NEW YORK — After its sneaker relaunch, PF Flyers will introduce women’s apparel for fall.
Like the footwear collection, the women’s apparel will stay true to its heritage of Posture Foundation, meaning the line is ergonomically designed with style and comfort in mind. The collection is the result of a design partnership with DDC USA, a full-service design team based here. Savania Davies-Keiller, DDC USA co-founder and co-owner, is the head designer of the women’s apparel collection.
“It’s not athletic and it’s not performance,” Davies-Keiller said. “But the details are on the inside. It fits right and will make your life easier.” Each piece has a special feature including a pocket for an iPod, a cell-phone pocket, or zippered collars to hide headphones.
The fall collection consists of about 15 to 20 styles, namely Ts, pants, knits and outerwear, and the pieces incorporate fabrics such as plaited terry and garment-dyed Japanese nylon. The wholesale price range is $28 to $140.
“It’s about ease,’’ Davies-Keiller said. “We’re not reinventing the wheel, but we want to be a premium lifestyle brand, and part of that means incorporating things people use in their daily lives, like an iPod, a cell phone or making pockets that your change doesn’t fall out of.”
This collaboration marks the second time PF Flyers, which New Balance purchased in 2001, has joined with DDC USA. The team has been designing footwear for the brand for two years.
“We really wanted to try something new, product-wise, and leverage it as a mini collection,” said Joe Casagrande, product manager of PF Flyers. “We want to learn as we go along. We’re not trying to be a mainstream brand or a mega-brand. We wanted to test a few things with this collection.”
Casagrande said he expects the wholesale volume of the apparel to reach “a couple of hundred thousand dollars” in the first year.
“We want to grow organically,” Casagrande added. “What we’ve learned, in relaunching footwear last year, was the minute we start setting concrete sales goals, the sooner it’s going to restrict our ability to maintain high integrity distribution and create the type of product that we feel is appropriate for PF.”
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The next collection, spring 2006, will grow in size and will include sexier pieces, but the focus will be on wearability and breathability.
“The women’s collection will be much more feminine and include pieces such as cropped and shell jackets,” Davies-Keiller said.
The kickoff fall collection will hit stores such as DDC Lab, Fred Segal in Santa Monica, Calif., and Kuhlman in Seattle in July.
“We’re looking for brand growers, not brand harvesters,” Casagrande said. “We don’t have a massive marketing budget. We need to build relationships with key retailers and we need them to be marketing partners or marketing tools. That validates the brand more than consumer advertising.”