digress away from the mass produced scene in the high street, the exclusive designs provided by the designers keep our consumers able to always look original and fabulous what ever the occasion. Bluewater itself has been heaving and created a simplistic yet exclusive retreat for the summer, easy for customers to relax and enjoy themselves whatever the British climate offers!

 

First of the all the biggest shock of all this summer, was the closing of the Kingly Court boutique. It was such a shame loosing such a key store, especially has it did provide the designers with a different market opposed to Bluewater and also if it had not been for the first boutique; Bluewater would not even exist and be thriving as we are now. So I must say very well done to Kiki for being an excellent manager and for all the designers that made the shop a success for the London fashion forum. However, after the huge shock of Kingly Court closing the merge of two shops into one store at Bluewater occurred and completely transformed the look of the Boutique here.

 

The shop looks more interesting and is filled garments and accessories, and also contains a new in store display mimicking that of a girl’s wardrobe; which is great for the customer because the store still looks fresh and exciting, even after ten months after opening. The window display was also another dramatic change for the better, to show the trend of the summer we went for an extremely feminine look with a bright fuchsia pink backdrop and stylised fashion pictures of best selling garments in store including designs from: Romeo Pires, Femini, Emure, Red Stones. The mannequins remain bright and exciting and have been very successful in bringing more custom into the boutique and generally getting ourselves more recognisable within the centre.

 

Along with the shop fit and layout changing, so has the stock and not just labels changing their stock, we have brought in plenty of new designers and even gained back designers that had left us before. New accessory labels that were entered in the boutique were; ‘Rebel Dogg’ a belt and bag company who make their designs with quality Italian leather, in the trendiest styles. These have very quickly become one of the best sellers in the shop and have a very high demand in the market here at Bluewater. ‘Hunki Dori’ Jeans Jems, cleaver new design to place on denim buttons instead of belts or broaches, very popular gift and I imagine over Christmas these are certainly going to be the product to fly! ‘La Flicks’ are a till recently bespoke company making hats, headdresses and pieces in feathers, etc. perfect items for those special days at the races or weddings, in unique designs and colours. Many more jewellery designers are on their way too, for the run up to Christmas when accessories will take over and be the perfect gift to purchase, especially with the rare designs that we will have available.

 

 

The excess of new clothes designers are making the store bust at the seams, but we are creating a great atmosphere with all the extra stock; ‘Femini’ is a Polish designer, trying to establish herself in the UK, and has successfully managed to become the latest bestseller in the shop, some weeks with record breaking sales than ever before. ‘Femini’ is definitely perfect for a customer looking for that sophisticated Wedding/Ball/Races/Christening outfit at a great value price, and on top of this in the sales time ‘Femini’ managed to make double her takings in a normal week, amazing! The stock fittingly suits the commercial consumer at Bluewater, therefore this would mean her collection would be a fantastic seller in a department store that offers concessions (as would many of our designers in store).

 

Other new additions to our catalogue include ‘Georgee ready to wear’ with easy summer dresses, in exquisite prints and flattering shapes and at great value prices. ‘Julia Van Caysel’ whose summer collection included beautiful hand beaded empire line dresses and tops, in vibrant colours, which are as well very popular designs with the customers. ‘Acqua Balnearie’ our bikini designer whose has the most fantastic intricate beaded bikini, which are so delicate and pretty, perfect for posing on the beach ! ‘JPK’ designs urban trendy one off skirts and tops, made to look rough cut using a mixture of vintage fabrics, these are now flying off the shelves in our sale and customers love that they can buy a garment that nobody else will ever own! ‘Radikal fashions’ have also joined us; their label has a signature style with a beautiful range of fabrics for those looking for the top to get them plenty of attention when they’re out and about! ‘’Micheal Azu’ has the recognisable leather with silk and tailored Italian style, in fantastic dresses and suits which be would fitting to a movie star walking down the red carpet! ‘Mertel and George’ are our most recent newcomers, with simple, yet brilliantly shaped dresses and tops to really get excited about! The fabrics and prints slip in well to the chic of the season, but are still completely distant to the other designs found on the high street.

 

Designers who had left the boutique and rejoined us for the summer are; ‘Nadia Ivanova’, ‘Claudette Joseph’, ‘Melanka and Me’,  ‘Toohoi’ and ‘Julie Berube’, whom have all brought back a lot of customers who loved the styles of their collections in the previous season and are thrilled to see them once again with all their great new stock. So on top of all the new stock that arrived over the past four months, we still had our best sellers remaining; ‘Romeo Pires’, ‘Mami Lonodon’, ‘Red stones’, ‘Forest’, ‘Natasia’, ‘Tanya Dove’ etc. to mention but a few, and the reaction to this has been outstanding. The shop has managed to hit record sales figures for 2005 so far and we have so much more to look forward to over Christmas if this is the response from a dry summer in retail, things can only get better as the new season approaches!

