NEW YORK — Lauren Moffatt, designer of the Lauren Moffatt contemporary collection, has come a long way since launching her line six years ago. For starters, she’s no longer cutting costs by living on a sailboat docked in the Hudson River off Jersey City.
“We needed room for a sewing machine,” Moffatt, 30, said matter-of-factly of her unusual choice of living quarters. Business has since picked up for the Philadelphia native. By the spring 2004 season, Moffatt saw distribution increase to between 100 and 150 stores from 50, and by the end of 2006, she anticipates the wholesale volume for the brand will reach $5 million, up from $3.2 million in 2005, the brand’s biggest volume increase to date.
“I felt like there was a lot of sameness out there. I’m not following the trends,” she said, seated in her design studio here in the Garment District, “but I’m trying to come up with new silhouettes and I’m constantly asking myself, ‘What would I want to wear right now?'” The answer to that self-posed question is tops, dresses, skirts and coats in silk and cotton.
For spring 2006, a collection is inspired by the furniture of the late German artist Josef Albers and the tapestries of his wife, Anni. Moffatt’s key color palette includes paprika, turquoise and white and features delicate embroidery, piping and leather trimming. The collection is available at specialty boutiques, including Poppy, Big Drop and Barneys New York here; Lisa Kline in Los Angeles; Selfridges in London, and boutiques in Paris, Barcelona, Brazil, Japan, Puerto Rico, Canada, Sweden and Jakarta, Indonesia.
“I think my consumer is in her 20s or 30s and is urban — from New York or Los Angeles — and isn’t wearing anything from head to toe,” Moffatt said. “She mixes things well, so that they’re timeless. She just has a good style.”
Wholesale prices of the collection range from $98 for tops, skirts and pants and extend up to $240 for long winter coats. For now, Moffatt and her partner, also the label’s co-founder, Rob Pepin, whom she met at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, handle the entire business themselves. Everything — including apparel, outerwear, swimwear and accessories such as belts and handbags — is financed, designed and manufactured by Moffatt and Pepin. In 2002, Moffatt and Pepin signed with New York-based Simon Showroom to handle the brand’s sales.
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“There is a limit to what we can do,” Moffatt said, admitting that self-funding the line sometimes has its drawbacks. “But I do want to create a lifestyle brand.”
“We want to expand into different categories and grow the company at a controlled rate that we can maintain,” Pepin added. “[Moffatt] can do great things with the right resources.”