Nordstrom is establishing a new home for fledgling talent.
On Tuesday, the retailer introduced The Lab,” an incubator project to showcase and support new designers in select stores and online. Conceived and curated by Olivia Kim, vice president of creative projects at Nordstrom, the first installment will feature Eckhaus Latta, Vejas, Eric Schlösberg, A.W.A.K.E. and Dilara Findikoglu.
In fall 2015, Kim launched SPACE at Nordstrom, an in-store designer boutique featuring cross-category collections of apparel, accessories, home goods and fragrance from emerging and advanced designers such as Simone Rocha, Koché, Ellery, Colovos, and Molly Goddard, among others. “The Lab” will be an ongoing program in SPACE at Nordstrom.
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“The Lab” collections will be carried for one season. Based on their success and the customer reaction, the designer could potentially move into SPACE at Nordstrom, which currently features 60 different cross-category collections.
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For “The Lab,” Kim and her buying team chose five looks from each designer, including exclusive and custom-made items that represent each designer’s aesthetic. Retail prices range from $175 for an Eckhaus Latta cotton T-shirt to $2,695 for a Dilara Findikoglu tweed and beaded blazer. There will be one delivery during the season. Each of the items will have a special hang tag that explains “The Lab,” and collections will be promoted in a ‘zine and supported through social channels.
In an interview, Kim explained that she and her team went through the market in New York, London and Paris, finding things that were inspiring and they kept thinking they would save them for later.
“That was the genesis of ‘The Lab.’ We didn’t set out thinking we were going to start an incubator program, but when we got back from our travels, we were thinking about all these brands, we loved them and what do we do with them? They feel really energetic,” said Kim. The team evaluated whether the brands had sustainability and viability as a business and whether they could support them in an “incubator” type environment.
Generally, these emerging brands are sold through boutiques because they need more attention, or need a conversation, she said. “They’re just not typical commercial brands that you just throw out in a department store. We wanted to give them a platform,” she said. Kim said there are no exclusivity requirements to participating in “The Lab.”
Kim finds it interesting how different a brand looks inside a boutique versus a major specialty or department store. “The context is different, the customers are different, the adjacencies are really different,” she said.
She pointed out how challenging it is for a small brand to get representation in a major store.
Interestingly, Bergdorf Goodman launched a department known as the Lab on the sixth floor in 2015. The Lab features brands that are new to the store or recently introduced, and which Bergdorf’s wants to nurture and possibly one day graduate to their own individual spot. Designers currently featured are Huishan Zhang, CO, Maiyet, Novis, Zero + Maria Cornejo, Sybilla, Adam Lippes and ACNE Studios.
“A brand has to be relatively established in order to support a substantial wholesale business,” said Nordstrom’s Kim. “We wanted to find a way to show the truly new brands just starting out, and to recognize the great, raw talent out there. To say ‘we see you and we want to support you.’
“The Lab” will be refreshed with new brands each season. It will be housed in SPACE locations at Nordstrom flagships in Seattle, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, and Chicago, as well as online at Nordstrom.com/SPACELab.
The inaugural group at Nordstrom consists of:
*Dilara Findikoglu, a London-based designer of Turkish origins, whose designs emphasize empowered tailoring fused with historical references and social commentary.
*Eric Schlösberg: Heavily influenced by fantasy and storytelling, his label is slightly off kilter and twisted.
*Eckhaus Latta: Inclusive, unisex garments for any age, any gender, blurring lines, while blending fashion and art.
*A.W.A.K.E.: Clothing that balances conceptual, storytelling aspirations with commercial viability. Keynote designs are a take on classic shirting, tailored coats and dresses, each with an idiosyncratic quality underlined by inspirational references of animals and characters from history, art and film.
*Vejas: The clothing contorts the familiar into unnatural forms. In 2016, Vejas was awarded the LVMH Special Jury Prize.