LONDON — Nicholas Parnell, who’s spent years brokering wholesale partnerships for designers including Phoebe Philo, Willy Chavarria and the Copenhagen label Stine Goya, is looking at the business in a new way, arguing that quality trumps quantity and that discipline is the way forward for brands seeking long-term growth.
Parnell has just launched an eponymous agency that is urging clients to view wholesale as one of many dynamics behind a thriving business; to think carefully about the stores they want to partner with, and resist the temptation to over-distribute, even if that means turning down big money.
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He learned about the perils of wholesale the hard way. Before and immediately after the pandemic, Parnell said wholesale was “pumping,” and brands were spreading their nets as wide as possible, racing to supply as many stores and markets as they could.
“Right after COVID, everyone wanted to scale — and they had a great year. The following year, they thought they could double their budgets — but they were wrong. They soon realized things were getting marked down aggressively, and the stores weren’t respecting the individual brands because they were working with so many. Everyone was overworked. It was a recipe for disaster,” he said in an interview.
The rise of direct-to-consumer sales and international pressure from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Chinese consumer’s failure to resume spending on luxury goods only exacerbated matters. The market was flooded with merchandise, and fewer people wanted it, causing a crisis for brands, showrooms and retailers alike.
In the first quarter alone Saks Global filed for Chapter 11, while Tomorrow Group, which has showrooms in Europe and New York, watched its sales plummet and was eventually sold, in distress, to Progetto 11, parent company of The Level Group.
Despite the ongoing crisis in the sector, Parnell believes there is hope for wholesale. Brands, he said, should forge partnerships with retailers in a “strict, disciplined and considered,” way, but not rely on them to drive the business.
“It applies to small start-ups and to big, established brands. The strategy should not be about doing wholesale for the numbers, but using wholesale as a marketing and distribution tool for the brand. We all know the brands that are in demand today have controlled distribution. They are not widely spread or readily available at every location,” he said.
Parnell argues that having a smaller wholesale network “means that you create demand, which in turn creates healthy sell-throughs, budgets and margins.”
He said he’s learned from the brands that are winning at wholesale, namely Phoebe Philo and Willy Chavarria.
Turnover at Phoebe Philo’s fast-growing company is forecast to hit 32 million pounds in 2025, fueled partly by the wholesale business, which Parnell launched in 2024.
Chavarria’s business is also growing exponentially, said Parnell, and “Willy is doing it in a way that’s very targeted, focused and thoughtful. He’s going to places where he knows the customer is.”
Parnell admits his strategy is unconventional, and said he’s often met with quizzical looks from CEOs when he suggests their brand onboard “10 great stores,” in season one. “I tell them those stores should be the best, and that will help the brand open up a further 10. The strategy is about positioning rather than speed.”
When it comes to big stores, Parnell wants brands to do smaller orders to ensure that “sell-throughs are really strong. If these brands go too fast they put themselves at a massive risk of having inventory marked down. It dampens the brand equity and the visual tone of who they are. Suddenly, they become another brand that’s not being respected” by the retailer, he said.
Parnell is taking his own advice, with plans to keep his boutique agency small and highly focused. His first client is Meta Campania Collective, the fast-growing, artist-inspired clothing brand cofounded by Jon Strassburg, former chief merchandising officer of Bottega Veneta.
He plans to have four to five clients in year one of the business, and a maximum of eight by year three. By comparison, the bigger agencies have anywhere from 20 to 100 brands on their books.
Agency Parnell’s advisory board includes Marco Gentile, who was formerly chief executive officer of Theory and president EMEIA of Burberry, and Yvie Hutton, former director of designer relations and membership at the British Fashion Council.
Parnell said his approach will be 100 percent brand-focused. “The aim is to grow the brands’ revenue in a manageable way and take care of them as if they were our own,” said Parnell, adding that in addition to sales appointments, he wants to have trunk shows, “because when you have a good trunk show, your sell-throughs will skyrocket.”
He wants to cultivate even closer relationships with the independent retailers he’s known for years, including Ikram in Chicago; Hirshleifers in Manhasset, N.Y., and Marissa Collections in Naples, Fla. “It’s doing wholesale in an old school way, taking product that you love and feel very emotional about, and getting them excited about it, too,” he said.