 

Bluewater itself has some great new shops just opened in addition the hundreds already here, and the team and I got together our favourite shops of the month; for bargins, trendy garments and different stock. We also thought of places that need to be avoided at this point of the season, to avoid looking like a lemming. First off, the new stores that opened were; ‘Pringle’, ‘Fred Perry’, a newly refurbished ‘Schul’, ‘Moda Moda’ ‘Sweaty Betty’, The Apple/Imac shop’, and ‘The David and Goliath Shop’. The shop fit to all stores are attractive, but I was particularly impressed with the ‘Pringle’ layout, the merchandising and displays were accessible for customers and the decor of the shop felt very warm. My favourite new shop for the actual stock has to be ‘Moda Moda’, they have new individual designer jewellery which is unique and again much of the stock is just one off pieces and have a vintage influence behind them

 

The teams favourite shops over the summer definitely have to be; ‘Mango’ –had some brilliant bargains, with a high stock turnover so not everybody ends up wearing the same uniform clothing, ‘Aldo’ had some beautiful shoes and a great value sale, ‘New Look’ were also another good outlet to rummage for shoes, ‘Lucy in the Sky’- had some exquisite dresses and accessories, perfect for special occasions. ‘O-Neil’- great casual dresses and beach wear, wonderfully bright and exciting compared to many other places. ‘House of Frazer’ definitely had a great sale especially for high end designer jeans and shoes, and they even offered further discount to Bluewater staff, which was lovely! Places and trends that should be things to avoid this season are as follows:

 

 

1. GIPSY SKIRTS!!!!!!!!!!! I am sorry, I know everybody loves them, everybody sells them, but at LFF Bluewater we are really bored and over them! They are for people with no imagination! I could not even count on ten hands how many consumers I see wearing them everyday. The trend has been over done, and people when they are dressing casually quite frankly do not need to look like they are in a uniform, think outside the box people!

 

2. This one is for men, the moechian haircut with blonde high lights! This haircut was two seasons ago, and the boys in Bluewater are quite frankly not impressing the girls at Bluewater if they posses this hairstyle, please give it up, if you work in Bluewater you need to be at the height of trendy, THIS IS NOT TRENDY ANYMORE!

 

 

3.‘Next’- I know many thousands and thousands of shoppers are going to disagree with me on this, but hear me out. I respect Next for being the successful multi million company it is, providing its customer with value for money clothes, and I must say I am a fan of Next home wear and Kids wear, but that is as far as it goes. The ladies and menswear is false economy for the shopper because i) All the stock made is mass produced, therefore is a low quality garment ii) All the designs are the same stock as every where else, and this is what is cloning people a certain clothing culture iii) the minute you think you have found something really nice and tasteful in Next, you can guarantee ten thousand other shoppers everywhere have as well, and you loose your individuality. Is this what the consumer wants, to look like the next person standing next to them? Why?

 

4. Jane Norman- Again I do understand this is a big company; however, the stock is incredibly expensive for the quality of the goods. The styles and designs are not trendy, they are very commercial and their stock tends to looks the same every season. Are they popular because of the bag all the youngster’s want to walk around with, I will never know?

 

 

 

Finally Bluewater this summer did throw the most dazzling Summer ball, my respect definitely goes to the Management suite who must have put a huge amount of effort into the organization of the event. There was; a champagne reception, celebratity guest speaker, a buffet dinner and a really great live band to entertain all the guests. Also there was an awards ceremony that praised the retailers involved in the centre, and LFF got a mention!!! We were described as being as a government funded body, with; ‘…exclusive new designers…’ in store and one of the most ‘unique’ stores available at Bluewater.

 

 

Of course by this point of the evening there was a big cheer from the LFF table, and I would sincerely like to thank Bluewater for mentioning us in the awards ceremony, it has meant a lot being involved at Bluewater. The winner of the retailer of the year award did go to ‘Lucy in the Sky’, which I was quite happy about being one of the team’s favourite shops at Bluewater. The evening was very enjoyable and looked very impressive.

 

Next diary I will be able to tell you all about the incredible new season stock for Autumn/winter and the new trends we are seeing the customers want at Bluewater.